Ravens call from the distant snow-covered forest trees with a harsh grating sound as the incandescent moon illuminates the dim-lit isolated street, but it is the unsettling howling wind of the dark night that deepens the fear in the pit of my stomach. Will the track marked monster return to defeat me once again? As I pull the old, threadbare blanket over my depleted self, she abruptly enters the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Yelling repeatedly “Why can’t you be like other children?”, whilst beating me profusely with a heavy studded belt. I cry until my eyes become swollen with each blow that tears at my flesh. “I’m not afraid to dig a grave and put you in it” she threatens. And as she storms out of the room, I close my eyes to …show more content…
“Could you please help me young boy? I’ve lost my dog” I beg. “Yes, I will help find your dog, I love dogs” he replies. As Elijah bends over, I pull him inside the car and knock him out with chloroform. I place him before the passenger’s seat on the floor in the fetal position. I drive into the wide-ranging forest to the hut and sit him down on the kitchen chair. His eyes open, I smile. He screams, but not loud enough for passers-by to hear. I spoon-feed him my favourite dish, watch my favourite movie: The Shining, rest him in the warm bed and watch him sleep. With each scream, I threaten “I’m not afraid to dig a grave and put you in it”. But at 2:00am, when he wakes up screaming I snap and shove a chloroform rag in his face. I walk with a shovel and body bag. I dig a grave in the remote area of the forest and bury the little boy – the boy I use to be. People tortured me. Now it’s their turn to feel the pain and suffering I had to endure. Next day; 2:30am It is time for a long-distance haul in the truck. I am driving down the Texas/New Mexico state highway as the rain begins to pour. In the distance, a dishevelled teenage boy stands holding his arm out with a travel bag with some sort of foreign flag, underneath the “Welcome to Texas” sign. The car reduces to a motionless
The story of Chris McCandless is a long story that is complex to tell in its entirety. This essay will analyze Jon Krakauer’s book, Into The Wild, in an attempt to pursued you that Krakauer did a magnificent job telling McCandless’ story up to his death.
On April 1992, a young man from a wealthy family went to have the most amazing experience of a lifetime. He went hiking to the Alaskan Frontier, from the Grand Canyon, and through Chesapeake Beach. His name was Christopher McCandless and he wanted the best for himself. He first burned the cash inside of his wallet, cut up his ID’s, and abandoned his car. He even gave away $24,000 in savings to charity. The story “Into The Wild” describes how Chris McCandless changed his name to Alexander Supertramp. Jon Krakauer’s “Into The Wild” depicts a Transcendental representation due to his appreciation of nature when leaving society, trusting his own instincts, and most importantly, the interconnection of Oversoul.
In the book Into The Wild the main character Alex did some questionable things. Although he did some unusual things, he was sane. Alex was well educated and highly respected by everyone who knew him.
Through journal entries, highlighted passages, stories of people’s encounters, and personal experiences, author Jon Krakauer attempts to reconstruct the life of a young transcendentalist man named Chris Johnson McCandless in the biographical novel Into the Wild. McCandless was a 24-year-old young man who completely severed his connection to the world, his family, and all of his tangible possessions in hope to survive off the land in Alaska. In the two years that led to his Alaskan Odyssey McCandless created a new life for himself and lived by the name Alexander Supertramp, in hope to leave his old life behind. Krakauer starts his novel “Into the Wild” by bluntly revealing to the audience that he had only survived 113 days and his remains were found two weeks after preceding his death. Rather than focusing on McCandless death, Krakauer focused on his life. Although Krakauer is biased, he proves to be a credible biographer and proves the assertions he made in his authors note.
An obsession can begin with the smallest of events. Ideas, real or fancied, of what one’s life could be like without the ties that bind them, positive or negative, consume the mind and create visions of freedom from the demands of family, government, or even society as a whole. McCandless’s discovery of his parent’s indiscretions was the onset of his obsession; an obsession which grew exponentially over a short period of time that fettered him to the notion that to be truly happy and free, he must rid himself of everyone he had ever known and everything he had ever owned. McCandless became enslaved to his conception of real freedom. His notion of freedom was extreme, to say the least. It involved an elaborate plan to abandon his parents; separate himself from society; erase himself from the governmental grid; to ultimately arrive at the realization that to experience real freedom in happiness it, must be shared. The discovery of McCandless’s parent’s indiscretions set in motion the first step in his plan: freedom from them both.
