Chris Mccandless Journey

What is a quest exactly? A quest can be described as a “journey” to reach a self realization. To be considered a quest you need these things to qualify: a quester, a destination, a stated reason for the journey, challenges and perils, and the underlying reason for the quest. In just about every novel you may read, a character experiences an epiphany which leads to a quest of sorts to find the self-knowledge he or she is after. “Every trip is a quest (except when it’s not)” (Foster p.1). This quote means that sometimes a person does not receive self-knowledge. Sometimes a quest is just a quest, no meaning behind it. In the book Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless’s journey for self realization. This story is a prime example of a quest. Chris leaves his family life to travel to Alaska to find more meaning to life. This story has a quester, a destination, a stated reason, challenges and perils, and the underlying reason. The quester, Chris McCandless, stated that his journey was to live off the land. Chris experienced many challenges, and and the end of the story Chris has a realization that one can only experience happiness when it is shared. Chris believed he could be happy and fulfilled living off pretty much nothing, but Chris realized, near his time of death, that life is too short to be alone. In the short story …show more content…
Even if it is not blatantly stated, you can always find the elements of a quest in a story. In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster explains to the reader what a quest is and what a quest means. It normally ends in self-knowledge whether it is stated or hinted at. In the book Into the Wild and the short story “To Build a Fire”, both stories are considered a quest. The only difference is that in the book Into the Wild Chris McCandless finds self-knowledge and in the short story “To Build a Fire”, the main character does not reach any

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