January 30th, 1996: writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer appears on Charlie Rose’s PBS interview show for Into the Wild, the story of Chris McCandless’ journey on his own into Alaska. As the interview rolled on, Krakauer explained McCandless like he was a close family friend due to the information he got while reporting the story for Outside magazine. When asked how he came across this story, he mentioned seeing “a blurb in the New York Times” where he got some chills from seeing it from his time out in Alaska. Ultimately he connects personally with McCandless. Krakhauer inherited transcendental traits through his persistence, individuality and independence, and risk taking. One quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson says “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” One key element from Krakauer’s account of his trip was his persistence to go out into Alaska. In fact at the beginning of his journey out on the road, he thought “pulling over to sleep would have been the sensible thing to do, but [he] was on [his] way to change [his] life.” (page 126) He pulls …show more content…
The trip was a huge risk-taking experience, for he knew people have died climbing mountains. But “at the age of twenty-three personal mortality - the idea of [his] own death - was still largely outside [his] conceptual grasp; it was as abstract a notion as non-Eucilidian geometry or marriage.” (page 136) He closes off his story by saying the Devil’s Thumb “taught [him] something about what mountains can and can’t do, about the limits of dreams. [He] didn’t recognize that at the time, of course, but [he’s] grateful for it now.” (page 141) To young aged people, the transcendental way seems like an escape but for Krakauer (and even Chris McCandless) it puts life on the