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Rhetorical Devices In Family Happiness, By Jon Krakauer

494 Words2 Pages

Krakauer works to convince the reader that Chris wasn’t mentally ill or suicidal. He does this by using rhetorical devices to persuade the readers, one example of a rhetorical device he used is annotations Chris made in books he read along his journey to provide readers with insight into what Chris was going through. As well as using epigraphs at the beginning of chapters sets the tone for the grim ending to Chris's final and greatest adventure.
One specific rhetorical example in the book used by Jon Krakauer to convince readers that Chris wasn't suicidal was the annotation of the book “Family Happiness” by Tolstoy. McCandless highlighted the words, “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…” (Krakauer 169). This shows that Chris wasn't ready to leave Earth, because he can't live for others if he is dead. So he was ready to return to civilization, to provide for others that were at a disadvantage in life. …show more content…

Not only can we infer that Chris underwent a rebirth, but Krakauer illustrates it by taking a quote from McCandless's journal, “I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun.” (Krakauer 168). One way Krakauer tells us Chris was reborn was the way of taking life. Before his rebirth, he definitely did have regard for life, after an incident with a moose which caused Chris to waste a lot of the moose meet he reconsidered his way of hunting and decided that he would live off berries and plants because he didn't want to waste life again. This relates to Chris not being suicidal because Chris often describes not wanting to waste life, but if Chriis took his own life why would he say this not long before he died? Chris's value for life is a large reason for Chris not taking his own life because he viewed life as

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In conclusion, Krakauer proves Chris’ sanity by using rhetorical devices. Chris was not insane: he was an idealistic man who became a martyr for a different lifestyle, one of freedom and

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