Into the Wild Analysis Essay

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 his novel, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer establishes young Christopher McCandless as a heroic and brave figure. Krakauer supports his portrayal of Chris by utilizing a narrative form and focusing on the relatable, human aspects of Chris, and by contrasting his story with the cautionary tales that are scattered throughout the history of the Alaskan wilderness. The author’s purpose is to promote his own theories and opinions on the boy’s life and death in order to establish what he believes to be the truth. The author writes in a fond tone for aspiring wilderness explorers and their critics.

In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explains how Chris was an individual who didn’t have a liking for materialistic things. He was a person who was in it more for the experience and not for the materials he gained from doing things. He wanted to “have an endlessly changing horizon” as he said in his letter to Ron Franz. He thought it would be good to go out and escape the restraints of society and civilization to truly value what life was giving him and what everything else was taking away from him. Many believed that the only reason that Chris wandered off into the wilderness of Alaska was because he was tired of society holding him back and wanted to experience the greatness the world had to offer.

In Jon Krakauer's novel Into the Wild, the main character, Chris McCandless, seeks nature so that he can find a sense of belonging and the true meaning of who he is. However, it is the essence of nature that eventually takes his life away from him. At the end of his life, he is discovers his purpose and need of other people. After Chris McCandless death in Alaska, Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to reflect on the journey that McCandless makes. Krakauer protrays McCandless as a young man who is reckless, selfish, and arrogant, but at the same time, intelligent, determined, independent, and charismatic. Along with the irony that occurs in nature, these characteristics are the several factors that contribute to McCandless death.

Walt said that “Chris was fearless even when he was little” (Krakauer 109). Even as a child Chris did not think that the odds applied to him. He was very confident in himself, which led to his desire to take on Alaska.

The Alaskan wilderness knows no mercy nor no forgiveness, out there one mistake could cost a person their life. Chris grew up in a strict household where he was given little to no freedom. As a young adult, Chris found this lack of individualism overwhelming so he disentangled himself from society in a rather abrupt manner. He unfortunately met a premature death, which continues to arouse suspicion amongst readers. However Chris McCandless did not have a death wish, he had already made it this far and still had plenty left he wanted to accomplish. In the book Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer uses the three appeals through various devices to convince his reading audience that Chris McCandless was a determined individual whose justified choices

When writing in this book, Krakauer appeals to ethos by including several interviews with all the people that knew Chris. In chapter 2, Krakauer is interviewing Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota. Westerberg was the first person Chris came into contact to when he left on his journey. After finding about Chris’s death, Westerberg told

The desire to be at one with nature sometimes becomes apparent within some of us. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer highlights the fact that Chris McCandless is a reckless fool and a narcissist due to his carelessness, ignorance, and incompetence.

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.

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

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

The book ‘Into the Wild’ by Jon Krakauer is based on a true story of Christopher J McCandless, a well educated and able young man who chased after his dreams and ambitions of escaping the wealth and materialism of society for a free life in nature. Soon after graduating from Emory University, Chris gave up the balance of his education savings account to OXFAM and disappeared from society to live a life of autonomy and adventure into the Alaskan wilderness, This wild adventure ultimately led to his death. Chris didn't die due to the wilderness. He died from being unprepared and unwilling to learn about the environment he was about to walk into alone. Chris’s tragic death is exactly what wilderness journalist Mark Laurence described when he wrote, “ ...the leading cause of most deaths in the wilderness--all of these are caused by a personal error in judgment. “

The word character naturally conjures up an array of specific attributes distinctive of an individual or environment. Our earliest experiences with character likely stem from being read classic children’s books, like Maurice Sendak’s, “Where The Wild Things Are,” or Dr. Seuss’s, “Green Eggs and Ham,” which portray distinct personality traits within the main character and demonstrate evolution of self as the character acquires knowledge from his or her life experience. Like the characters within our favorite childhood books, each of us represents a malleable being whose shape can transform through the beautiful manifestation of God’s glory throughout our life journey.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is about Chris McCandless who was a child born into a well-off family who fit into American society extremely well. After traveling south and receiving his college degree at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Chris had the sudden urge to leave everything behind and go on the adventure of a lifetime. Following in the ideologies and footsteps of his idols Thoreau, Jack London, and several others; Chris donated all of money to a charity that helps hungry children, changed his name to Alex Supertramp, and headed West in his old yellow Datsun to escape the hassle and expectations of society as it is today. He traveled to many places including Colorado, Mexico, The Grand Canyon, Arizona, California, and South Dakota where he made a lasting impression on Wayne Westerberg. Chris made huge impacts on several peoples’ lives along his journey, but always kept them at arm’s length and left before there was an unbreakable connection established. Instead he replaced the joy that most people get from human interaction and replaced it with feelings of wonder and exhilaration that pristine nature brought. He lived happily by never staying in one place for too long and always having something new to explore, going against the modern-day norms. Chris’s ultimate journey is to escape to the Alaska wilderness, where he eventually meets his demise by eating poisonous seeds. It is thought that perhaps he had a change of heart towards modern day society in the end