Jon Krakauer is an author whose work primarily focuses on the wilderness and his experiences. His novel, Into the Wild, divulges into the life of Chris McCandless and his adventures into the wild Alaskan frontier. Chris seeks isolationism from his family and society and goes as far as to change his name to Alex Supertramp so he is not discovered or recognized by anyone. With mere long term survival experience, Chris makes several minor mistakes and dies; unbeknownst to anyone. After discovery, Krakauer devoted several years to Chris’ life story, going as far to use his journalism background to interview any family, friends and coworkers Chris encountered to synthesize a final overview of his life. Krakauer’s relationship with his own father …show more content…
Krakauer recalls “the revelation that he was merely human” and like himself, his father had made mistakes in raising him out of love and longing for success from his son. “Two decades after the fact, I discovered that my rage was gone and had been for years” (148); two decades Chris was shorted. That time, though lengthy, had potential to heal wounds inflicted by his childhood fallout with his father. Krakauer contrasts his seemingly insignificant fallout with his father to Chris’ harsh one as a reconciliation is eventually reached. Jon implies that Chris’ isolationism causes minute insanity and uses that as a distinctive difference between the two hinting that his own sanity has contributed to his current livelihood and tolerable relationship with his father. After college and maturing, Krakauer comes to the realization that his father’s actions had been for the best and had Chris not acted so rashly by beginning a nomadic life with little belongings and personal ties, he would not have died in Alaska without contact to his family, whom he had once been close …show more content…
John Waterman, one of many characters introduced, grew up climbing the highest peaks on the North American Continent, taught by his father at the young age of thirteen. Few years later, however, Waterman’s parents divorced and his mental stability began to decline. His father refused to see or visit any of his three sons causing John to feel the emotional repercussions. Much like the relationship with Krakauer’s own father and that of Chris and his, the influence, or lack of, strong fatherly roles and familial ties John endured, greatly impacted his character. Krakauer, again, tugs at the insanity card by specifically detailing interviews made by fellow climbers and college friends of Waterman’s peculiarly odd behavior, even for Fairbanks, Alaska. He later elaborates upon Waterman’s school board and presidential campaigns, both based on ridiculous claims, promoting unrestricted sex for students, legalization of hallucinogenic drugs, and ensuring nobody on the entire planet died of hunger. He attempted several climbs as promotion, none seeming successful, though, until tragedy struck and his elaborate journals burned completely in a cabin fire. Afterwards, he admitted himself into a psychiatric institute for a brief time. Krakauer shows resemblance between Chris and John claiming insanity for both, most likely caused by such a tension with their fathers as
Jon Krakauer had the same experience as McCandless with his family and travel to Alaska, but Krakauer knew more about survival and had company in case of any danger. Krakauer compares, “as a young man, I was unlike Mccandless in many important regard… And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul” (55). Acknowledging McCandless’s background, Chris left society because, in Krakauer’s point of view, of the “agitation of the soul” and the “similar heedless” of society. McCandless didn’t agree with society’s standards that being successful meant having a well paid occupation, especially when McCandless’s parents enforced it onto him. McCandless truly did not want to uphold the wishes of his parents, for Chris to go to college and get high paying career, but it wasn’t what Chris really wanted, so he left all of his conflicts with his parents and his values or “agitation of the soul” to create a new identity as Alex Supertramp and live in the wild. In today’s modern world, humanity lives in an environment where people are controlled and dependent on others. Chris’s father is someone he despises because of his characteristic of being controlling. Walter becomes controlling over Chris, who pressured him into college. As a result, Chris has an “agitation of the soul” to become independent, and a “heedlessness” for society and had an “intensity” for
In Jon Krakauer's novel Into the Wild, the main character, Chris McCandless, seeks nature so that he can find a sense of belonging and the true meaning of who he is. However, it is the essence of nature that eventually takes his life away from him. At the end of his life, he is discovers his purpose and need of other people. After Chris McCandless death in Alaska, Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to reflect on the journey that McCandless makes. Krakauer protrays McCandless as a young man who is reckless, selfish, and arrogant, but at the same time, intelligent, determined, independent, and charismatic. Along with the irony that occurs in nature, these characteristics are the several factors that contribute to McCandless death.
As soon as I picked this book up, I could not put it down. Every chance I got, I was reading. I was begging in class for you to let us have down time so I could submerge myself into this virtual reality that I wanted to experience. Unfortunately at the end of this memoir, Chris McCandless dies of what Krakauer believes to be starvation. The cool thing about how Krakauer revised this novel is how he relates it to all teenagers. At one point in time mostly all teenagers have a fight with their parents and they feel as if running away from it all is their only escape. He focuses on Chirs McCandless’ life so much to create the theme that no matter how much you fight and argue, your parents love you and they want the best for you no matter what.
