Jon Krakauer Compare And Contrast

In the author's notes he put “Through most of the book, I have tried--and largely succeeded, I think to--to minimize my authorial presence. But let the reader be warned: I interrupt McCandless’s story with fragments of a narrative drawn from my own youth. I do so in the hope that my experiences will throw some oblique light on the enigma of Chris McCandless”(Krakauer 2). By telling us that he will add some stories of his own make us realize that Krakauer has some relation with McCandless and it make us think that this book is more believable. In the book when he tells us that Chris just died for a simple mistake and tries to relate it to himself by telling the story of how he started to realized that going into the wilderness will change his life he emphasizes“I would go to Alaska, ski inland from the sea across thirty miles of glacial ice, and ascend this mighty nordwand. I decide, moreover, to do it alone. ” Just like McCandless, Krakauer had a lot in common with him, they both went into the wild of Alaska, which gives a lot of experience to krakauer to talk about McCandless death. In order for Krakauer to make McCandless not a crazy kid he made some other similarities between McCandless and some other people that died, with a lot of characteristics similar to McCandless and himself. Krakauer is the ideal person to criticate

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself, Nothing can bring you peace but the triumphs of principles.” This is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-reliance which resonates with Krakauer’s and McCandless’ shared beliefs and interactions. This quote can help us to understand why McCandless and Krakauer enjoyed going into the wild. They were searching for themselves. By looking at their shared beliefs, their respective journeys, and Krakauer’s opinions of McCandless it can be seen that they have similar stories, but their stories both ended very

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.

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

Christopher McCandless the newly graduated college student was more admirable to me because the way he made people so happy effortlessly. He left his mark on people he came in contact with and one person they’ll never forget. Before he disappeared he gave all of his money to a charity called Oxfam America. He could have burned that money with the rest or just left it in the account but he he was generous enough to write a check to the charity for $24,000. He was the type of person who didn’t want to take anything from anyone at all even his parents. His whole life he’d been living for his parents to make them happy. He knew what he had wanted for himself wasn’t what they wanted for him so it wouldn’t have left them happy and satisfied. Alexs sense of humor made him stand out the most to

Krakauer begins the novel in medias res, which causes an interruption in the organization and lack of information about McCandless, in which case, he must use syntactical permutation to give all the information necessary and mirror the unknown thoughts of McCandless. Throughout the novel, Krakauer changes points of view to gain different perspectives of McCandless as well as jump to a different point in time as he does by starting chapter two with a narration and description of setting of the Stampede Trail, but then switches in the middle of the chapter to “Thompson made it to the far bank” (Krakauer 11). In addition to chapter two’s deduction, chapter three begins with describing Wayne Westerberg as a “hyperkinetic man with thick shoulders

Throughout the novel, Krakauer conveys the idea of following one’s heart to reach a sense of self completion. He became quite erudite on McCandless’s life to accurately portray his inspiring story. In order to strengthen his thesis, he includes facts from McCandless’s journey starting from Atlanta, Georgia and ending on the Stampede Trail in Fairbanks, Alaska. He begins by first announcing the death of McCandless, followed by detailed stories of when he was alive, then an analyzation of his death towards the end of the novel. The audience becomes informed on McCandless’s odyssey as Krakauer goes into specific detail to give the readers a larger insight on his last couple of months alive. By doing so, the audience is impacted by the inclusion of precise aspects of McCandless’s life; it helps them see what he went through to follow what his heart desired. When McCandless travels up north, he meets Wayne Westerberg in “Carthage, South Dakota, population 274…” (Krakauer 15). Krakauer includes the specific population of this town to show how few people reside there in order to correctly document the

Krakauer presents many of his own assessment of McCandless’s emotions and rationales that may seem very factual to readers. These assertions allow him to further romanticize McCandless’s experience in the wilderness and reassure the characteristics he assumes about his subject. The biographer gave an authoritative voice over McCandless when he claims “the desert sharpened the sweet ache of [McCandless’s] longing, amplified it, gave shape to it” (32). This portrayal given by the author exemplifies McCandless’s attraction for nature. And when McCandless left Franz for the second time, Krakauer claims, “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well” because he escape the “threat of human intimacy, [and] of friendship” (55). There is little evidence to suggest that this statement is written in McCandless’s diary, but this explanation helps to sharpen readers’ perception of McCandless’s escape from human intimacy.

