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Why personal narratives are important
Arguments about chris mccandless
Why personal narratives are important
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“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.
Into the Wild Essay Most people go into the wilderness to go camping for a week or less than a week, then leave. Some stay for more than a week. Chris McCandless was in the wild for at least one hundred days. “ I’ve decided to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and the beauty of it is too good to pass up.”(pg.92)
In the biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer writes about a man named Chris McCandless. McCandless seemed like a normal person. He had good grades, a good home life, and had just graduated from college. Then, the 24-year-old went off on a journey, eventually ending up in Alaska, where he met an untimely death in an abandoned bus that he had taken shelter in. While McCandless never came out as a transcendentalist, his actions were indicative of some of the tenets of transcendentalism.
Christopher McCandless was a young man from good and sophisticated family. When he was a kid McCandless was very intelligent, he was placed in courses of very high level of education. He graduated from Emory University with honors. He received an amount of forty thousand dollars as a gift for college. In 1990, he was twenty two year old, he decided not to continue with his normal life, he wasted his money by giving it away.
Into the Wild In, Into the Wild, Chris McCandless’ character is portrayed as self - reliant and extremely unmaterialistic. Throughout the novel you learn about his past and the reason he became the person he was. In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher McCandless as individualistic and careless. Chris McCandless, even in his early teen years rejected money and the idea of wealth. A symbol of this is when his parents offer to buy him a new car and he says the old Datsun is, “A great car, i don’t want a new car.”
Have you ever met someone that everyone seems to love? This is exactly how Chris McCandless seemed in Into the Wild. Chris seemed to have a very loveable personality even though he did nothing to deserve it. But McCandles was too focused on himself, so he never grew attached to others that were willing to help. I believe that MCandles was selfish, independent, and arrogant.
Venturing out into the wild may seem outright moronic or frightening to some, while to others, it is a new adventure and beginning. Chris McCandless, an intelligent individual and high achieving scholar, may be seen to some as downright crazy for exposing himself to the Alaskan wilderness in an attempt to live off the land. Many, like Shaun Callarman, claim that McCandless was arrogant and crazy for doing what he did, however; there are people, like myself, who believe that although what McCandless did ended tragically, he was not crazy for pursuing this outing. Throughout his life McCandless was an intelligent individual who seemed like he had a bright future, it just so happens that he had a desire to venture out into the country alone and
As each chapter come’s there is an account from Chris’ diary to accompany it. Along with this is some type of quote/ inspirational passage which lets us in on what is to come in the chapter ahead. Krakauer is able to maintain this structure throughout the whole book and through this we are able to pick apart the journey of Chris McCandless to construct our own opinions about his mysterious persona. The structure Krakauer creates for us in Into the Wild is significant to our understanding of Chris and his journey as it sheds insight onto his life from many different
Nick Jans interpreted Chris’s notes as a sign of arrogance stating, “McCandless’s contrived asceticism and a pseudoliterary stance compound rather than reduce the fault.... McCandless’s postcards, notes, and journals… read like the work of an above average, somewhat histrionic high school kid—or am I missing something?” (Krakauer 72). He believed that the notes were an indication of Chris supposedly being smarter than everyone. In the article “” Suzan Nightingale even went so far as to say that Chris’s story was a “sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man” as if to say his death was the inevitable result of his hubris.
(Krakauer 109). In this quote Walt told Krakauer that he and his wife had to control Chris because he was reckless. This led to an unstable relationship because Chris felt like he could not be himself around his parents since his parents thought they could control how he lived his life, treating him poorly. Not only did Chris’ parents want to control Chris’ life, but also his education. A few pages later, Billie, Chris’ mother admits to Krakauer that she sat Chris down and gave him a talking to about how he was living his life.
Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on an adventure across the U.S. Chris lived for adventure, and sadly met his demise in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris’ death brought about a large debate as to whether Chris was insane or simply idealistic. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to prove Chris’ sanity and soundly completes that task by using rhetorical devices to persuade his audience. Throughout the book, Krakauer uses ethos to develop Chris’ credibility by providing examples of people who are similar to him. For example, Krakauer provides multiple examples of people who were very similar to Chris, such as Everett Ruess.
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild investigates the life and adventures of Chris McCandless. The author provides information about Chris’ life to illuminate his journey. Krakauer also uses rhetorical appeals to defend Chris’ rationale for his journey. Through Krakauer’s use of pathos, ethos, and logos, he persuades the audience that Chris is not foolish; however, Krakauer’s intimacy with Chris and his adventures inhibits his objectivity.
The revelation that he was merely human, and frightfully, so beyond my power to forgive (148 Krakauer ).” And how McCandless could not accept how his father wanted to used money to get Chris to be someone that he is not or control him. Another example for the distaste towards authority, “Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of cork fury and a hunger to please... If something captured undisciplined imagination, I pursued it with a zeal bordering on a obsession, and from the age of 17 until my late twenties... (134 Krakauer
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.
Chris McCandless was a college student with a need for adventure. On April 28, 1992, he left on a journey which would lead to the end of his life. After news of his death had reached public ear, most people came to the same conclusion: Chris McCandless was an uneducated, arrogant boy who went on a journey seeking death. However, in the novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakaur portrays Chris McCandless’ transcendental quest as a journey full of wonder. Throughout the novel, Krakaur defines McCandless as an intelligent, hard working, determined young man.
