Trouble Escaping Materialism

Christopher McCandless pictured on the left while in Alaskan 

territory and Christopher Vaughn’s mug shot on the right. 

Coincidental resemblance?

          While reading the book Into the Wild, it was hard to believe that it was actually based off of the true story of Christopher McCandless—a young man who ventured away in order to escape his structured, material world and live on and in nothing but the natural world. It was hard enough to imagine that McCandless made the choices he did, let alone to think that other people in my lifetime, would make similar choices. Could I ever believe that this would happen to anybody else? No. Yet, I found out that an ongoing trial of Christopher Vaughn has been taking place to determine if he “may” have shot his family in order to “live life in the wilderness without obligations.” (For the most recent update on the Vaughn Trial click here.)
           Christopher Vaughn set out on a typical path that many Americans take i.e. go to high school, college, graduate school, start a career and settle down with a family. Like McCandless, he later decided that the traditional path was not for him. McCandless, however, did not, in any way, want someone to accompany him 'into the wild', because he felt it might burden his quest to escape society and discover his true self. Vaughn did bond with another man online “over their mutual desire to leave civilization behind.”
           Once someone leaves society, both physically and mentally, can they ever find their way back? From McCandless’ experience, each time he returned to society and a somewhat traditional lifestyle, he “(felt) extremely uncomfortable in society (now) and must return to road immediately'" (37). McCandless never gave himself the chance to live the “material life” that Vaughn lived with a wife and three children. It took having a spouse and kids for Vaughn to realize that “he shouldn’t do something because everyone else does.”
           Christopher Vaughn comments on materialism. In addition, I believe, he himself represents the very skewed level of importance that material goods have in our culture today. The Sun-Times emphasizes this by sub-titling a full-page article about the Vaughn trial with a quote by Vaughn all in upper case,“THE BIGGEST THING I’LL MISS IS MY JEEP.” Materialism has surfaced much more in America in the recent past than ever before. Madonna's song Material Girl from 1985 brings the idea of the importance of materialism over human relationships to the forefront. It appears that Vaughn does not even care about the deaths of his whole family. Many people in today’s society, like Vaughn, base their happiness on the material things they have; not the things that really should make them happy such as family, friends, memories etc. The media has contributed to our need for material items. Advertisements frequently broadcast the need for the next better item, which leads us to want and buy. Will society ever have a limit to how far people go with their material items? Will Vaughn ever think twice about the loss of his family rather than his Jeep?