Comparing Chris McCandless, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess

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Many individuals decide to live their life in solitary; though, only a few choose to live in the wild. The book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer vividly paints the adventurous trek Chris McCandless went on. From the friends he made, to the hardships he went through, McCandless is portrayed as a friendly, sociable person despite the fact that he was a vagabond. Other than McCandless, there are even more individuals that have taken the risks to live in the wilderness such as, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess. All three of them had both similarities and differences between their own qualities as a person and their journey. All three adventurers displayed their affection for the wilderness through how they lived after leaving society. After reaching Fairbanks, Alaska, McCandless set up his camp and began to live off the wildlife nearby. In his journal, he noted what he caught each day and showed his gratefulness through his writing font. He believed that “it [wildlife] was morally indefensible to waste any part of an animal that has been shot for food” (166). He tried his best to preserve the animals he shot for food, which in turn displayed his thoughts of nature as something precious. Krakauer also adored what nature had in store for his yearning for intriguing natural events. In is youth, he “devoted most of [his] waking hours to fantasizing about, and then undertaking, ascents of remote mounts in Alaska and Canada” (134). Shown by the time he spent dreaming, people can infer him as a person who deeply admires nature. At the age of eighteen, Ruess dreamed of living in the wilderness for the sake of fascination. He wandered to find events that could surprise him until his near death, in which he decided to find the more ... ... middle of paper ... ...t of his times traveling long distances with little parental advisory until his disappearance. These three men have their own attributes both similar and diverse from one another. Ranging from childhood to thoughts on society to the details of their journey, they each had an vast amount of comparable attributes. Nature can be described as something magnificent and delightful. It’s all in the eye of the beholder and they saw it exactly alike. All three most probably have met their goal in life: living in nature’s beauty. Works Cited Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print. Morse, Liz. "The Life and Climbs of Jon Krakauer." The Life and Climbs of Jon Krakauer. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. Read, Adam. "Christopher McCandlessaka Alexander Supertramp." Chris McCandless Now I Walk Into The Wild Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

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