Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Comparison

The author skillfully uses literary techniques to convey his purpose of giving life to a man on an extraordinary path that led to his eventual demise and truthfully telling the somber story of Christopher McCandless. Krakauer enhances the story by using irony to establish Chris’s unique personality. The author also uses Characterization the give details about Chris’s lifestyle and his choices that affect his journey. Another literary element Krakauer uses is theme. The many themes in the story attract a diverse audience. Krakauer’s telling is world famous for being the truest, and most heart-felt account of Christopher McCandless’s life. The use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme help convey the authors

Jon Krakauer diverges from the story of McCandless’s journey, to inform the readers how all of the other adventures that occurred were similar. He wanted to show how other people were in his situation, that wanted to conquer the world with what the others had with them.

Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India once said, “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if we seek them with our eyes open” (Nehru). In the book Into the Wild Jon Krakauer introduces the reader to Christopher McCandless’s, a young man from California with a heart yearning for adventure and a head beyond his years. The reader learns there is no one quite like Chris McCandless, but many people have sought out to seek the “more” from life. Jon Krakauer uses pathos and quirky but also thrilling anecdotes throughout Into the Wild to separate how Chris McCandless perceived himself and how others perceived him.

Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, narrates the life of adventurer and free spirit Christopher McCandless, who died August 1992 in the Alaskan wilderness; however, his journey still remains relevant in today’s pop culture due to the unresolved controversy of whether he is a saintly role model or hubristic fool. Krakauer openly states that he “won’t claim to be an impartial biographer” (Author’s Note) due to the parallels he struck with McCandless, and provides a more idealistic approach to the biography. By having this biased point of view, Krakauer readily attracts many critics such as Craig Medred, who wrote the article The Beatification of Chris McCandless: From Thieving Poacher into Saint, which discredits Krakauer’s legitimacy and emphasizes McCandless’s narcissistic personality and naïve nature. He has also sparked many questions including why McCandless’s story is so significant, which writer Laura Moss tries to answer in Why Are We Still Talking about Chris McCandless?. While it is clear that McCandless’s story has affected every reader due to its many interpretations, two distinct sides form: the avid romantics and their counterpart, the pessimistic realists, which provokes the question of which argument is more valid.

Jon Krakauer admires Chris McCandless for his adventurous personality. Chris stated “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure” pg 56-57. Krakauer recognized McCandless’s urge to take initiative to change his situation and fill his void of darkness with light. In this case McCandless light was leaving everything behind , and taking a pilgrimage across the country to experience new things.

In my opinion I believe the authors main point in this essay was to vindicate anything that Chris McCandless did in his life. When reading I could definitely sense Krakauers natural liking for McCandless. He was sympathetic to McCandless, based on Krakauers sense of a shared experience in their youth and up until McCandless eventual death and Krakauers perceived near death experience on the Devils Thumb.

From the beginning of the novel, the reader gathers how McCandless was an independent man who defied odds and went against society. We soon learn how Krakauer was alike. Krakauer understood the hardships and troubles of McCandless’ journey. At a young age, Krakauer planned to make the treacherous ascent of ‘Devil’s Thumb’. He had massive motivation; not a single man had completed the climb before, which only made him want to do it more. Over the time of his travels, he had met many people along his way. Various short and temporary relationships that only

By providing more insight into his own background, Krakauer shows the root of his empathy for Chris, this empathy is clearly shown in chapter fifteen: “From elementary school through high school, my siblings and I hectored to excel in every class, to win medals in science fairs, to be princes of the prom, to win election to student government” (148). Krakauer outlines a description of his pressured homelife as a youth, mirroring McCandless and his rocky relationship with his parents. His reflection of McCandless shows that Krakauer understands Chris’s mindset on a deeper level than that of a sympathetic outdoorsman with a taste for the extreme, Krakauer can directly empathise with McCandless. Krakauer’s authority is also present when he details his lack of equipment, “I didn’t have a watch, but what seemed like in a very short time, I was on the distinctive final ice field” (153). Krakauer was guided by ambition and as a result left out pieces of equipment on his climb of self discovery.

McCandless believed that one should “make each day a new horizon” (Krakauer 789495263). By the same token, McCandless also believed that “happiness only real when shared” (Krakauer 24572567). These loose, telescopic, declarative aphorisms are meant to make readers stop and consider these words. Krakauer tries to illustrate to readers that McCandless was a nonconformist who felt deeply and believed everyone should do something meaningful with the life they lead. By inserting these aphorisms, Krakauer means to not only display McCandless’s intelligent and poignant mind, but to also show that ideas repeated throughout time, such as the importance of companionship and making the most of one’s life, were ideas that greatly impacted who McCandless as a person.

In today’s superficial world, deceptions are commonplace and require one to pry the facts from them. Regardless of one’s status, lack of honesty affects everyone. Henry David Thoreau wrote that “rather than love, than money, than fame,” he wanted the truth. In his book “Into The Wild,” Jon Krakauer writes of a young, adventurous, college student named Christopher McCandless. Thoreau and McCandless share similar ideas concerning one’s place in the world and human relationships with nature. Chris McCandless identified with Thoreau's quote because he valued the truth over love, money, and fame.

In the novel, the author, Jon Krakauer, documented the journey of a young individual named Chris McCandless who went on a treacherous journey which led a tragic ending. In pursuit of a lifestyle that differed from society, McCandless encountered several people who aided and advised him. The errors in his choices are what ultimately led to his demise leading to public scrutiny.

Krakauer’s timeline allows him to influence the reader by showing specific things about McCandless at certain times to make him appear noble and inspirational. He also uses specific quotes from McCandless that accurately gives insight into McCandless’s thought

McCandless speaks and acts nearly exactly how well established transcendentalist speak and act. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who led the transcendentalist movement during the mid-19th century, believe that “the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). One cannot deny that McCandless absolutely refuses to let anyone shape his life and destiny other than himself. He not only constantly fights against the grain of society, but rather leaves it entirely. When he began his societal departure, “he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself... free to wallow in unfiltered experience... he even adopted a new name... he was now Alexander Super-tramp, master of his own destiny”(Krakauer 23). This adaptation of a new name shows that both well known transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, and McCandless, believe that destiny is what you make of it; what you decide, and no one else. Transitively, this shared core belief with transcendentalism that ultimately directs McCandless’s entire lifestyle in the years leading to his death, validates beyond doubt that McCandless’s guiding philosophy is in fact

Through Chris, Krakauer suggests that an individual who has conviction in resisting society’s influence, may pursue idealism that one may find truth in their life. Ultimately, the individual will endure trails and tribulation in their acceptance of undergoing a complete external and internal shift for the sake of conquering their vision.