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Quests In Into The Wild, By John Krakaur

180 Words1 Pages
American literature consists of quests, these quests help define American culture by helping the reader relate to the characters through deep characterization and personal accounts of their life and the emotions associated with them. In Into the Wild by John Krakaur, he gives a personal account of a quest, his quest consist of him trying to climb the Devil’s Thumb, which is a mountain in the Alaskan wilderness. The reason his journey is considered a quest is because he finds a form of self knowledge during his expedition. He stated “ I got it into my head to climb a mountain called the Devil’s Thumb” which is the task he has planned to do, which he will ultimately fail at. Next he states “ I had convinced myself for many months that I didn’t
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Krakauer describes his attempts at climbing the Devil’s Thumb when he was 23 years old and compares it to McCandless. The credibility it provides is the insight and thoughts that McCandless might have had on his odyssey as a young man finishing his own greatest achievement. To Krakauer, “the Devil’s Thumb was the same as medical school, only different” (Krakauer 150). To McCandless, it is likely his adventure in Alaska was the fulfillment he needed after following his parents’ wish of finishing college. Both Krakauer and McCandless had problems with their father’s falsehood and losing the innocence that they once had.

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1138 Words | 5 Pages

Into the Wild recounts the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who tries to escape from society in order to find himself. Fascinated by nature, Chris gives up most of his material possessions to hitchhike around the western United States. Interestingly enough, he severs all ties with his family and believes that he can find happiness within himself, yet makes connections with several people along his journal. Fueled by the ideology of writers such as Tolstoy, London, and Thoreau, Chris camps alone in the Alaskan wild to find a purer version of himself until his death. Throughout Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer develops the idea that Chris McCandless’ quest for solitude is essential to obtain true freedom; however, Chris ultimately realizes

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321 Words | 2 Pages

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. “

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229 Words | 1 Pages

Chapters 10 and 11 of Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, show many examples of things Chris did when he was younger foreshadowing his behavior and actions as an adult. One thing that may have hinted to what Chris would do with his adult life was his love for the outdoors. “On weekends and when school was out, the family took to the road. ”(107) “Chris loved those trips, the longer the better.

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437 Words | 2 Pages

The compelling novel Into The Wild, by American Journalist Jon Krauker is an inspirational and deep look inside the mind and life of a beloved young adventure Chris McCandless. Krauker himself was once a adventure, who also faced many obstacles throught his endevers. Krauker uses Retorical Stratieges in Into The Wild to show readers that know matter the outcome of the adventure, its the lessons of perseverance and determination that is ones biggest success. Chris McCandless is seen by many as careless, naive, and reckless. Krauker however viewed Chris as brave and just being young.

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440 Words | 2 Pages

Many people have conflicting thoughts and beliefs about Christopher McCandless’ trek through the Alaskan wilderness. There is, however, one point to be made about his decision. Pleasure without conscience is profoundly the social sin McCandless commits, therefore leading to his eventual “no-contact” with his family. This social sin was the catalyst for his unfortunate demise in Alaska. Although McCandless’ journey was undoubtedly courageous, his decision to depart from all contact with his loved ones, including his sister, Carine McCandless, who he was extremely close with, was considerably uncaring of him.

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2776 Words | 12 Pages

Many people thought McCandless' unplanned journey in the wild was a suicidal attempt and that McCandless was suicidal. I don’t think this was the case, I think he went into the wild to explore and clear his head from finding out about his fathers passing. I believe he didn’t want to die, however he knew he would, especially since he was starving and there was a note saying he needed help laying right next to him. Krakauer also had father issues like McCandless and wanted to climb mountains as well, one of them being Devil's Thumb. It sounds like it would be a very dangerous hike to get to the top, just based on the name.

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1668 Words | 7 Pages

Into the Wild Journals Passage: “S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is NO JOKE. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening.

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893 Words | 4 Pages

Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is a non-fiction book based on the real-life story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who leaves his comfortable life behind to live in the wilderness of Alaska. The book is a fascinating exploration of McCandless's motivations and the reasons behind his decision to abandon society and embrace the wilderness. One of the key themes in the book is the tension between the desire for freedom and the need for human connection. Throughout the book, Krakauer explores how McCandless's desire for freedom and independence led him to reject the traditional trappings of society, including money, possessions, and even his own name.

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300 Words | 2 Pages

Chapters 14 & 15 explained Krakauer’s personal expedition to Devil’s Thumb. I learned a lot about Krakauer’s personal life and the factors contributing to his journey. After reading his personal experience, I understood his compassion for Chris McCandless 's life and journey and why he wrote Into The Wild. Krakauer explains how he had such devotion to climb Devil’s Thumb, but I interpreted this as him being type of guy who sets his mind to a task and then is extremely driven to accomplish it.

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899 Words | 4 Pages

The adventure of the wilderness is something that is occurring throughout very many different wishes. He just wanted to live the dream he wanted to pursue in the adventure of catching prey and surviving in the wilderness on its own. Applies to McCandless journey in a few ways of his childhood. He then realized how all the factors in different reasoning in the entire prompt and wilderness.

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211 Words | 1 Pages

Narrative Perspective Sebold writes her novel The Lovely Bones in first person perspective to portray the story of the protagonist, Susie. The protagonist tells the story of how she was murdered and what happened in her point of view: “My murderer was a man from my neighbourhood.” (page 2) Being written in first person perspective, it impacts the text because all the ideas are explored in one person’s point of view, Susie’s. This creates a lot of bias instantly as obviously Susie is angry about being killed and only her side of the story is told, as well as because we are made to feel sympathy for her as shes the victim. She is speaking from heaven, she sees her happy family devastated by her death, “After a few days in heaven…” This is significant

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748 Words | 3 Pages

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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806 Words | 4 Pages

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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1754 Words | 8 Pages

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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