Chris doesn't just travel to Alaska on his "great Alaskan adventure," so how does his journey to Alaska and while in Alaska add to the story?
This is a pretty involved question. I know many rev ear him as being a sort of counter culture adventurer. I thought he was a bit of a jerk. He headed out without leaving any explanation to his family. They worried about him and all Chris sent was a nondescript post card to his sister.
AS to your second part, the whole Alaska thing makes Chris look rather silly. Chris was a romantic at heart but hardly practical. He wanted Alaska to be his Walden. Chris imagined himself a young Thoreau living off the land. To native Alaskan's, Chris was a well intentioned dreamer and an idiot. You don't go into the wilds of Alaska in sneakers, a tee shirt, a book on berries and a gun. The tragic irony of his adventure comes in his dying moments in Alaska. Chris's epiphany that he simply can't exist alone and that he was in way over his head was something that most readers knew all along.
