How Does Krakauer Use Narrative Techniques In Into The Wild

In the book Into The Wild, the author John Krakauer uses the techniques of narrative digression and the inclusion of outside documents to support his argument that Chris McCandless was not mentally ill or suicidal and had legitimate reasons to go into the wild.

John Krakauer's use of narrative digression in chapters eight and nine supports his argument about Chris’s mental sanity and his will to live by comparing and contrasting Chris to other adventures and explorers that had a similar fate. Krakauer compares Chris to Carl McCunn a photographer that ultimately died of starvation because he ran out of food. Krakauer uses this parallel to explain the similarities that meet the eye of these two men, however, Krakauer refutes this idea with

The author uses this to support the idea that Chris didn’t want to die as he was mentally prepared to survive on his own and he had the mental capacity to handle it. This is enforced by Chris’s action to buy a book about edible plants and study it vigorously before trekking into the wilderness. Furthermore reinforcing the argument that Chris was fully capable of what he was going to face and did not want to die as he prepared greatly. In addition, Krakauer uses another man by the name of Everett Ruess to show someone who was most similar to Chris and his motives. Ruess was an educated young man fascinated by the wild much like Chris. Krakauer uses Ruess as a figure in history most similar to Chris due to his motives for exploration. Krakauer uses an analogy of monks to describe the similarities of the two young men: “Reading of these monks, one is moved by their courage, their reckless innocence, and the urgency of their desire” (Krakauer 97). The author uses these motives and ideas of the monks as similarities of Chris and Ruess, these ideas show the spiritual push that led the two young men on their adventures into the unknown.

For example, Krakauer looked into what Chris had left behind in the bus where Chris had his final thoughts. Krakauer finds Chris’s journal which gives insight into Chris’s motives. In the journal, McCandless wrote, “I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun” (Krakauer 168). 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. Krakauer ultimately pointed to an underlined passage in Tolstoy’s Family Happiness that stated, “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others” (Krakauer 169). This passage truly shows what Chris found in the wild and his