Proof that I read "Into The Wild" by Jon Krakauer

"Into The Wild" is a biography detailing the Utopian journey a young man named Chris McCandless embarks on. The intrigue behind this journey may possibly be that it is of an extensively personal nature; one man against a static world that would pay no heed to his intentions of isolation and simplistic purity by ridding himself from the tainted properties of the world. McCandless attempts to break free from the materialism and soporific droning of common living by setting out for Alaska, becoming one with the wild, becoming one with nature, and surviving by his own instinct. It is ironic, then, that by separating himself from everything that he thought was hurting him, it ultimately led to his demise. The loneliness devoured his strength; the frustrations of no one to call to for help when in dire need devoured his spirit. But there is an immense beauty in the idealistic vision that McCandless possessed, and if he had come back alive, it is not an exaggeration to think that his lessons may have taught much more than self-destruction.

Chris' martyrdom for his personal fulfillment gives us great insight into why society functions as it does. The key concept here is that happiness is absolutely nothing unless it is shared with others. You could have everything you ever wanted and fly away from all the annoyances and flaws of the external world. But it is only then that our own flaws become frighteningly apparent and bludgeoned against our own egos. Society is built upon communication because our individual skills are needed to lend a helping hand to those who do not possess the same skills. In this, survival is a team effort and is designed for balance, although the history of mankind has been one long case of tipping the scale into extremes, back and forth. I believe Chris McCandless found himself to be a missing link to his designated world. His ego was large, and his intelligence even greater. He was as close to being self-realized as Abraham Maslow had envisioned. Yet, the blueprints of the wretched materialistic world stood. And those who stray far from the path are bound to get lost.
Or so it seems.
But not all who wander are lost, and McCandless' vision still stood; his integrity soared, and he never succumbed to wordly temptations. He was a humanist, a philantropist (donating a large quantity of his savings to charity) and an idealist. And although his physical isolation led to his death, as well as several described personas in the biography by Krakauer, he was not lost.