One would think that a person who has courage and sense of adventure would be able to get along with those who want to be close to him. In the novel, “Into the Wild,” by Jon Krakauer Chris McCandless is a college graduate who has trouble with his normal life so he leaves to find go through a life of adventure. When a person goes on an adventure it would bring out true weaknesses like the naive mistakes made before.
Familial conflict is inevitable in all families, but will naturally fade as time passes because of the heavy influence of family life. However, more stubborn families will not be able to reconcile as easily, or sometimes never. In Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer relates to the rigid relationship Chris McCandless has with his family, with the exception of Carine.
Historical dominance has been part of the global history for centuries. One of the biggest
With bright eyes and a fascination for adventure, Chris McCandless was truly one in a million. Chris McCandless, the star of “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, stirs up powerful emotions in readers, leaving them divided into two camps. His rash behavior and defiance of society's norms can be seen as reckless and troublesome or as inspiration. Chris lived in a middle class household with parents who set him up to have a ‘successful’ future and live out his days as most people would. After high school he went to college, where he discovered his true adventurous soul. Chris was not the type of person to just become a lawyer and live in a nice house. He saw more to life than the conventional and average lifestyle of an American. Although it meant leaving behind his prior life, Chris found happiness in, “endlessly changing horizon(s)” (Krakauer, 57). Chris McCandless died twenty years ago, but he still is an inspiration today because he lived for his happiness.
Sometimes a character may be pushed over the edge by our materialistic society to discover his/her true roots, which can only be found by going back to nature where monetary status was not important. Chris McCandless leaves all his possessions and begins a trek across the Western United States, which eventually brings him to the place of his demise-Alaska. Jon Krakauer makes you feel like you are with Chris on his journey and uses exerts from various authors such as Thoreau, London, and Tolstoy, as well as flashbacks and narrative pace and even is able to parallel the adventures of Chris to his own life as a young man in his novel Into the Wild. Krakauer educates himself of McCandless’ story by talking to the people that knew Chris the best. These people were not only his family but the people he met on the roads of his travels- they are the ones who became his road family.
Into the Wild was written by Jon Krakauer in 1996. It is a nonfiction book with a main theme of finding your own happiness. In this book, the main character, Chris McCandless, journeys into the wild both literally and figuratively. Chris literally goes into the wild when he leaves civilization behind and ventures down a dangerous trail into the unpopulated forest of Alaska. Chris figuratively goes into the wild when he decides to leave everything and everyone that he knows behind. Chris goes into the wild in both these ways in hopes of finding happiness. In Chris’ early life, he appears to have everything; he has a wealthy family and is excelling in school. It is not until Chris learns a hard truth about his father that he realizes his life does not make him entirely happy. With this breakthrough, Chris leaves society and the comforts of his life to rough it and get down to the root of what makes him smile. Into the Wild is an intriguing book that tells a story of a man on a mission to find his peace; but no matter how good the story is, the confusing style of the writing takes away from the book’s excellence.
In April of 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless, from a prosperous and loving family, hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. Jon Krakauer constructed a journalistic account of McCandless’s story. Bordering on obsession, Krakauer looks for the clues to the mystery that is Chris McCandless. What he finds is the intense pull of the wilderness on our imagination, the appeal of high-risk activities to young men. When McCandless's mistakes turn out to be fatal he is dismissed for his naiveté. He was said by some to have a death wish, but wanting to die and wanting to see what one is capable of are too very different things. I began to ask myself if Chris really wasn’t as crazy as some people thought. Then I realized it was quite possible that the reason people thought he was crazy was because he had died trying to fulfill his dream. If he had walked away from his adventure like Krakauer, people would have praised him rather than ridicule. So I asked the question, “How does Krakauer’s life parallel Chris McCandlesses?”
... at the man, the unbidden memory of my parents’ lifeless body in the open casket washes over my mind. My head begins to throb. I fight back tears, screaming in agony.
His name was Aden, and he was about 7 years old. He had messy brown hair and excited blue eyes. As soon as he saw the lonely puppy, he smiled. “Mom! Dad!” he called. “There’s one puppy left!”. The puppy recognized this boy from earlier in the day. He had picked the puppy up and said, “I want to take you home. I’ll be right back.”.
Krakauer said “McCandless change his name, gave the entire balance of a 24 thousand-dollar saving account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his pocket” (Author’s note). Family is an important factor in everyone’s life; apparently that was not enough for Christopher McCandless. I have been fortunate to live with my family my whole life.