Sparknotes Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The romantic notion of condemning society and leaving everything behind is one many have had, but next to none have carried out. While there are reasons for this, Christopher McCandless disregarded them and completed this surreal experience. John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, chronicled this journey from Virginia to Alaska. On this expedition McCandless touched many people’s lives, working odd-jobs and hitching rides. He eventually met his end while on his Alaskan odyssey, his most ambitious campaign. Many people think that he deserved this fate because of his disregard for the dangers of the Alaskan wilderness. However, Chris McCandless was independent and he did not care for fitting in. His happiness with his life was uncommon. He was

--These words gives a clear and rational explanation of McCandless’s decision to venture into the wilderness. It shows that he was allured to the wild journey because of the pleasure it would provide him, tempted by a primal desire that could not be fulfilled by a mere human.

This was a challenge because he would go all across the continent trying to escape the materialistic world. These journeys caused McCandless to encounter the danger of isolation. This was a challenge for McCandless because if he had not made the decision to enter the lethal wilderness of Denali Park in Alaska by himself trying to escape society, he could have lived. It was his fearlessness of isolation and disapproval of society that created a large obstacle for him to overcome. Another reason how McCandless’ attempted escape from society became an obstacle was how he rejected all the help that was offered to him. On page 46 McCandless was offered money by a woman named Jane Burres but he would not accept the money and acted very offended. This would eventually become an obstacle for him because once he had finally made his way up the far northwest state of Alaska, he had no money to buy the much needed equipment and food that he so desperately needed. Overall, it was McCandless discontent towards society that lead to his downfall as he never feared isolation and often wanted to be alone, and also how his rejection of all material wealth made him less prepared for the dangers of the wild because he could not afford proper

Not only was he running away from a foolish society and unfair world, but also was running away from the banality his life had presented to him. Christopher McCandless was a young man who had just graduated from university and was faced with the distressing reality of living a mundane life. Rather than succumb to the safe route of attaining a stable job and

In order for readers to distance themselves from making quick judgements about McCandless, the author gives many detailed interviews of people who have spent some time with him before and during his journey into the wild. Those interviews follow a similar structure: they are critical of McCandless at first but are later charmed by his intelligence and determination. In the first chapter, Gallien has picked up McCandless on the highway and he immediately wonders “whether he’d pick up one of those crackpots [...] liv[ing] out ill-considered Jack London fantasies” (4).

Throughout the novel, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer sincerely disentangles the haunting enigma of Chris McCandless. By tracing the places, people and experiences intertwined in the life of McCandless, Krakauer narrates the life story of a puzzling corpse found in a bus buried in the Alaskan frontier in a truly authentic way of storytelling. Although Krakauer inserts direct quotes from people who McCandless came into direct contact with and experts from primary source journals, Krakauer’s own voice in the narration of the dead man’s life is trustworthy due to the similarities the protagonist and the author share. Common connections such as similar paternal stress made outstanding impacts in both men’s lives, starting at a young age. Furthermore, a sort of agitation with the soul ailed Krakauer and McCandless fueled by a reckless persona confined in the modern world. Lastly, a craving for human contact when in total isolation troubled both the author and subject in their adventures narrowed in the natural world. The mutual bond apparent to the reader between Krakauer and McCandless makes the writing in the novel sincere enabling Krakauer to speak of a dead’s man life with profound authority and truth. Unconditional understanding through shared paternal issues, agitation of the soul, and need for human contact grants Krakauer access to divulge into the conundrum of Chis McCandless and authority to earnestly narrate the mysterious

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

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.

Krakauer uses research about the life of McCandless in order to establish his ethos and convey his thesis of the novel. When Krakauer presents the information concerning McCandless’s death, he quotes directly from the moose hunters who found him dead and describes the exact setting of the situation. Krakauer beings by explaining the scene at which the moose hunters found him, “A few hundred yards beyond the river the trail disappeared” (Krakauer 12). Krakaurer’s use of description enables readers to visualize the scene better and create a major sense of trust between the author and reader. Krakauer then imbeds a quote directly from the moose hunters that found McCandless’s body who explains that there was “a real bad smell from inside” (Krakauer12). Appealing to the reader’s sense of smell, and also using the perspective of the exact people that found McCandless’s body, establishes a more ethical appeal to the audiences trust in the information the author is presenting. Also, Krakauer cites an exact note found on the bus where McCandless was discovered which states that he is “Near death” (Krakauer 12). The note displayed in the text is written in a different font, implying that the proceeding text is written by a different author, and is also signed by McCandless himself. The research Krakauer did is directly shown here because of his factual evidence. The use of factual information from the scene of the death provides a

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.

Adventurer and journalist, Jon Krakauer, in his novel, Into the Wild, shares the story of McCandless’ journey. Krakauer’s purpose is to convey that McCandless was in fact an idealist and not insane to his Outdoor Magazine readers. In chapters 1-7, McCandless encounters several people as he goes along his journey. Krakauer uses the rhetorical strategy of characterization to explain McCandless’ personality to the readers.

2.In my perspective, it seems as if he could not accept any kind of authority, on page six he explains, “How I feed is none of the governments business. Fuck their stupid rules.” and that included his parents. McCandless saw society as a penitentiary, where all he could do was follow the guidelines given to him by those authorities and he wanted to break free of that.

Throughout the non-fictional novel Into the Wild, the author Jon Krakauer catches the reader’s interest early on in the book. Krakauer takes us on a journey, telling the story of young Chris McCandless’ adventures after abandoning everything he owned. Krakauer fully emerged himself into the study of McCandless’ life’s adventures and soon developed a deep understanding of who he was and how he impacted to world. Krakauer connected with McCandless in an unexplainable way. Because of Krakauer’s past endeavors, he was able to capture the mentality of McCandless’ choices and write about them in a speaker and subject dynamic. As the novel progresses, the reader gets the sense of a unique brotherhood between the two, although they had never actually encountered one another. As Krakauer and McCandless’ “friendship” progresses, the reader will gain affection towards McCandless.

McCandless was very intrigued with literature and related it to his own life as many ways as possible. When McCandless read a piece of literature that he felt

McCandless can be described as a Caterpillar breaking through the unbreakable cocoon and spreading his wings to fly. He loved the life he lived and for him it went from all negative to positive by leaving home. The reasons why McCandless left home were exceptionally justified. McCandless became tired of being around self centered rich people whom only cared about their possessions in life. He grew tired of being around people who were not connected to nature and the real world. This is evident when Billie says, “Chris started