The commencing anecdote to Krakauer's "Into the Wild" defines wilderness as an "escape from society." I can't help but to question why, in most of our readings, the main characters have felt the urge to escape from society, into the wild. In regarding "Into the Wild" and Kipling's "The Jungle Book," I've boiled this universal longing to escape society to one main cause: structure within many aspects of society.
It is evident that Chris in "Into the Wild," yearns to escape education's structure. He has the option to continue into law school free of charge, however he feels the need to shatter education's structure to pursue a more liberating existence "west of Atlanta," to "invent an utterly new life for himself... free to wallow in unfiltered experience, [to be] master of his own destiny." Evidently, Chris regards education as a very filtered experience, thus he seeks to break away from this institution and into the unknown.
Mowgli, in "The Jungle Book," seeks to escape two fairly opposite, yet structured societies: the "Man-Pack" and the "Wolf-Pack." Each of these societies has a defined way of operating, subsequently resulting in inevitable structure. Mowgli becomes an outcast as a result of rigid structure within both societies, and consequently escapes into the wild, claiming "Man-Pack and Wolf-Pack have cast me out. Now I will hunt alone in the Jungle."
There you have it. Society is inevitably structured. Those who can't handle the structure choose the path of least resistance: they escape to the wild. You know what they say... if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Chris and Mowgli obviously can't stand the heat...
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