Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Throughout his novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer’s own perspectives shape the way he tells the story of Chris McCandless. Krakauer’s writing style allows for varying interpretations of the primary motivations of his protagonist, ranging from sympathizing with Chris to perceiving him as selfish. This is especially evident when Krakauer describes an interview with Walt McCandless about his son’s death seven weeks after Chris’ body was found. However, various interpretations of Krakauer’s work can lead to differing points of view on the subject. While Krakauer’s description of Walt’s emotional reaction to his son’s death could indicate Chris’ selfishness in abandoning his family, it could also serve to justify Chris’ decision to embark on his journey into the Alaskan wilderness.

Krakauer starts with Chris’s arrival in Alaska and his last contact, for example in Chapter one he said “Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fair when he spotted the hitchhiker …….. The hitchhiker swung his pack into the bed of the ford and introduced himself as Alex,” then Krakauer add flashbacks to Chris’s childhood, he mentioned in chapter twelve “Many aspects of Chris’s personality baffled his parents. He could be generous and caring to a fault……” This chaos that Krakauer used eventually becomes the backbone for the structure of the book.The fact that Krakauer started with Chris death show us that his purpose from writing this book was not to only think about Chris’s painful lose but actually to also think about how did he end up dead and did he achieve his goal in this journey. As this book develops, the nature and the content of Krakauer narrative forces us to ask deep questions about the reason of Chris’s journey which help us make the right judgments about Chris’s

It was not unexpected that Chris died. Although, it is indeed very disappointing to see that such an inspiring pilgrim did not survive his ¬¬¬inspiring journey. His strong will and his determination to live had saved his life many times such as when kayaking down the Colorado River or when nearly drowning in the Gulf of Mexico (Krakauer 5). It is sad to see that his obsession and craving for the natural world would eventually lead to his death. Innocent mistakes such as eating moldy seeds and not having a map handy killed a great soul. One of his final acts, before his death, was to take a picture of himself where he had spent most of his time under the Alaskan sky, Bus 142. His face looked meager, almost like that of a skeleton, yet he still

Life on the road is not suitable for everyone. Not everyone has the capabilities, personality, or intelligence to live their life on the road. In the novel Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer, the main character, Chris McCandless experiences discomfort on the road such as: starvation, dehydration, traveling on foot for many days, and many more. To live on the road is a personal decision that people, who are like McCandless, make. To begin, living on the road is risking your life on a game of chance.

In the beginning of the chapter the reader observes a postcard. Analyze the effect this postcard

By telling the story of Chris McCandless, Krakauer builds more of a convincing argument to support the idea that by taking matters into his own hands he can get rid of all worldly distractions by living how monks live. This gives him more control than Gladwell does to support his reasoning, that individuals control their own destiny and so Krakauer better answers the question, how much of what happens in our life do we have control. Chris gets rid of all his belongings that doesn't help him in the long run and sets out on a new adventure, he was on the road for a long time. In the outliers it talks about how there is a school full of talented kids that practice endless amounts of hours they practice. You know what they say, practice makes perfect.

Although he died, Chris wasn’t like the others according to Krakauer. Chris was well educated and could have had all the success; but, because he was fed up with society and materialistic things he decided to go a different path and into the wild. McCandless thought that the only way to experience life was to get away from everything and be in touch with nature so, that's what he did. Krakauer compares Chris to others who have gone through the similar situation of going into the wild. McCandless was “Like Rosellini and Waterman, McCandless was a seeker and had an impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature. Like Waterman and McCunn, he displayed a staggering paucity of common sense. But unlike Waterman, McCandless wasn’t mentally ill. And unlike McCunn, he didn’t go into the bush assuming someone would automatically appear to save his bacon before he came to grief.”(Krakauer). Throughout the story it also seems like Krakauer kind of sees himself through McCandless because it gives himself something to compare

I believe Chris had started this journey in order to both espouse a minimalistic lifestyle and escape from his parents. Chris was probably exhausted of living his life as someone who was granted all these objects; he wanted to live in nature, with nature. Chris was said to have lived as a monk during his final year at Emory, with “little more than a thin mattress on the floor, milk crates, and a table” (Krakauer 22). After completing his undergraduate degree at Emory University, Chris decided that in order to be “emancipated from the world of abstraction and security and material excess,” he was going to travel all the way to Alaska. Chris once had said that he “would no longer give or accept gifts” (Krakauer 20), mainly because he did not

