Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a biography about the life of Christopher Johnson McCandless. Christopher McCandless hitchhiked to Alaska alone in April 1992. He burned any knowns of his identity including all his money and abandoned his car. He did not prepare at all for his trek and was found dead four months after he had disappeared in a bus he was staying in. Chris McCandless constructs identity through his actions, interests, values and beliefs.

​In the novel Into The Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless departs on a dangerous journey in order to fulfill his dreams. Leaving his past behind, McCandless travels across the country and eventually ends his journey in Alaska. McCandless exhibits bravery and kindness by performing jeopardous tasks and building friendships along the way.

“In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson Mcandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself.” Into The Wild is a book about a young man who travels across some of the most unforgiving terrain to find his place in life. He travels through the tough Alaskan landscape running from Christopher Johnson Mcandless, and embracing the new life that is slowly coming to him. As Chris runs away from his family, and travels along vast areas of terrain, he makes a

Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is a memoir about how living in the wilderness and how Chris McCandless lived nearly two years in the wild. Throughout the novel, Krakauer relates Chris’ adventures to his own experience in mountain climbing and living on his own. This is not your typical memoir where the author tells a story about their lives. Jon Krakauer is not the main character; however he tells a story of this boy who leaves his well-developed family for no apparent reason. But not only does he tell Chris’ story, he tells his own by fusing them altogether.

John Krakauer’s novel Into The Wild, tells the story of a young man who intends to disappear from society, and contains numerous relatable themes. Although difficult for many to understand his reasoning in doing so, Krakauer intends to demonstrate to readers the positives and negatives of such an experience. Upon thorough examination of this piece of writing, it is possible to truly gain a vast amount of self-knowledge in relation to the text. A tale full of invitations to face ourselves, John Krakauer’s Into The Wild prompts me to examine myself in respect to concepts of great significance such as materialism, conformity, and intimacy.

“If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.” (Richard M. Nixon). In his investigative biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, expresses that even though young people can be ignorant and take treacherous risks, these can be used as knowledge enhancers and can be life changers.

“Happiness is only real, when shared.” - Jon Krakauer Into the wild. Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild told the story of Chris McCandless. Chris escaped reality and went to go live off the land in Alaska, hoping to live a simpler life. In the novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless shared a similar philosophy with Jack London, as they both have a strong passion for Alaska, they both appreciated they beauty of nature, and both wanted to be reborn.

What is it that we find crazy about those who have the courage to do what we won’t? In the compelling novel “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer the character and intelligence of the youth in men is questioned. Through the pieced together 200 page novel we are introduced to Christopher Johnson McCandless also known as “Alex Supertramp”. A ripe 24 years of age he chose to question our reality and his meaning of life that is given to us by hitchhiking across America to the Alaskan wilderness, where after four months in the last frontier he is found dead. Krakauer throughout the novel shows that although some admire what McCandless did, others found his final journey “reckless” and “crazy”. Krakauer goes to explain this claim through interviews of those who have encountered McCandless on his adventure and through those who got to know his story.

Imagine being stuck in the wild, on the verge of dying from either starvation or freezing to death. There are not enough resources, not enough food, all you have left is to hope. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, is a story written of a man named Chris McCandless who overall did not like his life. He thought society corrupted his dreams that he previously set, and he wanted to get away from all of societies norms. Chris wanted to achieve his dream, he wanted a “thrill” in his life, so, Chris decided to go out into the wild and be a free man. In the process he left behind his family who worried everyday having no notion of his whereabouts. Chris was without a doubt , a very controversial/confusing person. People who have heard his story have reason to believe that he was a foolish, stupid kid who got lost into the wild and got himself killed. However, due to Chris' grit, his ability to look deep inside himself to bring out the real him, and his love of nature are all exceptional. Chris' journey into the threatening Alaskan wilderness was not one of stupidity, but one of self determination and courageousness.

In April of 1992, a young man of the age of twenty-four, later determined to be Chris McCandless ' body, was discovered in an old Fairbanks bus in the Alaskan bush. Four years after his death, Jon Krakauer wrote a novel titled Into The Wild, the book traced McCandless 's journey around much of the United States, across the West side of Canada, and even down to the boarder of Mexico. Over the many years since his death, speculations have arisen about how death was brought upon him. Most believe starvation was the only reason, but with extensive research Jon Krakauer discovered another theory, that a substance in the seeds that Chris McCandless was ingesting was a contributing factor to his death. Even with this conclusion many around the world despise Chris for his being naive and unprepared when walking into the wild. While others believe he was brave for following his dreams and never letting anyone talk him out of his plans. Chris McCandless was an adventurer who was brave enough to never back down, but in the end his luck turned for the worst and was misfortunate enough to have ate the wrong type of food. McCandless was an inspiration and a lesson to people of all ages, that dreams aren 't meant to be taken lightly and even with possible risks they should be followed. Jon Krakauer 's book tells a marvelous story of a young man who left behind the outside world to do what he loved the most.

Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he

“On the northern margin of the Alaska Range, just before the hulking ramparts of Mt. McKinley and its satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain, a series of lesser ridges, known as the Outer Range, sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed”(Krakauer 9). Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is true story based around Chris Mccandless. Chris ultimilty left normal society and everything he owned to go on a road trip around the country and end up in Alaska. Here in Alaska he meet his end in the harsh winter. In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless believes that self-reliance is key to survival, while Ralph Waldo Emerson also believes this based on his work “Self-Reliance”.

The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer is a story about a man by the name of Chris McCandless. He is a man who grew up in a DC suburb, graduated college and decides to change the ways of his life. He journeys across the country, and finds his way to Alaska. His means are to leave the material lifestyle and become at one with nature. During Chris’s adventure he seems to neglect all communication with his family and over look the fact that they care about his health and future.

Christopher McCandless may be one of the most intriguing characters in nonfiction literature. In Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless gives up all of his worldly possessions in order to move to Alaska and travel alone into the wilderness. Chris seemed to lead a very privileged life, as he came from a fairly well off family. Chris was intelligent, having graduated from Emory University with a degree in anthropology and history. There is much ambiguity as to why Chris suddenly decides to leave his family behind and travel by himself -- although it is clear that Chris’s initial belief was that the best way to live life was alone, surrounded by nature. The overarching question is whether Chris intentionally tried to kill himself when he traveled alone into the heart of Alaska. Those who believe he did contend that he did not make enough of an effort to extract himself from the negative situations in which he found himself. They argue that Chris felt that he was betrayed by his father, and that he tries to kill himself in order to get away from his family as a whole. Yet Chris McCandless did not in fact have a death wish, and his death was the result of his miscalculating how difficult living in the wild would actually be. This resulted from Chris’s excessive pride. His main motivation to go into the wild was to run far away from his family -- who by blinding him, indirectly caused him to miscalculate.

The novel Into the Wild is a nonfiction novel published by Jon Krakauer who investigated the life and death of a free spirited individual named Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a recent Emory University graduate who sought to suck the marrow out of life through an independent experience in nature and purposely sought to this experience in the rawest form of supplies. He was found dead in August of 1992 in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. For the sake of his journey, he purposely didn't bring an adequate amount of food or supplies.   Consequently, those who read of his actions wonder what evoked him to live the way he