Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

For years, man and nature have coexisted in harmony, but in recent years, man and nature have become increasingly disconnected, as air conditioning, GMO’s, and other innovations have been made to combat the natural way of life. Some people, such as Christopher McCandless, wish to be one with nature again. As his journey into the Alaskan wilderness proved, nature and man have a glorious and close, but sometimes the unforgiving and hostile relationship, as some men admire nature, but nature is not forgiving of simple mistakes as some minor misdoings can seal one’s fate. This is proven in Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, as nature was unforgiving of Christopher’s mistakes while attempting to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. This relationship

In a journal entry, McCandless writes “’EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEAPORDY.’” (qtd Krakauer 189). This proves that nature can be hostile because McCandless made the mistake of eating too little, as Krakauer later states “He was hungry, his meager diet had pared his body down to a feral scrawn of gristle and bone…” (Krakauer 189). Chris McCandless usually only ate squirrels or other small game in the wilderness, which later proved to be too little for the amount of activity that he exerted on a daily basis. Nature was hostile to Chris, as he later died of starvation from not eating enough to support his lifestyle. He did, however, kill a moose, but Chris was “rebuking himself for the waste of the moose…” (Krakauer 168). The moose was wasted only because Chris did not know how to preserve the meat. Krakauer even states “Alaskan hunters know that the easiest way to preserve meat in the bush is to slice it into thin strips and then air-dry it…But McCandless…relied on the advice of hunters he’d consulted in South Dakota, who advised him to smoke the meat…” (Krakauer 166). This proved futile because the meat soon rotted and became unsafe for consumption, which made Chris feel guilty. This proves that nature can be hostile because

When speaking about nature, Muir says “the effect is indescribably glorious” (Muir). Muir is describing the relationship between man and nature in this because he is describing his encounters with nature during his Alaskan excursion, as this text is nonfiction. Muir also states “But it is in the darkest nights when storms are blowing and the waves are phosphorescent that the most impressive displays are made” (Muir). This quote says that in the darkest of nights, like in times of struggle, nature is the most beautiful. Muir also states “deep calling unto deep, glacier to glacier, from fjord to fjord over all the wonderful bay” (Muir). Thisi quote uses the pairs of words to create the illusion of icebergs crashing to celebrate the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness. This shows the beauty of the relationship between man and nature because the beauty of nature is being celebrated in this quote. Muir continues to discuss the “wild auroral splendor” (Muir) of the Alaskan wilderness in his passage, which proves that the connection between man and nature is intimate because nature is beautiful and people like John Muir, Jack London, Ralph Walden Emerson, and Chris McCandless celebrate this beauty by becoming one with nature and living off of the