Krakauer writes that he believed himself to be a lot like Chris in some aspects. He presents Chris throughout the book in a positive way but also fairly includes statements from other people who do not share his same opinion about Chris. Krakauer writes that Chris “wasn’t incompetent” (Krakauer 52). He believed that Chris would not have made it for as long as he did if he was incompetent. Like Timothy, Chris appealed to transcendentalism and Chris was huge on not wanting to have materialistic things, however, he was smart enough to know that he had to get a job and earn money in order to make it on his journey to Alaska to find a deeper connection in nature. A lot of people wrote that Chris had touched their lives and that they would always remember him, but not everyone felt that way. Krakauer even wrote that some people heaped harsh criticism on him for “glorifying what some thought was a foolish, pointless death.” (Krakauer 50). Others said that Chris was stupid and that if he would’ve survived he would have just been lucky and it would not have made him a better human. Because Krakauer included these opinions even though he disagreed, he was honest and fair in how he portrayed Chris

Into the Wild, a book written by Jon Krakauer. Chris McCandless, the son of wealthy parents graduates from Emory University as a top student and athlete. Instead of embarking on a profitable career he choses to rid himself from all positions and money and take of on a journey that leads to perishing in the Alaskan wild. As an outcast to society, he didn’t seek nor needed what we call to be “average.” Chris saw what most people didn’t see, the beauty of nature. He had a deeper view of life. He decided to go to the wild and leave everything behind to find happiness. Jon Krakauer asserts that Chris is a pilgrim, which I wholeheartedly agree. There are different types, but for the most passionate – the ones we locals call pilgrims – it is a quasi-religious thing. They idealise McCandless. Some of the stuff they write in the journals [at the bus] is hair-raising (Alaska Observers, 2016).

Into the Wild, is a spiritual quest about Christopher McCandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp, dropping out of society and finding his sense of adventure. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” (Krakauer 57) In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher McCandless as self-reliant and reckless.

While reading Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, my opinion on Chris McCandless’ feelings when he died would constantly shift. At times I would be certain that he was happy as he took his last breath, but with the next passage my opinion would do a complete one-eighty. With every chapter, the clues revealed McCandless’ mental state to be increasingly complex. Although my views were inconsistent for the majority of the book, by the end I had reached a conclusion: Christopher McCandless was unhappy in his passing.

Jon Krakauer 's novel “Into the wild”, Is a story about a young man named Christopher McCandless or “Alex Supertramp” who went on a self discovering odyssey in which he had traveled around the U.S. The story surrounds Chris and his travels and what he had done at the time, leading to his death in August 1992. Thus the story takes a direction in the viewpoints of the people Alex has come across through in his travels. It speaks about what he had done at the time of his journey before he had gone to Alaska and was last heard of. The book captures a sort of sympathetic essence to it. It also leaves so many questions unanswered towards Alex story. Furthermore, in my research project I will be discussing, rather asking the really question “Why did Chris McCandless head towards Alaska?”I will be discussing the leading towards his departure, his relationship with his family and other people who had gone thru the same thing as Alex. With this I will try to come up with the answer that makes sense. In the following essay, I will put in my thoughts on how and why Chris did what he did, if it was so the type of self-discovery journey he had to go thru, or rather the question, what drove him to the self-discovering journey in the first place?

We all have three different faces, the one we show our close ones, the one we show to strangers, and the one we present to ourselves. In Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Chris acts different with different people, when he is with his family he is cold to them and doesn’t like to spend time with them or with strangers he outing and ready to do everything but the face that is most true to himself is the one that he only knows of. Chris’s true-self shows signs of multiple mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. Chris leaves his old life behind to take on the identity of Alex Supertramp. As Alex, he spends his time on the road exploring.

On June 13, 1971, the New York Times headline read, “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement”. Days earlier, Daniel Ellsberg provided the newspaper with excerpts from a 7,000-page classified study that became known as the Pentagon Papers. Just over 20 years later, moose hunters found the decaying remains of an adventurer in the Alaskan wilderness. The remains were concluded to be those of Chris McCandless, an affluent 20-something from Virginia, who wound up dead following his two-year long self-righteous odyssey. Author Jon Krakauer wrote an article on McCandless for Outside magazine, which later disseminated into a novel titled Into the Wild. At a glance, McCandless and Ellsberg may seem like polar