What Are The Similarities Between Heroes Of The Frontier And Into The Wild

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In Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers, the main character, Josie, takes her kids to Alaska in order to escape the hardships of everyday life. In her mind, she sees Alaska as a beautiful state where there are no struggles financially and people can live as their ancestors once did. Yet as she delves into the Alaskan lifestyle, she realizes that her problems are inescapable, and everywhere she goes she will experience some new difficulty.
Connections can be drawn between Heroes of the Frontier and Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, as both of the main characters go to Alaska to liberate themselves from society, but only find more hardships in their journey. In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless can no longer deal with his family problems and …show more content…

Josie had a reliance of humanity, just as humanity relied on her and she could never escape it.
Role reversal
In Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers, the author creates many different characters in order to create stronger characteristics and personalities for his main characters. Eggers uses inversion to further his character development and argue against the stereotyping of people.
Eggers inverts Josie’s kids from the stereotypical roles of boys and girls. Ana, the small and delicate little girl, is the child obsessed with weapons and destruction and often comes as close to death as she can. She is curious about anything and everything that can cause destruction. Instead of playing with dolls like many people consider all little girls do, she wants to play outside and learn about weapons. This inversion of a child furthers Eggers message that not only does everyone fit one stereotype, but that children are open and innocent and can change others’ views of the world and one day get rid of …show more content…

After Evelyn Sandalwood files a lawsuit against Josie because Josie, her dentist, did not see her mouth cancer, Josie is convicted of malpractice. This was the final straw in Josie’s life that prompted her to move to Alaska. Yet, while she is in Alaska, she gets a call that Sandalwood has passed away. This does not change anything about the lawsuit, but it gives Josie hope that another bad soul is gone, and good souls like her children are being raised and only growing stronger.
Her husband Carl represents the chaos that she invited into her home and the everyday toll it took on her life. He was a lazy person that contributed nothing but chaos to Josie’s life. Even when in Alaska, Carl wanted nothing to do with his kids or his ex-wife, he just wanted to convey pleasantries in order to make it look like he was involved. Yet when Ana mentions that she thinks Carl is dead, Josie feels a soft spot for him. She feels bad that he cannot take control of his life, but it gives Josie pride in hers that she was able to raise two kids on her own and remove chaos from her

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