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Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

672 Words3 Pages

Superman is a man of superhuman powers who time and time again, saves Metropolis from certain doom. However Superman is an extreme example, a hero is generally someone of great courage who does something for the greater good despite the risk involved. Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, wrote a book about a young man named Chris McCandless who abandons his old life to attempt to be self reliant in the wild. Krakauer believes Chris to be a man of heroism, however Chris was far from hero, he was a man who was selfish and ill-prepared who had a dream that turned into a nightmare from his own doings. All of Krakauer’s opinions of Chris are just false hopes and misinterpretations of his life and the purpose of his journey.
The goal of Chris’s …show more content…

Krakauer believes that his and Chris’s trip were similar, drawing the connections that they had both gone to the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer went to Alaska with the goal of reaching the summit of Devils Thumb. Chris eventually went to Alaska as part of a vague journey that has the goal of being self reliant. Krakauer didn’t care about being self reliant on his trip, as he had a plan drop off supplies to him while he was on the mountain. Krakauer explains the moment when the plane arrived, “The pilot buzzed (Krakauer’s) tent three times in quick succession, dropping two boxes on each pass” (141). Krakauer was prepared for his trip, planning when he was going to get fresh supplies, and who was going to get him to where he needed to be and when. Chris would never think about having supplies dropped off to him on his journey due to his beliefs on being self reliant, as Krakauer explains “Since (Chris) had announced to his parents that, on principle, he would no longer give or accept gifts” (20). Chris’s and Krakauer both had gone to Alaska, but they had vastly different trips and goals of what they were doing there. Krakauer planned his trip to summit Devils Thumb, while Chris improvised his journey and relied on himself or chance of others charity for getting the necessary means of

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321 Words | 2 Pages

[…] I got it into my head to climb the mountain called the Devils Thumb. […] I decided, moreover, to do it alone,” (Krakauer 134-135). This mirrors Chris’ dream to live in the Alaskan wilderness.

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986 Words | 4 Pages

Krakauer also put some of McCandless’ journals and letters in the book. According to Shaun Callarmans analysis Chris McCandless had no business going to Alaska. Callarman thinks Chris McCandless is just plain crazy. Callarman doesn't admire his courage or noble ideas. Even though Shaun Callarman thinks Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant, also made mistakes because of his arrogance, I disagree with Callarmans analysis

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393 Words | 2 Pages

The story of Chris McCandless, as told by Jon Krakauer, is a story about the dangers of pursuing unrealistic dreams without considering the practical consequences of life. Chris's journey into the Alaskan wilderness, marked by his lack of preparation, reckless decisions, and disregard for advice from others, unfortunately led to his demise. Some may argue that Chris's decision to abandon his old life and persona was a necessary step towards finding his true self and living a simple, purposeful life. However, this perspective overlooks the fact that Chris's actions were not thoughtfully planned or executed. He did not take the time to prepare himself for the challenges he would face in the wilderness, and his lack of common sense and refusal

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907 Words | 4 Pages

Krakauer uses ethos, pathos and logos to make his point, he shows Chris’s emotions “He’d tell us to think about all the evil in the world, all the hatred and imagine ourselves running against the forces of darkness” (112). Krakauer relates to Chris’s desire to escape society. Krakauer himself went to Alaska to experience the same need for solidarity. “Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

Prior to the beginning of his case, Krakauer did not know much about Chris' escapade, only that he was an extreme follower of simplistic values. Chris was witnessed to be carrying "[minimal] gear," including "[just] a ten-pound bag of rice... cheap leather hiking boots... [and] a tattered state road map" (Krakauer 5). Yet, regardless of the "harsh conditions" (Krakauer 5) he was well aware of, since the ground was still "buried under the winter snow," (Krakauer 5) Chris still willingly brought as little as possible with him to Alaska.

