The Road To Individuality In John Krakauer's Into The Wild

Chris McCandless was a very unique individual. In Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, he tries his best to make sense of McCandless’ journey to the Alaskan wilderness. However, he never really figured out what McCandless’ purpose of the trip was. Looking at McCandless’ life throughout the book, I believe that Chris McCandless went on his journey to find happiness within his own life and did achieve it in the end.

In a society where conforming is normal, individualism is a necessity to be oneself. The first example of being oneself is of Clarisse. Montag and Clarisse are walking in the moonlight on their way home when Clarisse says, “Isn’t this a nice time of night to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all

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.

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement that has major themes of nature and spirituality while going against society and materialistic things. Christopher McCandless is a Transcendentalist in every sense of the word. The young adventurer, who is the main character in Jon Krakauer's nonfiction text Into the Wild, travels throughout North America, following three main Transcendentalist ideals: the disconnection of society, a minimalist lifestyle, and a reverence for both God and nature.

Chris McCandless was just a victim of his own obsession. The novel "Into The Wild" written by John Krakauer revealed the life of a young bright man named Chris McCandless who turned up dead in Alaska in summer 1992. In the novel, John Krakauer approached carefully McCandless's life without putting too much authorial judgment to the readers. Although Chris McCandless remained an elusive figure throughout the novel, I can see Chris McCandless as a dreamy young idealist who tries to follow his dream but failed because of his innocent mistake which prove to be fatal and irreversible. Still, Chris McCandless's courage and passion was something that we should all be proud of.

To say that Krakauer does have a bias towards McCandless is a rather obvious statement and something known to the reader from the author’s note. “My convictions should be apparent soon enough, but I will leave it to the reader to form his or her own opinion.” Yet despite a personal bias Krakauer has towards McCandless he keeps his promise to the reader and serves as an impartial enough biographer to allow the reader to form their own opinions. By interviewing both those who knew Chris or Alexander Supertramp on his journey to the last frontier and Alaskan locals, Krakauer steps to the side and lets others give their thoughts or memories as well as criticisms of the man who met his fate in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer does interfere with Chris/Alex’s story at one point in order

Set in a dystopian society in the future, the novella Anthem written by Ayn Rand is all about being a collective society which doesn’t believe in individualism. Ayn Rand constructs a society in which individualism is a transgression. The government enforces the idea of collectivism to the society. They believe that in the human race each person is not single. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521 wants to be an independent person. He wants to be free. As stated in the novel, “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.” This statement means that in order to be successful, he has to be his own person. As the novel goes on Equality 7-2521 learns to be an independent man and frees himself from the society which forces collectivism.

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

Transcendentalism by definition means to live a rational life with nature and becoming one entity that rules over itself. That seems difficult though because living in this day an age without having to worry about anything or about anyone else is like asking for forever lasting gum. In the book Into The Wild, Chris McCandless tries to do just that and succeeds. While on his journey to Alaska, Chris becomes the embodiment of transcendentalism. He embraces multiply of the qualities of transcendentalism but there were three that were the most prominent throughout the story. He believed in living closer to nature, relied on self trust and self reliance, and also he insists on breaking from traditions like government or paying taxes like most

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India once said, “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if we seek them with our eyes open” (Nehru). In the book Into the Wild Jon Krakauer introduces the reader to Christopher McCandless’s, a young man from California with a heart yearning for adventure and a head beyond his years. The reader learns there is no one quite like Chris McCandless, but many people have sought out to seek the “more” from life. Jon Krakauer uses pathos and quirky but also thrilling anecdotes throughout Into the Wild to separate how Chris McCandless perceived himself and how others perceived him.

The concept of individualism was one of the most encouraged and sought aspects of Transcendentalism, as many Transcendentalists despised the idea of conforming to the will of society and never sharing a person’s true opinion. As noted by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his famous essay, “Self-Reliance,” “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world” (362). Emerson restates the idea that nothing is greater than thinking and acting for yourself, and letting your true opinions show as opposed to those of everyone else. Emerson also states that doing so will gain you the suffrage, or support, or the world, inferring that having an individualistic mindset will strengthen the bonds within communities around the world, causing them to give their full support for their members at any time. Unfortunately, such an idea is virtually impossible, as each individual’s desire to act for themselves would make working with and supporting the interests of others incredibly difficult, and would destroy the bonds within communities as opposed to strengthening them. This is fantastically displayed through the storyline of the movie Into the Wild, in which the protagonist, Chris McCandless, desires to break away from society and live in the wilderness of Alaska. During his journey, Chris meets a wide array of unique individuals, all of whom he begins to form unique bonds with, but is forced to separate each time because of his continuous desire to move to Alaska and completely immerse himself in nature. This is especially displayed in his relationship with Ron Franz, who becomes so attached to Chris that he offers to adopt Chris, only to have his proposal rejected due to

Occasionally in a person's life, he or she wonders about a certain purpose in life. In extreme cases, when a person attempts to find one's self, he or she may find his or herself in a dangerous or even deadly position. In Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Chris McCandless goes out into the wilderness of Alaska to find himself, but he never returns. Jon Krakauer organizes his novel in a circular way, which ties the story together well, and he uses long, periodic sentences to detail and emphasize his points about life and death situations in order to create an aspect of imagery and description throughout the novel.

“On the northern margin of the Alaska Range, just before the hulking ramparts of Mt. McKinley and its satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain, a series of lesser ridges, known as the Outer Range, sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed”(Krakauer 9). Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is true story based around Chris Mccandless. Chris ultimilty left normal society and everything he owned to go on a road trip around the country and end up in Alaska. Here in Alaska he meet his end in the harsh winter. In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless believes that self-reliance is key to survival, while Ralph Waldo Emerson also believes this based on his work “Self-Reliance”.

Individualism is a tough concept to embrace. Everyone wants to be accepted and loved by all, but you cannot have you complete and total success without individualism. When a person breaks away from a group or differs by society that person is an individual. People break away and realize their true self and identity in different parts of their lives, some people never truly break away, and some break away extremely early in their lives, almost as if they never were part of the group. To find your identity you have to trust yourself and stray away from social norms.

In the opening of his selection, he talks about the notion of individuality against collectivism. He states that as man completely isolates himself from society, he is in complete dilemma because he is not aware of what is good from bad. Furthermore, he does not have any identity because he cannot distinguish himself