Examples Of Bias In Into The Wild

To answer Bertrand Russell's implied question, no person can write an interesting story about history without bias. When readers or people get excited about a story, there has to be a slight bias, positive or negative, when writing about true events to keep people questioning and responsive enough to continue reading. Some authors will have an obvious inclination toward characters to catch people's attention and see if the readers can recognize instances where a personal opinion is being used, which may inspire people to want to` pursue a story. An author's goal is to get the reader's attention and keep it; using bias is one way to do that. As seen in Jon Krakauer's story Into the Wild, there’s a positive bias toward protagonist Chris McCandless.

Krakauer can also persuade the readers to side with his viewpoint toward Chris through the use of diction. When talking about word choice, it doesn't necessarily mean big and smart words; it also includes descriptive words, such as "Chris inherited Billie's angelic features, most notably her eyes, the black depths of which betrayed his every emotion" (Krakauer 110). When Krakauer calls Chris’s eyes "angelic," he means they are charming and mysterious, but they also reveal his feelings, meaning that everyone around Chris knows his frame of mind without him even confessing it. The previous descriptive words make others have sympathetic affections towards Chris, especially when hearing the word "angelic," which people associate with being kind and gentle. Brainy words can also imply a preconceived notion: "McCandless’s personality was puzzling in its complexity. He was intensely private but could be convivial and gregarious in the extreme, and despite his overdeveloped

Literary devices are crucial for crafting a compelling story, and many times they can be difficult to spot. To give an idea of the effects of these devices, Krakauer chooses and quotes Chris’s father: "Chris walks in with a scraggly beard and worn-out clothes, looking like Jeremiah Johnson, packing a machete and a deer-hunting rifle" (119). The explanation of how Chris looks uses imagery to aid your imagination in characterizing him. It also has another device called allusion referring to "Jeremiah Johnson," which makes reference to someone without mentioning in detail who they are but gives an example to people who understand it. The author determines thoughtfully how he wants to describe Chris without employing any negative ramifications against him. Krakauer further adds, "Wisdom accrued. The guilt and hurt and jealous fury receded into the distant past; it appeared that the storm had been weathered" (121). By comparing Chris’s emotions, readers understand how he's feeling by matching them to a physical storm. The device applied is called anthropomorphism, which gives human traits or emotions to an inanimate object, allowing readers to analyze how the situation feels for the character and eliciting sympathy from the audience. Additionally, another point others may