Hand in Hand
“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.” (Leo Tolstoy’s “Family Happiness”). Jon Krakauer's story influences the way we perceive Chris. The manner in which it was written was ingenous. Jon leads us away from liking Chris, but then slowly without realizing it, we start sympathizing with him. At the end of the book, we find ourselves at a crossroads of, do we actually feel sorry for Chris, as if he were a brother or sister; someone who meant something to us, or are we just being the kind hearted soul we were brought up to be?
In the book, Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer claims that Chris McCandless is misunderstood. People weren’t able to empathize with his choices. Krakauer establishes this notion by inputting his own story and comparing himself to Chris. Peter Christian’s Criticism of McCandless is a provocative essay stating that Chris is a whack job, his story is completely pointless and not worth the time it takes to read. Peter Christian is right when he states, “There was nothing heroic or even mysterious about what Chris
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We can only think that this is how Chris felt when he “walked into the wild” (Krakauer 69). Instead of the nonsense of everyday life, Jon let himself focus on one goal: survival. Both Chris and Jon packed up and left a comfortable life to seek adventure just beyond their reach. They both had issues with their fathers. The difference between their stories is that Jon returned to his life, whereas Chris lost his. “He never understood that the Devil’s Thumb was the same as medical school, only different” (Krakauer 150). On this journey, Jon realized that his father wasn’t just being hard on him so he could also become a doctor, but rather achieve success at his own