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Analysis Of Into The Wild By John Krakauer

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Our environment, although outside us, is a part of us. Not only the image of nature, but something conceptualized in a way that only a few people have been able to capture through words. One of these people being an author, named Jon Krakauer. In his novel ‘Into the Wild’ Krakauer elaborates on a bond created between a young man and the wild. John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Henry David Thoreau have conveyed and elucidated the same ideology that krakauer uses in his book; Joy does not only radiate from human relation, but a further understanding of nature and the wilderness, a man 's deepest roots, gives an increased sense of freedom and happiness. This existence of nature is not fictitious, it is an ideal. If we lose nature, we lose the greatest …show more content…

Aldo Leopold and Krakauer both believe that nature is valuable. Krakauer writes, “I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover” (Krakauer 57). Krakauer provides the thought that nature is valuable and we should embrace and explore it. Additionally, John Muir says, “To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.” (Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There). What Muir is saying is that someone who understands the value of nature would see a blank spot on a map and know that that piece is as important as any other. Another quote from Krakauer that describes nature us: “I wished to acquire the simplicity, native feelings, and virtues of savage life; to divest myself of the factitious habits, prejudices and imperfections of civilization; … and to find, amidst the solitude and grandeur of the western wilds, more correct views of human nature and of the true interests of man. The season of snows was preferred, that I might experience the pleasure of suffering, and the novelty of danger” (Estwick Evans, Krakauer 157). This shows that Krakauer sees the wild as a more correct and true place; a place away from civilization that deserves respect. Leopold has said something very similar to that, “Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” (Aldo Leopold). Aldo is saying that he views the land as a better place away from civilization, and that he believes that nature deserves love and

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Krakauer’s Argument In Krakauer’s argument he does make an effective case justifying McCandless behavior. Krakauer mentions in his argument, he stated, “McCandless wasn’t as stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate, but instead paints a sympathetic picture of a young man with a profound moral compass seeking a higher truth”. This means that Chris McCandless just wanted to get away from the society he once knew before and just go find his peace in himself and the world. He thought by going out into the wild, that it would solve the problem, even though he did not really know how to actually survive in the wild..

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