Teenagers and a lot of young adults have commit in a lot of adventures by going into the wilderness, in which they are seeking of high risk and freedom. Krakauer an American writer and mountaineer, who is the author of best-selling non-fiction books wrote this book about Christopher Johnson McCandless and he talked about how he believed that he died by a simple mistake that he made in the wilderness of Alaska. Jon Krakauer tried to communicate to a special audience which narrowed down some of his techniques that he used and still manages to keep McCandless as a special human which is a big accomplishment for him. In this essay I'm going to use the writing of Krakauer to show how he trying to make us believe that Chris was like any other person and that he died because of a simple mistake. Krakauer’s audience are adults, anyone that was related to Chris …show more content…
Krakauer wrote this book to show people that Chris McCandless was similar to everyone and that we should respect what people think, Krakauer argues “My suspicion that McCandless's death was unplanned, that it was a terrible accident, comes from reading those few documents he left behind and from listening to the men and women who spent time with him over the final year of his life” (Krakauer 134).Krakauer is trying to persuade people into thinking that McCandless was actually like any regular kid and he tries to tell this to the people that thought that McCandless was a stubborn kid. While Krakauer was writing the book he put a counter argument against the Alaskans and clarified why it's not true. After Krakauer wrote the article and published it, he got negative comments, some of them argued“Alex is a nut in my book” … why would any son cause his parents and
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
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
In one of the first few pages of Krakauer’s novel, he notes that Chris’ story was heavily criticised. “Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity--and was undeserving of the considerable media attention he received.” (pg. 3). This, of course, was proven to not only limited to the negative feedback he received from Alaskans; but globally. In the case of Simpson’s article, it gave off a sense of disapproval. In her own words, “We were too cynical to read entry after entry from people looking for meaning in the life and death of a man who had rejected his family, mooched his way across the country and called himself “Alexander Supertramp” in the third person. I struggled to imagine the emotional currents that had carried people here to the bus, so far from their homes, to honor his memory.”. To interpret from this, it seems to be frequent that Alaskans hold no personal interest towards the meaning behind his death. More or less, Simpson generalizes the typical Alaskan take on his story. On the other hand, Jim Gallien was also an adventurer in Alaska who was the last to see McCandless before his journey, and his attitude was much more open minded.
Little things in one’s childhood can affect them in the long run and affect the decisions you make. In the book, Into the Wild, the author Jon Krakauer, tries to make the valid point that Chris McCandless was a hero, a noble and inspirational character. In the book, Krakauer fails to persuade the reader into the belief of the role that Chris McCandless was a “hero.” Chris McCandless was the son of two wealthy parents, and had so much great things going for him with a chance to a good working job and great opportunities, but instead to pursue in those opportunities he decided to get rid of all his possessions, and give everything up, even his family, and went on the journey to Alaska.
Jon Krakauer is an author whose work primarily focuses on the wilderness and his experiences. His novel, Into the Wild, divulges into the life of Chris McCandless and his adventures into the wild Alaskan frontier. Chris seeks isolationism from his family and society and goes as far as to change his name to Alex Supertramp so he is not discovered or recognized by anyone. With mere long term survival experience, Chris makes several minor mistakes and dies; unbeknownst to anyone. After discovery, Krakauer devoted several years to Chris’ life story, going as far to use his journalism background to interview any family, friends and coworkers Chris encountered to synthesize a final overview of his life. Krakauer’s relationship with his own father
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.
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, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society,
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.
Chris McCandless was an intelligent young man who decided to leave college, his dysfunctional family, and conventional society with hope of gaining enlightenment by exploring the wilderness. Unfortunately, he starved to death while camping in Alaska’s interior. Chris McCandless is a polarizing figure due to his unorthodox and transcendental ideals and the way that he died. Some individuals label McCandless as “a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity.” Others believe Chris McCandless was courageous, noble, and admiral for adhering to his rigorous moral ideals. Although both arguments contain valid points, the second party’s interpretation of Chris McCandless is closer to the truth.
On August 18th, 1992, Christopher McCandless, 24 years old, starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness after living off the land for months with minimal supplies. In response to local authorities finding McCandless’ body, Jon Krakauer published an article in the magazine Outside, briefly outlining McCandless’ journey. Years after McCandless’ death, Krakauer published his book, Into the Wild, carefully detailing McCandless’ life up to his death based on information gathered from various people McCandless met on his journey. Some read about McCandless and condemned him, accusing him of being a reckless, stupid kid who didn’t respect his family, friends, or the danger of the wilderness. Others idolized him, insisting that he was brave, adventurous,
Through John Krakauer’s book on Chris McCandless’ adventure, readers across the world feel compelled to pick sides on the significance of Chris’ life and death. While the author errs towards showing Chris in a positive light, his bias ignores a lot of the key issues that surround the negative viewpoint of the young adventurer. He nitpicks on issues that are of little significance, and is unable to counter other more pressing opinions on Chris. The simple survival mistakes he makes, his blatant disregard for his parents, and our lack of understanding of him all condemn him as a failure, and not someone that should be respected because of his actions.
Jon Krakauer reason for writing about Chris, is to tell the readers that this guy was an interesting person who had his own belief about society. He was really good at making a person feel happy and can easily make friends whom he met in like 20 mins. Krakauer has never met Chris, but with all of the letters and stories about him from the people Chris met, Krakauer can tell that he is a very nice guy, and they could have become friends or he is his friend after Chris death.
The shared vision and journey of two true adventurers, Christopher J. McCandless, and Jon Krakauer, thoughtfully illustrated in Krakauer’s Into the Wild, and Into Thin Air, allow readers across the nation to retrace and relive the triumphs and defeats experienced by both of these inspirational men while facing the forces of nature in search for greater meaning and fulfillment in life. In his Into the Wild, Krakauer makes clear that his wild fixation on the tragic story of Chris McCandless and uncovering the truth regarding the cause of his death, stems from the fact that unlike McCandless, he survived. By carefully weaving Krakauer’s personal experiences into the story surrounding McCandless’s demise, Krakauer seeks to shed some light on the