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The life of chris mccandless
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The life of chris mccandless
Who is chris mccandless essay
Unique characteristics of chris mccandless
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In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”. Saverin begins her article with anecdote- telling the unfortunate experience of young lovers and adept adventure seekers, Ackerman and Gros.
[…] 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.
Krakauer’s anecdote illustrates how he was drawn to the story of Mccandless and how Chris’s actions, thoughts, and mental processes came naturally. He informs us of the inevitable accidents that can occur while hiking the wilderness, as well as his own mindset during his similarly troubled, youthful years. Krakauer went through similar mental growth as Chris, but had the fortune of surviving where Chris did not. Unlike McCandless, he didn’t have a single minded focus of living an idealistic life inspired by a great such as Jack London or Thoreau, but Krakauer did yearn for something larger than himself. Both he and Chris shared the desire of personal morality.
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.
Going out into the wild all by yourself can be nerve wracking and lonely. Jon Krakauer makes Chris McCandless seemed like a noble person who took the initiative to try to go out and live into the wild. The book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, is about a teenager named Chris McCandless leaving society and traveling to Alaska by himself with nothing else but a bag of rice and a small .22 caliber gun. Chris is heroic because he went to Alaska by himself without any knowledge of Alaska and didn’t know any of the dangers of Alaska. One way Krakauer make Chris seem noble is when Chris is about to enter Alaska he tells Gallien “ I’m goin’ to get on up there live off the land,go claim me a piece of the good life” (Krakauer 4).
Rhetorical Analysis of Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild ” Jon Krakauer ’s purpose in writing Into the Wild is to recount Chris McCandless’ journey, physical and metaphysical, from college in Georgia to his death in Alaska, through the use of factual, and anecdotal evidence. Krakauer uses factual evidence to establish that he is a trustworthy narrator capable of giving the reader a realistic scope on the events in the story. Jon uses anecdotal evidence to see into Chris’ psyche from the various perspectives found in the book’s excerpts, including how Jon understands the events.
This statement, made by Shaun Callarman, pertains to Chris McCandless’s trek into Alaska that ultimately led to death by starvation. Since the recovery of Chris’s body, there has been much speculation about the prevention of Chris’s death and the possible causes. Despite Callarman’s plea of craziness, there have been both eye-witness accounts showing that Chris was sane and prepared when leaving for the Alaskan wilderness, many natural
Even though Chris McCandless intentionally isolated himself from society, he still could have benefitted from support from others. “I am alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me” (Krakauer 12). Chris went into the wild with the mindset that being alone would help him reach his full potential, but in the end it was what killed him. Once he arrived in Alaska, he claimed to be dependent of others and only reached out for help when it was unfortunately too late.
Chris went off after he graduated college and “lived off the land”. Chris would travel to the coast of Mexico, the plains of Kansas, and the dunes of Nevada. Chris went on a final expedition to Alaska that cost him everything. In the following paragraphs I will fully detail how Chris was reckless, selfish, and naive. I will also explore how Chris tied his life to the beliefs of transcendentalism.
This passage shows Chris found what he was looking for in the wilderness. He found his true meaning of life and had the epiphany of what it meant to live a fulfilling life. This shows that Chris’s expedition ultimately led to him finding what it meant to truly be alive which relates back to Krakuauer’s argument that Chris did have legitimate reasons to go into the wilderness as he found what it truly meant to live life to the fullest. Furthermore, transcendentalist writers such as Tolstoy influenced Chris’s thinking on the world and what it should be like. Krakauer points to many instances of Chris’s inspiration from transcendental novels but none more apparent than what Chris finished reading and annotating near the end of his life.
We all have the thirst for adventure, no matter how dangerous the journey may be. The novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, tells us the story about a young man named Chris McCandless who had that thirst. Chris decided to take a trip to Alaska and live in the wild. Before McCandless left, he only packed a few things, causing him to be unprepared for this long treacherous adventure. Along the way he has met many people that were willing to help him get to his destination.
(Krakauer 170). This includes words that make the reader sympathize with Chris, due to the situation he was in. After all, who does not fear isolation and death? Krakauer intertwines the ideas of Chris’ isolation to make the readers commiserate with him, as proven by both of the quotes.
Takeyce Taylor Winter in Alaska is known to be extremely cold, so it is always warned that people should not travel by themselves especially when the temperature hits fifty degrees below zero. Even though an old timer from Sulpher Creek warned him, that he should not travel the Klondike alone, a man set off on a journey with his husky wolf dog to meet up with some friends. When he started the journey he was excited, and as a newcomer in the Yukon, the cold did not faze him at all. As he got further into the journey he realize that he was not protected enough to withstand the cold, but the anxiety he had within, he didn’t pay much attention to it. Not knowing how dangerous of a situation he was putting himself into, along with his dog, he was just focused on meeting up with his friends.
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
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.