Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

When thinking about the wild we often look to places like the woods and uncharted territory. These places are in fact wild, but we often overlook the wild we experience every day. Everyone has their own opinion about what the wild is to them. William Cronon says that the wild is not real, that is a human creation that is a mirror of what we believe the wild is, and that we can only define wild as a place that has been untouched by man. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, we are told the story of a young man, Alex McCandless, who travels across the United States trying to find such a wild place, and once he found such a place he walked in and never walked out. But along the way we see how his travels can be considered wild. We learn how the people around us and the places we go can be

wild in their own ways.

The wild can be anything from a new experience to a simple change in your daily routine. The wild can be experienced in your everyday life.

The wild can be seen in many different ways, but one general view is used by Krakauer. That view of the wild is described as a way for someone to separate themselves from the rest of society to be able to reconnect with who they want to be. Many people seek to find a wild place where they are able to reset their mind in a way. They go to a much simpler place without all the so-called “distractions” of today’s hustle and bustle society. People also think the wild is only a place that disconnects us from the world. That this disconnection is an unnecessary commodity. Cronon says, “If the core problem of wilderness is that it distances us too much from the very things it teaches us to value, then the question we must ask is what it can tell us about home, the place where we actually live” (Pg. 13). He believes that going

out into the woods is not the way to learn about yourself or your home because where you live is where the wild once was. He makes us think about whether or not the wild and the distance it gives the rest of the world is actually a problem. It also shows us that even though that wild place we all think about may not show us all the answers to our problems, but it can teach us how to handle these problems at home where we live day in and day out. In Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Krakauer uses the story of Alex McCandless to show us how wild can be found even when you are around other people. Alex goes off by himself on a spiritual journey and the first thing he did was burn all his money showing his first step in making that first leap of distance between him and his old self. By doing this we see his new identity that he would explore and expand on throughout his spiritual journey to find the person he wanted to be, not the person that society wanted him to be.
We grow up being told by our parents and taught by our teachers that a wild is a place where animals live and where trees and plants grow freely. But what if the wild could be seen in the middle of downtown Seattle without even trying to look for it? There are millions of things that happen every day that we have no control over. There could be a fire that interrupts your daily commute to work, or it could be as simple as noticing something new that you haven’t seen before. Some people may ignore these things, but others see them as a daily wild experience. William Cronon has a theory that the wild is only what we make it out to be, “As we gaze into the mirror it holds up for us, we too easily imagine that what we behold is Nature when in fact we see the reflection of our own unexamined longings and desires” (Pg. 1). William compares the way we may see the wild to something that we might be searching for. He believes that the wild is different to all of us depending on who we are and what the wild means to us. A person with a closed mind will more often than not think of the wild and only assume that it solely a place where animals and plants roam free. For every one of those people there is someone like Alex McCandless whose open-mindedness allows him to take that mirror image of what the wild looks like and expand it. These people take their expanded mirror image and use it to open their eyes to the world around them. The people who choose to never expand their thoughts on what is wild tend to view the wild as a place where they want to someday go but never take the time to actually experience it. They do not realize that the experience they are searching for is right in front of them, all they have to do is look at the bigger picture.
There are a few things many people in this world lack. They lack the knowledge of what it means to be generously kind when no one is watching. They focus on themselves more than they focus on the world around them and the things that are happening right before their eyes. Today all we think about is money and ourselves, we fail to stop and look around at the place we live and thrive. William Cronon tells us, “In reminding us of the world we did not make, wilderness can teach profound feelings of humility and respect as we confront our fellow beings and the earth itself” (Pg. 13). Cronon uses his strong and persuasive writing that gives us a view of the world that many people have not seen, and very few will take the time to do this. He amplifies the idea that we truly have changed as an entire race. We have little, if not any, respect for not only ourselves but the people and planet that we coexist with. We fail to see the amazing things that are standing right in front of us. Alex McCandless was one of the few people who opened his eyes and decided he wanted to go against the social normality that our parents, peers, and society push on us. He wanted out and that’s just what he did. Alex left, without out a word. He disappeared into the world to figure out who he wanted to be. He left his old self and began a new life. He set his mind to Alaska and headed out. Along the way, he meets strangers who ultimately become a kind of new family in a way. He treats everyone with the utmost respect he has, not taking more anything he didn’t need. He left his mark on people and inspired them to things that might seem scary but are worth the risk. He taught people to live in the moment and see how great the world is around them. Helping them to see how every step you take can change what happens next, which is in itself a wild experience.
throughout Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness”, we read about how both authors have different views on the world and how we generally define the wild and what it means to us. But their different views mesh together when it comes to how each individual can view the wild, and also how they can change that view and how they define it. These two authors are writing about different ideas that seem far apart, but once you take the time to break down you see that they are not too far apart. From what they are saying you are able to see how one perspective might seem different from another but in retrospect, they aren’t so different after all. Both Krakauer and Cronon explore the thoughts of how wild experiences change people. The two of them write about how traveling into the wilderness is not always the best way to get all of life's answers, but the journey there can teach you a lot about yourself and who you are. The wild, in my opinion, is not just a physical place you can seek out to find. The wild is also a mental and an emotional state of mind. A wild perspective on life is not as hard to obtain as you might think. You have to be willing to let your mind take the thought of, “What is Wild?” and let it run. The everyday wild that we experience can be simple or complex. You just have to be willing to let go of your preexisting thoughts of what wild is, and enjoy the world around you.