Throughout Chapters 14-17, Jon Krakauer tends to walk in Chris’s footsteps, trying to mimic Chris’s difficult journey. I think the approach of alternating between Chris’s journey and his is very successful in that the audience is able to better visualize Chris’s journey. For instance, Krakauer writes about his relationship with his father and the striking similarities that this relationship has with Chris’s insufficient relationship with his father, Walt. This instance helps the reader understand that Chris was not the only individual who was deeply afflicted by his father’s action and decided to throw his relationship with his father in the waste bin. Rather, by describing Krakaeur’s own experiences as a youth, he wishes his readers to understand
Jon Krakauer is looking to fulfill a childhood ambition by finally climbing Mount Everest. After being assigned to write a brief piece about the mountain for Outside magazine, Krakauer manages to convince his bosses to fund a full-fledged expedition to the top. Bold. Krakauer is climbing with Adventure Consultants, a commercial group led by experienced climber Rob Hall. The journalist befriends several members of his group, such as Andy Harris, a guide, and Doug Hansen, a fellow client and postal worker back home.
Throughout Chapters Eight and Nine, Krakauer describes and begins to develop the other infamous four explorers stories whom Chris McCandless's story is similar to theirs. Krakauer also notices the lack of sympathy that the Alaskans felt for McCandless when they knew about his death. Many of them felt that he was a foolish child, who arrogantly wondered alone in the wilderness with no shelter or food to keep him alive. Krakauer made his own beliefs clear, that McCandless shared some characteristics and behaviors with these four adventurers, the only one who is truly like him is Everett Ruess, the other three men were a little similar because Carl McCunn was more naive, John Waterman was actually mentally insane and Gene Rosellini was a good
In the long run, Krakauer concludes that complete arrogance is in part to blame for the tragedy that takes place on Everest. Hall "bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the summit. " Their arrogance also caused their clients to lower their guard and not fully appreciate the risks of the expedition. Overall, Krakauer taught many different themes within the novel that everyone should
, it is important to note that the characters portrayed in this book are real people. The unique conditions and the weather of the setting forced the climbers to make choices that they could not have made in a different situation. The tough choices made by the climbers and the setting influenced the result of the story. Krakauer’s tone for the most part is respectful toward the guides and climbers, and he narrates as objectively as possible, while including his own concerns and doubts. His tone in the beginning expresses excitement and nervousness, but later turns into
This scenario raises many questions such as “How did he get there?” and “How did he die?”. These questions will cause the reader to continue with the book to receive answers. Another way Krakauer writes this book is using anecdotes from his own life and other people’s lives. An example of this is when Krakauer
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.
Krakauer places himself throughout the story to compare his experiences with McCandless’s. Although he does express his opinion frequently, Krakauer still allows the reader to create their own ruling of the wandering itinerant. Krakauer’s intricate sentence structure gives the reader
Like McCandless, Krakauer not only had a calling for nature, but a severed relationship with his father, always seemingly failing to meet his expectations (146). Towards the end of his expedition, Krakauer came to the realization that he was unprepared for the climb, “[carrying] no rope, no tent or bivouac gear, and no hardware to save [him]” (152). McCandless went into the bush unprepared with a run down map, and not enough food for survival, like Krakauer facing an ultimatum to give up on the goal he tried so hard for, or continue on. The difference between Krakauer and McCAndless is that Krakauer knew when to give up, but McCAndless continued during a weak state, ultimately bringing him to his death bed.
1. John Krakauer’s tone in the first couple of chapters of the book was of curiosity and sympathy. He was constantly wondering how Chris McCandless died and why he would put himself into that situation of extreme danger while also feeling sorrowful; almost as if he felt like Chris was in over his head and didn’t deserve what had happened to him. “Gallien offered to drive Alex all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go. ‘No, thanks anyway,’ Alex replied, ‘I’ll be fine with what I’ve got.”
In the novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, stated multiple connections between psychological distress and mountain climbers. An analysis of mountain climbers reveals that more than 85% of them share a dilemma of psychological distress due to the dreadful experiences in their life (website). For numerous of climbers, it may have been a temporary adventure and for others it is a committed task they are willing to actualized. The novel describes Chris McCandless as an idealistic and intelligent man that has his own beliefs in how human beings should live their life. A ruthless man who thought his only solution was to escape into the wild.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, displays a true story about a young man named Christopher McCandless, who left his whole life behind to experience a journey hitchhiking across the country, until he settles on a plan on going to Alaska. Christopher settled to go to Alaska, north of Mountain McKinley to experience the extremes of living in the wilderness with little to nothing of supplies. During Christopher time period at Emory University, he expresses the inspiration he gains from reading books and the understanding of the different idealistic thoughts from Tolstoy, Stegner, Thoreau, Jack London, and Pasternak. That influenced his mindset on wanting to experience the love for nature in a perspective of personal growth and mental development
Biographical information about the author: Jon Krakauer was born on April 12, 1954. He was the third from five children. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, but was originally from Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Mountain climbing in Corvallis, Oregon starting from the age of eight was a hobby he grew up doing.
For as long as anyone can remember, people have dreamed of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. During May of 1996, an expedition set out to Nepal to attempt a climb up Mt. Everest. By the end of this expedition to the top of Everest, many climbers lost their lives due to the brutal weather. In Jon Krakauer’s novel Into Thin Air, he takes readers through the story of the expedition, and he talks about the climbers who died. Among the list of the dead was a man named Doug Hansen.
Many things could go wrong climbing the highest mountain in the world with an elevation of 29,029 ft. 12 people died climbing Mount Everest. No is responsible for those death. The climbers had chosen to climb the mountain. In the novel it states, “Hall was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world” (Krakauer 35). This shows that a person is willing to pay to go through so much pain, risk and sickness to summit the top of the world.
