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Character Analysis: Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

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Jonathan Ho Case ERWC 16 January 2018 Inspiring Life of Chris McCandless In the biography, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer published in 1996, the protagonist, Chris McCandless paves his own way of happiness through nature. Told in third-person, Krakauer addresses the theme by describing the settings of Chris McCandless’s adventure along the west coast of North America, establishing the main conflict of finding happiness, and incorporating the literary device of characterization. Krakauer’s purpose is to introduce a different pathway of life contentedness , and a different perspective on what happiness means . Although McCandless’s journey was unfortunately short, his life still managed to make a huge impact on lives all over the world till this day, inspiring them to break out of their comfort zone. McCandless’s odyssey was so significant because it was distinct, inspiring, and difficult. McCandless was a very unique man with an out -of …show more content…

He did not have the right equipment nor did he know a lot about surviving in such conditions. Jim Gallien, the last person to to Chris McCandless, described the terrain saying “The rivers are big and fast. The mosquitos will eat you alive….Livin’ in the bush ain’t no picnic (Gallien 4)”. As Gallien was on his way to drop McCandless off, he couldn’t help to realize that Chris was well unprepared for this journey and labeled McCandless as “People from the Outside”. Gallien describes the group of “People from Outside” (4), as individuals who see Alaska on a magazine and decide to go there to solve their current problems in life, only to underestimate the terrain and to find out that “it isn’t like the magazines make it out to be”(4) . Without having the appropriate gear, it is surprising that McCandless thrived for so long. However, his uninformed survival tactics is what ended his

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