Prejudice And Bias In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

"We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we appeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational." - T. S. Eliot Personal bias is a strong motivator, whether we are aware of it or not. It can change the way we view a situation or event, just because of what we choose to pay attention to. For example, an ex-athlete may retell a story of them in their "glory days" and decide to make it more dramatic than the real situation by adding or leaving out possible story-altering details just to get a more positive reaction out of those who are being told the story. Similarly, Krakauer dramatizes

In chapters 14 and 15, Krakauer embarks on multiple solo journeys in harsh climates. To get his audience to believe what he experienced, Krakauer attempts to immerse the reader using devices such as simile, repetition, and metaphor. In chapter 14, Krakauer embarks on his adventure in the Devil’s Thumb. As he walked through the snow, he uses a simile: "Staggering slowly up the glacier beneath my overloaded pack, bearing this ridiculous metal cross, I felt like an odd sort of penitente" (138). Here, Krakauer was struggling to carry all the gear that he had brought with him and compared himself to a "penitente," which is a Spanish-American religion that practices self-whipping and penitential torture. This comparison illustrates Krakauer in a light that readers will likely associate with Jesus carrying his own cross prior to his crucifixion and metaphorically raises Krakauer on a higher pedestal. Additionally, Krakauer’s use of repetition sheds a similar light on him. As he scaled the Devil’s Thumb, "I’d fallen into a slow, hypnotic rhythm—swing, swing; kick, kick; swing, swing; kick, kick—when my left ice ax slammed into a slab of diorite a few inches beneath the rime" (143). Here, Krakauer demonstrates how monotonous the practice of climbing is and how effortless it is to get lost in the rhythm, making sudden issues more perilous than necessary if he had been on alert throughout the climb. The sudden change in pace is a surprise to the reader, even in the text, where suspense is progressively built. This sticky situation demonstrates Krakauer’s character and shows his resilience in dire situations. And in chapter 15, as Krakauer describes his ailing father, "His eyes were wild. Flashing in defiance one moment, in uncomprehending terror the next, they rolled far back in their sockets, giving a clear and chilling