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1029 Words | 5 Pages

Zoe Engel 6-19-23 Mr. Selfridge Period: 2 Stepping Into the Wilderness The work of nonfiction Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, tells the true story of Chris McCandless, an adventurous young man, who leaves home to travel around the continent eventually setting foot into the Alaskan wilderness on a journey that becomes fatal. Highlighted throughout this work of nonfiction is the true story of McCandless’s life, along with bits of Krakauer’s personal life as it relates to McCandless’s. Each chapter begins with at least one epigraph that shares common themes with the following chapter. The focus in this paper will be on chapter 14, “The Stikine Ice Cap,” in which Krakauer shares his experience climbing the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska, and the second

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283 Words | 2 Pages

Krakauer came to the conclusion that Chris’s death wasn’t at all suicide or that he granted himself a death wish, but that it was all just an accident. He had based his thoughts upon the passages written in Chris’s journal that he had left along with other items. John also knew that it must have been an accident due to his similar past experiences. Chapter 14 is mainly about Krakauer’s reflection on his own youth, and how much he loved to climb. He chose to climb the Devil’s Thumb on the Stikine Ice Cap when he was only 23 years old.

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Chris McCandles who is the main character of Krakauer’s book Into the Wild meets many different people during his reckless and adventurous trip to Alaska. These people not only help him with shelter, food and water but also give him some ideas for contemplation and knowledge which can become useful in the wild. Chris’s philosophy of life has a great impact on the minds of these people who include Jim Gallien, Wayne Westerberg, Ronald Franz and others. They feel admiration and fear towards Chris and his actions but all of them are influenced by Chris in some way. First of all, Jim Gallien who picks Christopher up on the road and spends several hours driving and talking to a young man who decided to go to Alaska with a lack of necessary equipment

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1043 Words | 5 Pages

To leave everything behind and challenge everything he’s lived for is beyond rebellious, it is heroic. Chris descends from the comforts of modern society and steps into the unpredictable world of survival to find out who he truly is, which not many people are inclined to experience. Chris’ major flaw in his adventure was his lack of preparedness for Alaska and the absence of common sense in the wild. Krakauer mentions this fault, but rebuttals it, “Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the back country... he wasn't incompetent—he wouldn't have lasted 113 days if he were” (Krakauer 85).

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646 Words | 3 Pages

They want their beliefs to be validated and for people to understand their point of view. Krakauer spends most of Into The Wild trying to treat Chris’s hegira as neutrally as possible. However, he does give warning from the very beginning, noting, “I won’t claim to be an impartial biographer” (Krakauer). When Krakauer finally reveals his thoughts on McCandless’s journey, he does so almost hesitantly, but forges on because he feels that it must be heard. Krakauer truly believes that he understood Chris’s struggles, that he has invaluable insight into McCandless’s Alaskan endeavor.

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451 Words | 2 Pages

In the story, we learn about Krakauer’s experience climbing the devil’s thumb. His contraption to save him from the crevassases was actually well thought out to an extent. Krakauer also knew his path and his landscape and he brought the appropriate supplies to survive unlike our friend Chris McCandless, as well as many others. Though Krakauer held Chris’s same illusion of immortality (which most people of a young age unknowingly hold), he was still highly aware of his fears as well as his limits. And this awareness carried him back to

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688 Words | 3 Pages

“Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer is the story of Chris McCandless’s life and journey. In 1992, this young man, Chris, from an average family in the East Coast decided to cut off contact with his family and give up all his possessions so that he could hitchhike into the Alaskan bush. A main reason many believe Chris went into the wilderness was because he was in search of his identity. From reading this book I have come up with my own opinion of what type of person he was. The conclusion I have reached about Chris is that he was a distant and ill-prepared person who had a very strong will.

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401 Words | 2 Pages

Jon Krakauer as a young man who was a very big adventure, allowing himself to sympathize and understand why this college graduate would leave everything behind to find out why life is the way it is. As did Krakauer, I believe that Chris McCandless was a free-spirited individual who wanted to be in control of his life. Chris was just a young man who wanted some type of freedom without the chains of normality holding him

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Chris was struck by disaster multiple times, and that resulted in heartbreaking notes detailing how he felt. Krakauer includes these notes because it makes the audience feel bad for Chris. For example, when the river floods and Chris is trapped, he wrote “‘Disaster…rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared’”

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882 Words | 4 Pages

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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