He claimed that it is the duty of the United States to civilize a barbarous race or as he called Republic of the savage. Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii would benefit from US annexation in terms of exploration of land, a convenience of free trade and traffic, and kinship of interest and destiny
I don't think Krakauer was trying to completely discount this idea. Krakauer was pretty clear about the fact that Chris entered the Alaskan wilderness unprepared and under experienced. Krakauer spends a lot of time juxtaposing Chris's hero worship of writers like Thoreau and Emerson with the realities of living in the wild. I think that Krakauer was trying to say there was more to Chris McCandless than his ill-fated trip into the Alaskan wildernedd. Chris had personality traits, counter-cultural or otherwise, that we could all learn from.
