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A Life Of Nonconformity In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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A Life Of Nonconformity Edger Allen Poe once said “I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Is this how Chris McCandless felt as he grew up in his urban Maryland home? In “Into The Wild” Jon Krakauer did the best that he could to accurately dissect and help the reader understand the mind of Chris McCandless. This idea that Chris had of living a life in nature and revolving his life around dangerous adventures is not a new concept, rather Chris is just famous for it. Many young men before Chris have had the same fantasies, they've read the same books and felt the same obsessive need to be in nature. Why these men are motivated to risk their lives doing seemingly pointless activities that in no way shape or form benefit …show more content…

As Wallace Stegner said, “What Everett Ruess was after was beauty, and he conceived beauty in pretty romantic terms. We might be inclined to laugh at the extravagance of his beauty-worship if there were not something almost magnificent in his single-minded dedication to it. Esthetics as a parlor affectation is ludicrous and sometimes a little obscene; as a way of life it sometimes attains dignity. If we laugh at Everett Ruess we shall have to laugh at John Muir, because there was little difference between them except age” (87 Stegner). Everett is like chris, Krakauer even compared the two, this being said one could replace Everett Ruess with Chris McCandless and the quote above would still mean the same thing. Most people look down upon Chris’s lifestyle and find it foolish, although this lifestyle has its flaws in the long term, this way of life carries a sense of beauty and nonconformity that most people will never understand. This lifestyle is not only full of beautiful and adventure but it gives life experiences that are worth more than money could buy. When Jon asked about Chris to one of his former co workers she replied with, “When he talked, he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws” (40 Krakauer). Although Chris may come off as “missing a few screws” he was actually very intelligent

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Summary Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

187 Words | 1 Pages

In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the impossibility of attaining complete self-reliance, revealing how eternally elusive it is. Krakauer suggests to the reader that Chris McCandless is not an independent, young man capable of walking into the wild self-sufficiently, alluding to the idea that in order to reach an autonomous state, McCandless had to rely on other things to get him there. Krakauer supports the suggestion that McCandless was not independent with the notion that when confronted with opportunities, McCandless chose to take what was presented to him rather than work for what he needed. A way in which Krakauer expresses self-reliance as being impractical is when McCandless decides to “take advantage of [the bus’]

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Firstly, Into The Wild written by Jon Krakauer is one of the best book I have read this year. Throughout the novel, I can see Chris McCandless is brave enough to do things that most people will not even think about doing as he is “looking for more adventure and freedom than today’s society gives people” (). From the beginning, even though his parents, Billie and Walt McCandless set him up for an impressive, promising life, Chris gives up this promising, successful future and spins into a journey filled with idealist literature and danger that skews his world view. This is due to the modern society offers that does not appeal to Chris, who just wants a different life that many have themselves. He sees the influences society puts on our lives

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Summary Of Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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The way Krakauer writes this story is very different from most other books. He writes it in nonlinear narrative, a literary technique used when writing linearly has many more disadvantages. It works in this particular story because one’s interest is peaked right off the bat as he describes how Chris McCandless was found dead in an abandoned bus. The text states “Chris McCandless had been dead for two and a half weeks” (Krakauer 13).

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Chris Mccandless

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In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, he focuses on one main person, Chris McCandless. Krakauer explains most of Chris's life and even, at times, puts his own input into the pages of this book. Chris McCandless (a.k.a Alexander Supertramp) was from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. Chris had a father, Walt McCandless, a mother, Billie Mccandless, and a younger sister, Carine. Chris's obsession with nature and high-risk activities was believed to start when "Walt took Billie and his children from both marriages to climb Longs Peak in Colorado."

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Summary Of Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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answers, Krakauer develops his own theory that McCandless consciously chose to avoid any human relationship after his separation from his family, so that he could bear, without fully appreciating, the loss of such relationships. For example, Krakauer states that McCandless continued to head north after Ron Franz, an elderly man who treated McCandless as his son, expressed a desire to adopt him. He explains, “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north…relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the catastrophic confines of his family. He’s successfully kept Jane Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him.

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Summary Of Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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Jon Krakauer's Into The WIld glorifies the journey of a young man, Chris McCandless. In efforts to make his life better by living in solitude, McCandless traveled all across America for two years exploring all different places to find a challenging, yet hospitable, place for him to leave. Chris took this step in his life to escape family issues and harassment and successfully lived for two years as Alex McCandless traveling through the West, South, and making his way to the Alaskan wilderness where he unfortunately faced his downfall. In August of 1992 on the Alaskan Stampede trail, Chris died of starvation, and Krakauer tracked his footsteps and journey after three years to understand Chris as person and why he made the decisions he made.

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How Is Chris Mccandless Justified In Into The Wild

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In a way Chris Mccandless became a casualty to his own passion and obsession. “Into the Wild” is a book written by John Krakauer about a man who went from being a graduate at Emory University to fulfilling a drive and need of living as one with the wild. Mccandless had more courage than many people and he was willing to give up anything and walk away. Chris was a man seeking adventure, filled with confidence and a dream. It seems that he lived with one mindset that nothing could stop him and he was going to prove that; he hitch hiked his way through America to reach a point of personal fulfillment.

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How Does Krakauer Show Materialism In Into The Wild

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Rebellion Against Societal Norms: Chris McCandless and Hidden Homosexuality. In Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, the enigmatic journey of Chris McCandless unfolds as a powerful narrative of defiance against societal norms. While the story has been extensively analyzed, Chris' rebellion against societal expectations can be viewed as a manifestation of his struggle with hidden homosexuality, offering a deeper understanding of his motivations and challenges. From the outset, Chris’ disdain for societal norms is evident.

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Who Is Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild

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Into the Mild.ly Misguided In Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild,” Chris Mcandless’s life and journey is portrayed as a very complex exploration of ideals, self-discovery, and the human spirit. Shaun Callarmans quote, “I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on arrogance.

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Individualism In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

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Of Individuality And Conservatism In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

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In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris McCandless seeks to escape the boundaries of society and find his true self in the wilderness. At one point he befriends Ronald Franz, an old man who lost his only son. The two form a bond, Ronald viewing Chris as the son he lost. However, Chris left Franz like many others, writing to Franz and encouraging him to take up his way of life, saying, “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. ”(56-57)

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Summary Of The Psychoanalytical Lens

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Survival And Loyalty In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

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Based on a real story, Into the Wild can make us think from different perspectives about what the main character Christopher McCandless did. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a dramatic but also remarkable story from a young, newly graduated, college student that escaped for a long wild journey but never came back. As time passes throughout the book, the reader may notice how the main character interacts with society and nature, finally McCandless dies in the wild but even though he was struggling for survival he died happy. Some people never get out of their comfort zone, others are tired of it and retire from their comfort zone to have different experiences in life, some are good enough or some are terrible.

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