Jon Krakauer reveals the good in McCandless that is hidden from all his other previous mistakes. Although McCandless struggles with the concept of intimacy, he is gifted in the act of perseverance. Another thing McCandless has learned is survival, as presented with how long he stayed alive with limited resources. McCandless is a hard working individual as Krakauer as stated through the theme of perseverance. McCandless has many travel experiences, he’s traveled across vast parts of America, which is quite challenging especially with the lack of money because the world is a very materialistic place. His adventure through Mexico is another example of his survival skills as he only had very limited amounts of rice as food. Lastly, before he died

Krakauer writes in Author's Note “He was an extremely intense young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence, long captivated by the writing of Leo Tolstoy McCandless particularly admired how the great novelist had forsaken a life of wealth and privilege to wander among the destitute. By writing this, Krakauer is admitting to his ideas on which he tries to shed light on McCandless story instead of having negative remarks. He wants his readers to know that McCandless follows what he believes in which is to wander in nature and follow the ideas of transcendentalism, which he landed on a land that he was seeking for. Also, Krakauer's demonstration of McCandless and his ethical ideas are proven as Krakauer writes on page 106, “but Christopher Johnson McCandless came into the world with unusual gifts and a will not easily deflected from its trajectory.” This proves that McCandless has a complex personality, but most importantly the author knows and understands his kind of complexity, McCandless was a stubborn young man, who wants his way, but what sets him apart from others is that he did something that others did not have the courage to do and most importantly he would not let anyone deter

Throughout their youth, each adventurer experienced different childhoods from one another. This varied from their education to their family’s lifestyle. McCandless was a stellar student; he was academically superior with an A average and a dedicated runner. His family remained

Life of the road isn't meant for everyone. Of course everyone has a different mindset towards this topic but you will have to be in the correct mindset of this situation for this to fall on you. Weather people want to live life on the road or not it isn't suited for everyone. It maybe the sense that some people have a physical condition that will hold them back from going onto the road and doing this maybe the case. In many people's cases that they may love going out into the wilderness and exploring some may not be equipped with these sort of skills and may forgot to be prepared in a sense like Chris McCandless. In Chris’s case he just wanted to get out and explore, such like Jon Krakauer. Jon Krakauer talked about how toxic society was and how he just wanted to escape that. People often go out to explore the wild since they're already on the road but is Mr.McCandless point of view he just wanted to escape society and start fresh. People that don't admire the wild like chris does may change the view of life on the road.

Jon Krakauer is a popular American author. Most of his work covers the ventures of outdoor. The harsh conditions of life, faced by the heroic figures of different times. His widely read and distributed books include Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, Under the Banner of Heaven, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. After winning the title of bestseller for his earlier account of heroic lives, Jon Krakauer again attempted to write a biography of an outstanding and exceptionally patriotic personality. Pat Tillman was a professional footballer before he joined US Army. He joined the army after the 9/11 attack and gave up his career for the defending his country. Pat Tillman was an iconic figure. A few months after the 9/11 attacks he gave up on his passion for football, in order to devote his life for the safety and security of his motherland. It is mentioned that he was offered a contract of above three million dollars for his game, but he walked away from it and joined the Army Rangers. He felt it was his duty and as an eligible citizen of the US, he is supposed to pay back to his land in the best possible way. He set out to participate in the war against terrorism agencies of Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, he died within the next two years in Afghanistan. The most disappointing thing that made the story interesting was that his death was a result of a friendly fire and not the fight with opponents. In order to save their reputation, the army decided not to

The irony found in McCandless’ life makes it memorable; he donated his college funds to a charity dedicated to fighting hunger, then starved to death. He wanted to find solitude, yet was very outgoing and made friends extraordinarily easily. During his time of need, there was none to come to his aid, yet after he had died, he was discovered by not one, but five trekkers. This is irony usually only found in fictional stories. As well as irony, recent occurrence of the story plays a part, and how the story was put together. Krakauer did not place the events in chronological order. Rather, he depicted the events in a more narrative style, meant to grab the reader’s attention, compared to a normal biography, which is meant to inform, not

Most people question themselves, maybe not intentionally, but humans do, they wonder their  self worth, their  importance, and how others see them. Self doubt is dangerous, Jon Krakauer recommends “how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong", most people forget this. Questioning yourself is toilsome enough, questioning an entire faith while being baptized tends to be a bit more in depth. Unsurprisingly prying into a multitudinous religion usually takes more than the fifteen seconds it takes to be dunked in water and scooped up like Simba from The Lion King.