The Lure of the “Wild”

I just recently finished reading Krakauer’s Into the Wild (I understand that I am a few years late to the party on reading this book, but I guess better late than never). While I jumped into the narrative about a college grad, Christopher McCandless, who gave away all his savings and decided to try discover himself by living life on his own; McCandless’ journey struck a unique chord with me. After traveling for a few years doing odd jobs and hitchhiking around the country, McCandless decided to go on a huge adventure into the Alaskan wilderness, where he would live off the land and off the grid.

The question we all ask while reading his tragic story (spoiler alert: he died) is this, “What would possess this guy to take such risks?”

And really, why would a college grad give up his $25,000 in savings and abandon his car and change his name to “Alex Supertramp?” I think it is far to easy and missing the point if we just write him off as a mentally unstable person who had a death wish. Was it his hubris that led to his death, going completely unprepared into the Alaskan wilderness?

Examining McCandless’ life should bring about some healthy introspection. Does what possessed Chris to make it on his own in the wild also dwell inside of us? What drove him to live the life he lived? Do we have the lure of the wild in us as well?

Really, while Chris’ story is a sensational example, his narrative is not much different from any of us. His story, like the story of us all, is one of identity. He went out searching for his identity in nature. He chased thrill after thrill, trying to find satisfaction by living off the land and isolating himself from what he saw as the perils of modern culture. It is important to realize that we are very similar to Chris. Whether we look for our identity in nature, or in culture, or in our personal achievements, the truth is we all want to discover our real identity. We want happiness and joy and purpose.

And, while the vast majority of us won’t travel into the Alaskan wilderness and perish while trying to live off the land, many of us will wander through life, searching for meaning in all the wrong places. The same fault that befell Chris is something we are far too often guilty of as well. We simply try to make sense of life on our own. And that, is exhausting and pointless.

When will we stop trying to find ourselves and instead realize that we are hopelessly lost? When will we stop trying to cure ourselves when we are diseased beyond repair? When will we stop trying to be our own savior?

Ultimately, we can learn something incredibly vital from the Into the Wild: you can’t save yourself, no matter how hard you try.

We are irrevocably broken. We can’t save ourselves. We have an existential crisis on our hands that we can’t fix. So what can we do about it? Nothing. Fortunately, we don’t have to. Christ already did.

The question of purpose in life won’t be answered by adventure or unplugging from culture. The only answer for that question that will ever make sense is “Jesus.”

The real tragedy of Chris McCandless’ story isn’t that he died of starvation alone in the Alaskan wilderness. No, the real tragedy is that everyone without Christ is as lost as he was.

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