McCandless Journey Hero

McCandless' Journey to Discovery and Heroic-Sanctity

In Into the Wild, Chris McCandless embarks on several different movements -- wandering, questing, the pilgrimage, the going-forth. At times, he seems to have a goal, and at other times he appears to have none. Therefore, it is difficult to define Chris as a traditional hero of the monomyth. The major flaw in doing so is to miss the reality of Chris's "journey" -- which is that it ends tragically: he does not get to have the hero's return. Instead, he dies, a victim of his own imprudent, headlong rush into the wilderness. He does experience a revelation in the wild and a reversal, as he realizes that true happiness is not to be found in fleeing society but in being a part of it. Maintaining a sense of holiness in the world is the challenge -- being in the world...
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