Throughout the novel, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer sincerely disentangles the haunting enigma of Chris McCandless. By tracing the places, people and experiences intertwined in the life of McCandless, Krakauer narrates the life story of a puzzling corpse found in a bus buried in the Alaskan frontier in a truly authentic way of storytelling. Although Krakauer inserts direct quotes from people who McCandless came into direct contact with and experts from primary source journals, Krakauer’s own voice in the narration of the dead man’s life is trustworthy due to the similarities the protagonist and the author share. Common connections such as similar paternal stress made outstanding impacts in both men’s lives, starting at a young age. Furthermore, a sort of agitation with the soul ailed Krakauer and McCandless fueled by a reckless persona confined in the modern world. Lastly, a craving for human contact when in total isolation troubled both the author and subject in their adventures narrowed in the natural world. The mutual bond apparent to the reader between Krakauer and McCandless makes the writing in the novel sincere enabling Krakauer to speak of a dead’s man life with profound authority and truth. Unconditional understanding through shared paternal issues, agitation of the soul, and need for human contact grants Krakauer access to divulge into the conundrum of Chis McCandless and authority to earnestly narrate the mysterious
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.
Much of the human race live their lives in accordance to what society sees as acceptable, but Christopher McCandless disregards societal norms in the novel Into the Wild. Within the novel, Jon Krakauer explores the story of Christopher McCandless’s journey to Alaska and investigates the events leading up to his death. Krakauer tells the story concerning McCandless’s life in a fashion that reveals a truth about nonconformity. Krakauer sends a message to common readers that nonconformity is not possible and the only way to survive the world we live in is to conform to our surroundings. Jon Krakauer express’s his ideals on nonconformity within Into the Wild through his non-chronological organizational structure, the use of logical reasoning,
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,
People go into many things to try to escape their life. Some people start eating a lot, while other stop. Some people go into drugs, while others start drinking. Some people go into depression, while others are allured to take high risk actions. Maybe Christopher McCandless took this action because his relationship with his dad was not the best. Krakauer associated his relationship with his father to McCandless and his dad. “Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” (Krakauer 134). Krakauer feels the pressure to succeed and the desire to rebel, because his father constantly pushed him to perfection, like McCandless father. Chris could no longer deal with his life and spitefully left everything he knew for his dad’s high expectations. “I got into my head to climb a mountain called the Devils Thumb” (Krakauer 134). To show his father he can do it, he revealed in the book his thought processes during the climb. At the end he came to the conclusion that his method of thinking could have killed him something that ultimately happened to McCandless. To sum it up, by comparing his own and other people’s experiences the author Jon Krakauer appeal to pathos to give a little perspective on why Chris McCandless is not a young foolish kid as several people assume he is.
In Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book, Into the Wild, we follow how humans love the wilderness, the strain of father son relationships, and for the majority of the book a young adult named Chris McCandless. We see mostly through Chris’ eyes just how much the wilderness can entice young adults as well as how important crushing news of one’s father can change your life. McCandless was an angry pseudo adult who couldn’t handle a sizeable change in his life. He was too stuck on it being his way that he rarely could bring himself to accept help and improve his ability to actually survive. However, there was some good about McCandless. His search for himself and the truth were great intentions despite the flawed approach.
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he
In the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer writes about Christopher McCandless, a young man who drops everything in his life to go travel throughout the states and end up in Alaska to find the truth to his questions. But did Chris find the truth he desperately desired? Some would say that McCandless did, other would say that he has wasted his time and was being ignorant and stupid. I agree with the author, Jon Krakauer, that Christopher McCandless was not a crazy lunatic, a sociopath, or an outcast because he had made lots of friends while traveling, but there were times when Chris was incompetent, even though he managed to stay alive for quite awhile. Christopher McCandless had a pretty normal childhood.
The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer is a story about a man by the name of Chris McCandless. He is a man who grew up in a DC suburb, graduated college and decides to change the ways of his life. He journeys across the country, and finds his way to Alaska. His means are to leave the material lifestyle and become at one with nature. During Chris’s adventure he seems to neglect all communication with his family and over look the fact that they care about his health and future.
People search for an adventure in their lives when they wake up to when they go to sleep, for Chris McCandless he immediately got aboard the road of adventure and lost his life in his journey. A writer for Outside magazines, by the name Jon Krakauer, was asked to write the story on Chris. Jon felt fascinated by the young man due to his previous experience and posted the story. Once the magazine was out Jon received a lot of mail about Chris being “Mentally-ill” or “Nutcase” and after all the mail Jon couldn’t get Chris out of his head with so many questions unanswered. For a year Jon compiled all the information he gathered in a year and wrote a book Into The Wild. After the publication of the book people still look at Chris as a mentally troubled kid looking to end it all.
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
	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