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Into The Wild Chapter 14 Analysis

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In chapters 14 and 15 of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer becomes more than just an investigator or a narrator, he becomes a character. He tells his story of climbing the Devils Thumb, which exposes the similarities between himself and McCandless. This aids to his understanding of McCandless’s motivations, without ever meeting him, due to the parallels in their personalities and family issues. Chapter 14 is devoted to Krakauer’s story about his youthful love for mountain climbing. At age 23, he plans to do a dangerous climb on the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska alone. “[…] 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.
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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.

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The idea of stepping off the grid and away from modern society to be in the wilderness was an idea that McCandless also shared with Krakauer and Thoreau. McCandless took this idea to an extreme degree, getting rid of his map so that he could live totally off the grid and apart from society. Although Thoreau shared this value he did not take this idea to the same level, instead he enjoyed smaller scale wilderness trips. In the epigraph, Thoreau states, “It can never become familiar, you are lost the moment you set out,” which shows his free-spiritedness that once he is out in the world he is lost in nature as he becomes detached from traditional societal life. Additionally in this chapter, as Krakauer shares his experience climbing the Devil Thumb he shares, “Those mountains heralded the approach of my desideratum (ITW 137).”

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Jon Krakauer has a high amount of respect for Christopher J. McCandless; not only because they have many similarities, but because McCandless searched deep for the meaning of life and did as he pleased. In the book, “Into The Wild,” Krakauer not only tells the story of McCandless, but also of his own life, and how he has been shaped into his own. Krakauer had a deep love for the wild, just as Chris did. Though, the two did not do the same things, they both pursued their passions which made it easier for Krakauer to relate to Chris. Once climbing a mountain, Krakauer had ran into trouble, just as Chris did on his journey.

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In the book “Into the Wild” written by Jon Krakauer, the tragedy about a man named Christopher McCandless is explained. Chris grew up with a love for nature. As he got older he took more and more trips and eventually moved to Alaska to live off the land. While he was in Alaska, he changed his name to Alex and was living a happy life. Soon his food supply was running short and he became sick and has said to have died due to starvation.

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Into the Wild is a true story of Christopher McCandless, a college graduate who was found dead in the Alaskan wilderness. After graduating with honors from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, he let his parents think he was interested in law school. Instead, he anonymously donated $25,000 of his savings to OXFAM America, abandoned most of his belongings, changed his name, and invented a whole new life for himself. He never contacts any of his family or friends ever again. No one had any idea where he was or what had become of him until his remains turned up in Alaska in 1992.

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Into the Wild Christopher McCandless is a son of wealthy parents which were graduates from Emory University as a top student and athlete. Chris McCandless was seeking into the wilderness to show people he can really do it. Krakauer’s statement was proven to show his actions and support his courageous from living in the wilderness. McCandless wanted to walk to Alaska to start his journey on the hike. His adventure lasted 113 days in the wilderness which turned into something that shouldn’t have happened.

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Anyone can have a story in their life and can turn it into a book. Jon Krakauer wrote Into the Wild on what happened to Christopher McCandless and turned his story into a novel. Jon Krakauer´s structure his novel to let the reader have their own opinions on Christopher McCandless by stating the book is on his bias viewpoint, putting it in non-chronological order, and wrote about his own background life story, which is all important to strengthen Krakauer 's motive of writing his book. Into the Wild, focuses on the young individual named Christopher McCandless who hitchhiked to Alaska. Along the way, in his journey, he met new people and traveled in many places.

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Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on an adventure across the U.S. Chris lived for adventure, and sadly met his demise in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris’ death brought about a large debate as to whether Chris was insane or simply idealistic. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to prove Chris’ sanity and soundly completes that task by using rhetorical devices to persuade his audience. Throughout the book, Krakauer uses ethos to develop Chris’ credibility by providing examples of people who are similar to him. For example, Krakauer provides multiple examples of people who were very similar to Chris, such as Everett Ruess.

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Romanticism was a movement during the late 18th century that encouraged imagination, exploration, individualism, and emotion. From it derived Transcendentalism, one of the first movements to originate from America and which bore the first American philosophers. These movements are often present in many pieces of American literature and this is no exception in Jon Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild. The historic account retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless, who adopts the pseudonym Alexander Supertramp and takes to the road, only to die of starvation in Alaska. On the surface it appears to be cautionary tale, but Krakauer literally retraces McCandless’ steps, talking to the people who Chris spoke with and even traveling to Chris’ final resting place.

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However, Jon Krakauer proves his argument that McCandless was not arrogant, foolish, antisocial, or crazy by giving examples of other young men who were similar to McCandless to show that his journey wasn’t unprecedented. He also proves that McCandless wasn’t antisocial because he developed personal relationships with Ronald Franz, Wayne Westerberg, and Jan Burres in such a short amount of time and explaining the many times that McCandless respected the Alaskan Bush. Krakauer admits that McCandless may have suffered from hubris; he was still a victim of circumstances. Krakauer proves that McCandless had an intrinsic motivation to discover and that he wasn’t alone because Krakauer too ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was younger. The Alaskan Bush is a very difficult place to survive if one isn’t prepared for many challenges such as hunting for food or staying warm in the frost ridden

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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.

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