Chris McCandless was just a young man when he decided to radically change his life in the form of a childhood folly. Little did Chris know at the time, however, how revolutionary his testimony against his father's authority, society, or perhaps even his own lifestyle would be not only in Alaska, not even in the 48 lowest countries, but worldwide. Chris McCandless' story is a hotly debated debate on topics of safety and preparedness in the wild, those things always associated with the boy who was a little too eager for a death wish. Today, Chris is remembered as either a fool or a hero. The Fool, a boy who allowed himself to be drowned in a fictional world inspired by his readings, dying because he did not know that he was just a normal human being or a hero who sought to become something more . Chris McCandless is considered something as much of a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, others call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power says in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless, "the debate divides into two camps: Krakauer's visionary researcher, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a novice who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness with which he so desperately wanted to commune. As is the case with many stories covering the death of Christopher McCandless, both ends of the argument are discussed unfavorably in hopes of helping to develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open question can only be answered openly, based on what readers assume the intentions of the stories covered are. As Power did, ...... middle of paper ...... themselves. They endure mosquitoes, rain, difficult walking, bad river crossings and the possibility of bears. The burden that the pilgrims carry to the bus is so heavy, loaded with their fragilities, with their hopes and desires, with their life which does not really satisfy them. Well, a lot of them are young and they're lost, one way or another, just like him. What makes Chris McCandless such a hero to young men is that he easily identifies with these young men. As Neal Karlinsky writes of Chris McCandless, “McCandless traveled across North America, determined to live completely free from the trappings of modern society. He was intoxicated by nature and by the idea of ​​a great adventure in Alaska: surviving alone in the bush. In his last postcard to a friend, he wrote: “I am now walking in nature. » Works Cited Krakauer, Jon. In nature. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.