In the beginning of chapter 8, Krakauer blatantly states all these strangers’ opinions about McCandless’s death to the reader. These honest and blunt opinions that were stated against McCandless causes one to realize that McCandless’s peril was one hundred percent absurd and puerile. After reading others opinions on his death, it made me resent McCandless even more than I did. “Personally I see nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless’s lifestyle or wilderness doctrine.” (page 71) another opinion states, “McCandless had already gone over the edge and just happened to hit bottom in Alaska.”
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
The story of Chris McCandless may be illustrated as exhibiting an empathetic tone. Meaning Krakauer had the aptitude to comprehend and share the emotions or even beliefs of another or in this instance Chris McCandless. Throughout the book, Krakauer creates frequent and several connections between himself and McCandless, while dismissing antagonistic criticism directed towards McCandless. On Page 155 for instance, Krakauer compares McCandless with himself at that age, justifying much of his and Chris’s behavior on their adolescence and recklessness. Krakauer states that as a young man, he possessed an analogous distancing from his father, a “similar intensity and heedlessness”, and believed that the intentions of McCandless’s journey, similar
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.
An example of Krakauer’s use of anecdotal evidence as a method of reporting on Chris’ trek is through his speculation in regards to Chris’ death. Backed by his personal understanding of hiking and Chris’ knowledge pool, “[Jon suspected] that McCandless’s death was unplanned” (Krakauer, 1997, p. 92), an assumption with
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.
"I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going to Alaska with his Romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on ignorance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy."
Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?”(Krakauer,12) Journal: (P)At this point in the book two different parties have found Chris McCandless's note. I think at this point he is already dead with this things written at the start of the book and the rotting smell. I do not think the two parties will trust one another and help report him in fear that the other party killed him. I did not understand why Chris spend all day searching for food while already being really weak.
Chris McCandless: A Reckless Idiot Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot and there is no denying that basic truth. Chris McCandless was a man born into a middle class family. Chris had parents that loved him, a roof over his head, and food to eat. Despite all those riches he had, he threw them away. Chris was a very selfish man.
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.
Above all Chris McCandless was an arrogant man. He refused many offers of help he got under the ground of that it was cheating. His arrogance led to him taking unnecessary risks which led to him encountering many hapless events. A quote from Into the Wild, his sister Carine said, “ Chris didn’t think twice about risking his own life, but he never would have put Buckley in any kind of danger (Krakauer 128). This really shows that without a person to keep a handle on him, to give him a conscience about what he was putting himself into, he was really the only one credible for his ultimate demise.
Chris McCandless was in his early 20’s, he was the kind of that guy that wanted to learn and experience life without all of the material things. He wanted to be independent from his parents and friends so Chris did something that would be insane for most of us humans but to him, it wasn’t. He went into the wild of Alaska for months, in fact, McCandless even thought he could make it out alive at the end of his journey. As a matter of fact, he was known as being a risk taker and enjoyed being out and about in the nature side of the world. Many would believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild to purposely kill himself; however, I myself believe that McCandless did not do it purposely.
People weren’t able to empathize with his choices. Krakauer establishes this notion by inputting his own story and comparing himself to Chris. Peter Christian’s Criticism of McCandless is a provocative essay stating that Chris is a whack job, his story is completely pointless and not worth the time it takes to read. Peter Christian is right when he states, “There was nothing heroic or even mysterious about what Chris
Bringing a map, keeping some money with him, accepting items that people offered him, and many more factors contributed to his death. Dozens of predictions were made on how Chris died. Jon Krakauer wrote an article in the New Yorker specifically on how Chris died. “The probable cause of death, according to the coroner's report, was starvation.” (Jon Krakauer “How Chris McCandless Died”)
What are the different versions of family in McCandless’ story? Discuss both Chris's biological family and the families he creates for himself along the road. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless encounters many families outside his previous family living in Annandale, Virginia. In his journeys, Chris, later known as Alex, discovers that he has multiple chances to create families beyond his own.
