Analysis Of Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

“Engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture”(Krakouer 182). Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book about Chris McCandless and his rebellion against his family and societal conformity in order to find himself. Chris is an adventurous boy that graduates from college and journeys west eventually heading into Alaska. Chris does this with minimal supplies because he believes in self reliance. Chris wonders around the west coast traveling and working. When he eventually makes it to Alaska he lasts for a while living out of an abandoned bus. Later Chris is found dead. On his journey Chris makes a lot of risks which allow his to eventually find himself as a person. The way Into the Wild was written was controversial on whether

This story is almost irrelevant to Chris’s adventure, yet Krakauer still includes it. This shows how Chris is not perfect and maybe was a little crazy. This story helps the reader to form their own opinions towards McCandless because this story does not follow Krakauer's bias. Along with having stories that support the theory that Chris was just a crazy rebellious teen, Krakauer also includes stories of which Chris can be idolized. Krakauer discusses Chris’s skills and says, “He wasn't incompetent, he wouldn't have lasted 113 days if he was” (85). Krakauer disagrees with those who think that McCandless did not know what he was doing. Krakouer definitely makes his opinion that he supports McCandless’s ideas known, but by including details opposing his opinion he successfully narrates an impartial

This may be argued because at one point Krakouer includes a personal anecdote where he compares himself and his similar adolescent adventures to the one Chris embarked on. “When I decided to go to Alaska that April, like Chris McCandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic” (155). When one reads this they may think that Krakauer’s opinions are skewed because he did something similar. But actually this helps further develop the book. Krakouer too was an adventurous outcast who went on a journey like McCandless. This means that Krakouer is familiar with Chris’s mindset and could further understand why he did the things he did. This also allowed Krakouer to better convey Chris’s story to readers. Krakouer also includes arguments other people had provided him with to defend that Chris was not crazy. “It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes” (182). The way of which Krakauer wrote this book was with several opinions included. He pieced together the stories of those Chris met in order to find out the truth of what happened to Chris. Krakouer admits that Chris was a dare devil and took unnecessary risks but Krakauer argues that this doesn't make him a bad person. Krakauer's opinion is present in the book but it is the