Living in American society poses hazards to the biological evolution and contradicts Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. As products of society, all Americans (and all other civilized societies of the world) are sheltered from what our ancestors used to hundreds and even thousands of years ago, which was to live individually and not have to rely so heavily on a system to live. Through an imaginary document called the ‘Social Contract’, people of a society will receive any necessary things to stay alive at the expense of living and acting within the standards and rules of what that society asks them to do. Water, food, and protection from Mother Nature are all things taken for granted in this society because we expect them to be there through our own compliance with the Social Contract. In the movie Into the Wild, the main character, Christopher McCandless, leaves his spot in civilized society and breaks the rules of his Social Contract to live in the wilderness of Alaska. Although McCandless believes that he is living on his own, many things that he does still shows signs of his prior reliance and conflict with society.
Before McCandless decided to head into the Alaskan wilderness, you learned about the conflicts that arose between him and society as a whole. McCandless was an intelligent character that really wanted no part in society after he graduated from college. In fact, he left his prosperous life in Atlanta without telling anybody just to get away from what society had created for him. As the movie progressed, Christopher began to drop the ties he had with society to perhaps gain a new light on things. After leaving his life in Atlanta, McCandless defied society by abandoning his car, burned the money in his pocket, gave all $20,000 in his account to charity, and he stopped cleaning himself altogether. Regular citizens in our society would look upon what McCandless did as something that a crazy person would do but McCandless saw his actions as proving a point that he didn’t need or want anything from society. It seemed as though that whenever McCandless tried to get away from society, it would always come back and have an influence on his life. Moving from city to city never seemed to rid of the influence society had on McCandless, so he tried his luck out by moving into the wilderness of Alaska, out of sight of anybody.
Ironically enough, living in such a vast, open terrain with no civilization for miles, society still had an effect on the life of McCandless. Upon entering the rugged terrain, products of society were still a part of him. Objects that McCandless brought in, his .22 caliber rifle, the bag of rice, the clothes on his back and his shoes were all things that society had offered to him that he still kept for his journey. Most of the items that McCandless brought with him are those that are most often taken for granted with every one else in our society because we don’t know the process and work that it takes to receive all of them, rather, we just buy them by handing over pieces of paper called money and that’s it. Another ironic part of McCandless’ actions is how he took shelter in an abandoned bus. As hard as McCandless tried to get away from society, he still ended up sleeping in a product that society was made up of. Even though he could have easily tried to make a shelter himself, he ended up quickly relying on the bus to live and later to die in.
McCandless’ fight to get out of society ultimately and ironically led to his death within a product that society had to offer. His fight against society was a downhill battle that he could never get rid of, even when he was literally miles away from civilization. McCandless defied his Social Contract numerous times and eventually it would lead to be a costly mistake that may have cost him his life. Even though he thought he could live in the wild, he was so dependent on society that his natural instincts to get food were damaged by living in a society so long. It has been proven before that if you live in civilized society for the beginning part of your life, you won’t be able to live off the land as well as someone who lived off the land the first part of his life. The same statement holds true for people that have lived off the land their whole lives and how when they enter a civilized society, they do not know how to live. So for Christopher McCandless, his attempt to get away from society was tainted severely because he had grown up and lived with it so long. Society without a doubt holds great hazards to the biological development on humans in civilized societies.