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Into the wild by jon krakauer essays
Essays on into the wild by jon krakauer
Essays on into the wild by jon krakauer
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Throughout Chapters Eight and Nine, Krakauer describes and begins to develop the other infamous four explorers stories whom Chris McCandless's story is similar to theirs. Krakauer also notices the lack of sympathy that the Alaskans felt for McCandless when they knew about his death. Many of them felt that he was a foolish child, who arrogantly wondered alone in the wilderness with no shelter or food to keep him alive. Krakauer made his own beliefs clear, that McCandless shared some characteristics and behaviors with these four adventurers, the only one who is truly like him is Everett Ruess, the other three men were a little similar because Carl McCunn was more naive, John Waterman was actually mentally insane and Gene Rosellini was a good
“Actions speak louder than words” is a centuries-old idea that, in recent times, has been famously said by both Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, and I think this idea should be the core of any look into the life and actions of Chris McCandless. However, I believe that this idea was hardly considered in Jon Krakauer’s interpretation of Chris McCandless in his book Into The Wild. Into The Wild is taken by many as the complete truth of Chris McCandless’ story, but many people seem to forget that Krakauer tells us in his author’s note at the beginning of the book that “[he] won’t claim to be an impartial biographer.” This means that any judgment of Chris that only uses this book is inherently flawed by Krakauer’s own views.
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
Throughout chapters 8 and 9, the author showed his bias towards Chris McCandless, which is an act of defiance to his position as an objective journalist, when he attempted to alter the readers’ negative point of view towards Chris by the introduction of different people who had similar experiences and characteristics as him and then making comparison. After reading the previous chapters, the readers have already made their own judgement on Chris, which are probably mostly negative. To address this issue, Krakauer initiates chapter 8 by introducing negative comments and mails not only about Chris but also to him, the author. These will serve as an argument that he will later attempt to disprove while at the same time, still informing the readers about what makes Chris special and unique.
In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless travels from Vermont all the way to Alaska into Denali national park. The way he decided to go through with his travels is considered to be unjust by most. Although his actions were not ideal he was happy with them and this was how he decided to go through with his plans. He gave away all of his money and material items just so that he could get rid of the thought of his family and, in a way, start his own. Chris McCandless was in fact just in his actions because of his legal rights of freedom of speech and he never stayed with anyone long enough for them to persuade him to not go to Alaska.
He shows this in many ways throughout the novel and Krakauer hints on every single one. Several people McCandless met on his trek admired his principles and it led them to admire him. He is very anti-materialistic and shows this quality by giving the rest of his college fund to a charity fighting for world hunger. In Solitude, Thoreau writes about how society is insignificant and chooses to exchange it for a society of nature. This can be related to McCandless because Thoreau is valuing his principles over people because he believes society is insignificant, just like McCandless.
‘I’ll climb a tree’ is all he said. He had an answer for everything I threw at him” (Krakauer 6). McCandless would not let anyone change his ideals even though they propose reasonable opinions which puts him in all kinds of trouble, including his death, throughout his journey. If McCandless weren’t so protective and close-minded of his ideals and beliefs, he would’ve made less mistakes and his death would’ve been easily
Born in A Different Life Life on the road is an idealistic way to escape from societal problems. There is no denying that it grants individuals satisfaction by allowing them to fulfill their goals, as well as providing immense freedom and control over one’s life; however, it is a fundamentally illogical path to take due to nature’s malevolence. In Into The Wild, Krakauer writes a biography about a young man named Chris McCandless, in which he illustrates the similarities between himself and McCandless’s overly ambitious journey to accomplish feats in the wilderness. Coinciding with their similarities, they also faced an oppressive father figure at home, which lead the both of them to believe that their journey will provide them an answer to their problems at home. McCandless planned to survive in Alaska by living off the land while Krakauer wanted to be the first one to climb the Devil’s Thumb.
An attribution to Jon Krakauer’s convincing overall argument is his thorough and plausible research formulated to create Christopher McCandless’s biography. Krakauer conducted a copious set of interviews with various people; he consulted specialists and scientists, and others in their respected professions. Krakauer also ventured in McCandless’s footsteps and studied into other adventurers cases. The “sources” Krakauer uses to devise his argument range from the people “close” to McCandless such as friends and family, people Alex (Christopher) met during his journey, professionals (police officers, rangers, scientists, professors, authors, etc.), those that found McCandless’s body, Alaskan locals, and letters from the readers of his Outside
In Into The wild, Krakauer narrates the last couple of journeys Mccandless had on his adventure to Alaska where he ultimately died. Mccandless Touched many people's lives through all of his journeys. Mccandless went on these journeys because he was confused in life when he figured out his dad had cheated on his mom. This changed Mccandless to the point he began to hate his parents. Mccandless had a lot of confidence in himself so he left on an adventure to find his identity.
McCandless was a man who likes to be independent ever since he was a kid. “... He didn’t seem to need toys or friends. He could be alone without being lonely” (Krakauer 107) explains he was not like an average kid who relies on their family or friends but did almost everything by himself. His personality made choose certain decisions such as doing things on his own, “ He resisted any instruction of any kind” (Krakauer 111).
Realist: This means to have an understanding of what can be accomplished. By using this word, Krakauer was able to let the readers know that he viewed McCandless as more of a realist than an idealist. Being a realist is a noble trait, due to its denotation meaning of the word which implies that one knows their own limit and weakness and knows how to set forth and complete a goal. Ambivalent about killing animals: The meaning of the phrase is having mixed or contradictory feelings or ideas about killing animals.
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
However, Jon Krakauer proves his argument that McCandless was not arrogant, foolish, antisocial, or crazy by giving examples of other young men who were similar to McCandless to show that his journey wasn’t unprecedented. He also proves that McCandless wasn’t antisocial because he developed personal relationships with Ronald Franz, Wayne Westerberg, and Jan Burres in such a short amount of time and explaining the many times that McCandless respected the Alaskan Bush. Krakauer admits that McCandless may have suffered from hubris; he was still a victim of circumstances. Krakauer proves that McCandless had an intrinsic motivation to discover and that he wasn’t alone because Krakauer too ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was younger. The Alaskan Bush is a very difficult place to survive if one isn’t prepared for many challenges such as hunting for food or staying warm in the frost ridden
In addition, in a journal entry, McCandless writes, “It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you” (Krakauer 37). This excerpt shows that McCandless sincerely is at peace with himself and the world because of where his ideals have taken him.
