Summary Of The Novel 'No Pain No Gain'

His mother, Billie, wept, “” I just don’t understand why he had to take those kind of chances”” (132, Krakauer) and his father agonized “” How is it, … that a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?”” (104, Krakauer). It was extremely selfish to leave his parents thinking he would be back to see them again, but he never did. Besides his family, he also left many people along the road. “He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerburg at arm’s length. And now he’s slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well. Painlessly, that is, from McCandless’s perspective…” (55, Krakauer). After being thrown in jail for hopping freight trains McCandless called Ronald Franz to pick him up, which only deepened his affection for the young man. The most selfish thing of all, was the entire reason for his trip. He went for the same reason the author of Into the Wild went as he says, “When I decided to go to Alaska that April, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing” (155, Krakauer). McCandless went on a multiple year road trip through the Western and into the North to find himself but Death got to him

Jon Krakauer had the same experience as McCandless with his family and travel to Alaska, but Krakauer knew more about survival and had company in case of any danger. Krakauer compares, “as a young man, I was unlike Mccandless in many important regard… And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul” (55). Acknowledging McCandless’s background, Chris left society because, in Krakauer’s point of view, of the “agitation of the soul” and the “similar heedless” of society. McCandless didn’t agree with society’s standards that being successful meant having a well paid occupation, especially when McCandless’s parents enforced it onto him. McCandless truly did not want to uphold the wishes of his parents, for Chris to go to college and get high paying career, but it wasn’t what Chris really wanted, so he left all of his conflicts with his parents and his values or “agitation of the soul” to create a new identity as Alex Supertramp and live in the wild. In today’s modern world, humanity lives in an environment where people are controlled and dependent on others. Chris’s father is someone he despises because of his characteristic of being controlling. Walter becomes controlling over Chris, who pressured him into college. As a result, Chris has an “agitation of the soul” to become independent, and a “heedlessness” for society and had an “intensity” for

-- In this quote Eric Hathaway reveals that McCandless was more than just his criticizing persona, He was a caring person who defies the pressures of society, which can be supported with his trips to the underdeveloped parts of town. He is a self-reliant individual who stands for individualism.

The novel “Into the Wild”, by Jon Krakauer, is an excruciating story about a young man facing off against the dangers of nature. The main protagonist, Chris McCandless faced off against many internal and external obstacles that stood in his way of achieving his goal of successfully surviving on his own in the wilderness of North America. McCandless clashed with many lethal and perilous obstacles as he travelled all the way across the continent. The challenges he faced varied from surviving in the harsh wilderness, the difficulties of young manhood, and also the challenge of person versus society.

​Throughout his adventure, McCandless proves his bravery by supplying himself with an insufficient amount of supplies and making treacherous decisions. McCandless embarks on his route alone with no money or car, only the items that mean the most to him. In order to focus mainly on the nature and his surroundings, McCandless “put a match to” (Krakauer, 29) all his money and “wasn’t carrying anywhere

Chris McCandless was always able to behave appropriately in public, but he felt better when he was alone. Why did he feel better when he was alone and why did he abandon his privileged lifestyle in Annandale Virginia? Chris McCandless grew up with many talents and opportunities that others didn’t have. Chris threw away his life and ditched his family when he decided to hitchhike across the country and live out of his back pack. What could have motivated a young man with so much potential to do what Chris did? Chriss’ decision to isolate himself had its’ negative and positive effects on him.

Many people wish they can drop everything important to them and isolate themselves from society; very few people will even attempt this, but Chris McCandless breaks societal norms to accomplish this goal. In Into the Wild, John Krakauer tells the story of this young man’s life to inspire the audience to chase their dreams through the use of logos, involved sentence, and anecdotes.

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

In his work “Into The Wild”, Jon Krakauer writes about a young man who escaped on an expedition to invent a new life for himself. However, the reasons why he decides to partake on such journey raises many questions because Christopher McCandless lives a life of valuable possessions which his rejection of his economic class to disperse in a cultural background of nature steers Krakauer decision to report his story. Krakauer believes that a young man with a great amount of opportunities must have a logical reasons to abandon all the achievements and most importantly his family to live in the Wilderness. Although, Krakauer intends to portray McCandless as a genius of his choices and ethical to his ideas, as the book unfolds Krakauer

In all his adventures, McCandless possessed little to nothing in possessions and subsistence, but that didn’t stop him from doing achieving his goals. Likewise, the American dream or character stands on the same foundation of success where anyone can gain wealth and happiness even if they start from nothing. Though McCandless was privileged with a comfortable life, he intentionally threw everything away like his college money and car to prove he could continue without having a head start. With nothing but determination and a steadfast mentality, he embodies the American character to the extent that Americans hope for the best in all situations. Even in near death situations, McCandless survived and grew stronger as an individual, but his major flaw was that he believed too much in the American dream which lead to his downfall. Instead of falling short of being an American, I think he lived an extreme and irrational mode of an American where all his decisions were not prudent. On the other hand, The American lives with preparedness for the future which distinguishes McCandless from the ideal character. Some examples of his negligence for his own health were when he declined to take additional clothing, burned the last of his money, and threw away his ammunition. It was foolhardy for him to purposefully hurt himself and his surrounding like his loved ones. But he isn’t the only one, and only when someone dies from his mistake does people begin to realize the flaws

People go into many things to try to escape their life. Some people start eating a lot, while other stop. Some people go into drugs, while others start drinking. Some people go into depression, while others are allured to take high risk actions. Maybe Christopher McCandless took this action because his relationship with his dad was not the best. Krakauer associated his relationship with his father to McCandless and his dad. “Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” (Krakauer 134). Krakauer feels the pressure to succeed and the desire to rebel, because his father constantly pushed him to perfection, like McCandless father. Chris could no longer deal with his life and spitefully left everything he knew for his dad’s high expectations. “I got into my head to climb a mountain called the Devils Thumb” (Krakauer 134). To show his father he can do it, he revealed in the book his thought processes during the climb. At the end he came to the conclusion that his method of thinking could have killed him something that ultimately happened to McCandless. To sum it up, by comparing his own and other people’s experiences the author Jon Krakauer appeal to pathos to give a little perspective on why Chris McCandless is not a young foolish kid as several people assume he is.

First, and the most noticeable, is Krakauer’s use of narration. The main purpose for writing this book was to tell the full truth of McCandless’ journey and in parallel, clear his reputation of a irrational young man. Krakauer wanted to show the reader that McCandless was not an arrogant kid that had outrageous ambitions to trek through Alaska, and one way he did this was by emphasizing McCandless’ intelligence through the use of narration by friends and family members. “Alex was Big on the Classics: Dickens, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Jack London. London was his favorite. He’d try to convince

McCandless lead a mostly enjoyable life; he was born into a considerably rich and high end family, and received outstanding grades through his years in school. He was well liked, and built up a motivated and optimistic persona, yet despite this, he decided to abandon his life and reach for “an endlessly changing horizon”(57). His life, while possibly seen as luxury by

Just like Krakauer, McCandless had a calling for adventure. He could relate to McCandless , because he had a similar adventure to Alaska. Krakauer didn’t view McCandless as a incompetent person like most ,but a unique