The day is unlike any other. The mail has come and lying at the bottom of the stack is the favored Outside magazine. The headline reads, “Exclusive Report: Lost in the Wild.” The cover speaks of a twenty four year old boy who “walked off into America’s Last Frontier hoping to make sense of his life.” The monotony of the ordinary day has now vanished from thought as Jon Krakauer’s captivating article runs through the mind like gasoline to an engine. The article is not soon forgotten, and the book Into the Wild is happened upon three years later. The book relates the full story of Christopher Johnson McCandless and how he left his family and friends after graduating college in order to find himself. Krakauer based the book off of his article on McCandless that was printed in January of 1993. From the time of writing the article to the printing of Into the Wild, Krakauer was obsessed with the tale of the boy who rid himself of society and later turned up dead in the Alaskan frontier. In the foreword of Into the Wild, Krakauer describes McCandless as “an extremely intense young man [who] possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence” and who was in deed searching for a “raw, transcendent experience” (i-ii). Krakauer is correct in assessing this conclusion about McCandless. This conclusion is seen throughout the book in many different assessments. Krakauer uses logical appeal, a comparison to his own life, and assumption to bring about his assessment of McCandless’ life.
The first acknowledgement and proof of Krakauer’s correct statement is found almost halfway through the book. Krakauer begins to use logical appeal to convey to the reader that McCandless was not “a reckless idiot, a wacko, [o...
... middle of paper ...
...t of time that he did had he been “a wacko [or] a narcissist” (iii). Krakauer’s view of McCandless is obviously evident when he discusses his adventure to climb the Devil’s Thumb. When Krakauer set out to summit the Devil’s Thumb, he was searching for something that would fix everything that was wrong with his life. The same could be said about McCandless. Both had a sort of grudge against their fathers. That does not mean they were correct to be angry with their fathers, but it does mean that they were not acting out of idiocy or narcissism. The final proof of Krakauer’s beliefs of Chris is his assumption as to Chris’ possible cause of death. It may be an assumption, however it is the most plausible cause of death due to Krakauer’s method of logically breaking the other theories apart.
Work Cited
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.
The epigraphs presented by Krakauer before each chapter of the memoir Into the Wild dive deep into the life of Chris McCandless before and after his journey into the Alaskan wilderness. They compare him to famous “coming of age characters” and specific ideas written by some of his favorite philosophers. These give the reader a stronger sense of who Chris was and why he made the decision to ultimately walk alone into the wild.
In 1992, Christopher McCandless set off on an odyssey into the backcountry of Alaska, an adventure that had proved fatal. After McCandless's corpse was found, Jon Krakauer wrote an article on the story of Chris McCandless, which was released in the January 1993 issue of Outside magazine. The article had received a negative response; several readers criticized McCandless for being foolish and ill-prepared, and showed no sympathy or remorse for his death. McCandless has been referred to as a nut, a kook, and a fool. However, McCandless was not a nonsensical man. In 1996, Jon Krakauer's novel, Into the Wild, was published. The novel uncovers more detail of McCandless's story. Into the Wild rebuts the idea of McCandless being someone who is foolish, and speaks of the many occasions where McCandless has demonstrated great perseverance and determination. The novel also proves the intelligence of McCandless, and brings insight into McCandless's psyche. The following examples will illustrate how McCandless was not a fool, but someone to admire.
...what was going on and figured that like me, he uses big words in the wrong places sometimes. Krakauer nearly became obsessed with McCandless. He writes about Chris as if he could have done the same thing when he was younger. Both are pretty arrogant and think they can take on the world. He even writes about his own mistakes in the world. It seems like the lives of Chris and Jon are a little bit parallel. They both took a lot of chances in their early twenties. Unlike Chris though, Jon lives through his mistakes and goes on to make lots of money selling books. This is a great story about human nature and what can go wrong if you think you can do too much. It kept me interested the whole time I was reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone who knows how to read.
I agree with the author, John Krakauer, in the notion that Chris McCandless was not crazy
..., the use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme convey the author’s purpose and enhance Into The Wild. The author accomplished his purpose of telling the true story of Chris McCandless. He was an eccentric, unpredictable man that led a very interesting life. His life deserved a tribute as truthful and respectful as Jon Krakauer’s. Through his use of literary techniques, the author creates an intense, and emotional piece of literature that captures the hearts of most of its readers. Irony, characterization, and theme all play a vital role in the creation of such a renowned work of art. “Sensational…[Krakauer] is such a good reporter that we come as close as we probably ever can to another person’s heart and soul” (Men’s Journal).
Life is a form of progress- from one stage to another, from one responsibility to another. Studying, getting good grades, and starting the family are common expectations of human life. In the novel Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer introduced the tragic story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless sold of his possessions and ultimately became a wanderer. He hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness for nearly 4 months. This journey to the 49th state proved fatal for him, and he lost his life while fulfilling his dream. After reading this novel, some readers admired the boy for his courage and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he was an idiot who perished out of arrogance and
Chris McCandless seemed like a tremendous person with good grades and many amazing opportunities when he had the idea of going on a long road trip without telling anyone in his family on where he was going and getting away from everything and everyone he seemed to be what people called idiotic. In the Author's Note in the third paragraph Krakauer shows some of the opinions that people would have suggested McCandless was an idiot “He changed his name, gave the entire balance of twenty-four-thousand-dollars saving account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet.” Many people would think abandoning your car and burning legal tender is an illegal act and no one in the right mind would do something like that. Additionally is that if he was willing to give up twenty four thousand dollars to charity, why would he not give whatever money was left in his wallet and give it to someone that might need instead of burning all of it.
...opher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise. Chris possesses monumental ambitions that had the potential to be harvested into something great, but were not taken advantage of in the correct way. Through the book Krakauer paints a chilling picture of how detrimental choices can be. Had Chris been better prepared for his trip there is a good chance he would have walked out alive. Had Chris lived, he would not be famous, merely criticized for his poor choices and selfish behavior that deeply impacted those close to him. Chris is not a hero, nor should he be regarded as one. His actions were admired by others but spontaneous naive actions do not constitute a hero.
In John Krakauer’s novel Into The Wild, the reader follows the life of a young man who, upon learning of his father’s infidelity and bigamy, seems to go off the deep end, isolating himself by traveling into the wild country of Alaska, unprepared for survival, where he died of starvation at 67 pounds.
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
Chris McCandless is regarded as being something as a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, some call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power calls in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless,“The debate falls into two camps: Krakauer's visionary seeker, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a greenhorn who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness he'd wanted so desperately to commune with.” Like so many stories covering Christopher McCandless’ death, both ends of the argument are discussed in an unfavored manner in the hopes to help develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open ended question can only be answered open-endedly based on what the readers base for themselves as covered stories intend. Like Power has done, ...
The novel is organized in an unusual manner that can make it seem unclear to the reader. Krakauer does not introduce the work as a whole, yet he pieces together the story through different chapters. McCandless’s journey is described out of chronological order, requiring the audience to pay careful attention in order to understand the events that unfold.
“Into The Wild” by John Krakauer is a non-fiction biographical novel which is based on the life of a young man, Christopher McCandless. Many readers view Christopher’s journey as an escape from his family and his old life. The setting of a book often has a significant impact on the story itself. The various settings in the book contribute to the main characters’ actions and to the theme as a whole. This can be proven by examining the impact the setting has on the theme of young manhood, the theme of survival and the theme of independent happiness.
Krakauer, Jon. The. The “Into the Wild”. New York: Anchor Books, 1996. Print.
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.