Jon Krakauer’s purpose in writing Into the Wild is to recount Chris McCandless’ journey, physical and metaphysical, from college in Georgia to his death in Alaska, through the use of factual, and anecdotal evidence. Krakauer uses factual evidence to establish that he is a trustworthy narrator capable of giving the reader a realistic scope on the events in the story. Jon uses anecdotal evidence to see into Chris’ psyche from the various perspectives found in the book’s excerpts, including how Jon understands the events.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a biography that follows Chris McCandless and his journey through the wilderness while finding himself along the way. Chris McCandless died in the August of 1992 after a four month journey through places like Mexico and Alaska. Krakauer investigates his actions and analyzes his identity after his death, trying to find meaning within his seemingly unnecessary expedition. Chris McCandless constructs his personal identity as a man who wanted to be challenged and inspired by his actions and interests with people he met on the road, and his beliefs and values as a stubborn person.
In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, he focuses on one main person, Chris McCandless. Krakauer explains most of Chris's life and even, at times, puts his own input into the pages of this book. Chris McCandless (a.k.a Alexander Supertramp) was from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. Chris had a father, Walt McCandless, a mother, Billie Mccandless, and a younger sister, Carine. Chris's obsession with nature and high-risk activities was believed to start when "Walt took Billie and his children from both marriages to climb Longs Peak in Colorado." According to Walt, there was a point where he was getting tired and wanted to turn around but, Chris wanted to keep going all the way to the top. It has been said that the reason high-risk activities attract young men is because it gives them the sensation and adrenaline rush they are looking for.
The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance.
Into the Wild is a personal tale of Chris McCandless’ journey as he runs away from home to try and live in the Alaskan wilderness. The book follows the story through the eyes of the author as he investigates the mysteriousness of Chris’ life through the eyes of those he came in contact with and the journals left behind. However like every book adapted into movie there are slight differences and characterizations throughout the story that aren’t expressed deeply enough or seen in a different light. Into the Wild is no different.
Chris lived in a way most of us will never get to experience. He lived his life to the fullest, and more importantly he lived the way he wanted to. This alone should be some solace to his family. Really Chris was a nice person who people loved to be around. Just talking to him for a little while would show this. In Into the Wild it says, “ The more they talked, the less Alex struck Gallien as a nutcase” (Krakauer 6). This really shows that Alex, or Chris, was a bright person who, on the outside looked like a strange vagabond was really a well educated person. More important, however, is the fact that Chris had a positive impact on everyone he met. A prime example of this would be another traveler he met named Jan Burres. In the book said, “ We got to talking. He was a nice kid” (Krakauer 22). Jan also said, “ He was a really good kid. We thought the world of him” (Krakauer 23). If Chris could earn the respect and love of people who he had just met, this shows a lot about his character and who he was. However let us not forget the fact of the kind of person he was on the inside. On the inside he was like a raging bull whose anger was focused mainly at his parents.
Into The Wild portrays a man who went on a fatal unforgettable journey through the alaska wilderness. Chris McCandless was a man with great courage and the ability to live on his own made him more of a hero going on his fatal journey. Many would say he was foolish or not thinking right, but that is not the case. The case here is simply a man with courage wanting to fulfill is beliefs through his journey.
A common thought among adolescents is the dream to finally leave home and discover who they are; I certainly share this dream. Though the concept is common, the reasons are unique; The differences in character and circumstances define who a person is. What may appear reasonable to some could very well be completely irrational to another. The story of Chris McCandless as reported by Jon Krakauer in the biographic novel Into the Wild is no exception. From the events in his childhood to the conflict with his father, we can see that Chris McCandless, a young man still discovering himself, became disillusioned with the structure of society and desired nothing more than to “no longer be poisoned by civilization” (163). Although McCandless had an adventurous, independent nature, it was his darker past, the conflict with his family, that influenced him to seek refuge in the wild.
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ―Maya Angelou. Jon Krakauer’s true story titled Into the Wild is about a man who decides to throw away his old life and escape the rules of conventional society. Twenty-two-year-old Chris McCandless came from a well-to-do family in Virginia and, without warning, abandons everything. He changes his name, loses contact with his family, gives away his car and all his money, and begins a two-year long journey hitchhiking to Alaska where he eventually dies of starvation. Although it may seem as though Chris McCandless is immature or reckless, he is actually rather admirable for his ideals because they allow him to live a life he is happy with.
Chris displayed his arrogance all throughout his journey. His arrogance from the start was that he didn’t rely on Human materials. Humankind may not make things perfect every time but they make things because they need them. So Chris was being very arrogant by not using the things created just for his purpose by thinking he could do everything on his own and in the end that was what got him killed. But by the same standard anyone can understand Chris’s thinking. He wanted to ditch his old life so maybe he was trying to cut off ties to the world as well. If you take that the wrong way his death may seem like suicide suddenly, but from many other papers that is not implied. The majority think that it was just an unfortunate few events that led to his death. If Chris would have taken a few more resources his life possibly would have lasted longer than it did, and using his story wrote an inspiration book. But he died, so there’s no reason to play the game of “what-if” because it could go an infinite number of ways. His last major sign of arrogance shone once he got to Alaska and Jim Gallien dropped him off. He shook off Jim’s warning as well as other gear and proceeded to wander close to his
Into the wild, is a book by Jon Krakauer that later got turned into a film by Sean Penn, it follows the life of Christopher McCandless, who graduated from Emory University as a top student and athlete with wealthy pushing parents. Instead of continuing his life as a working man of society and taking his offers at top law schools, he decides to ultimately completely disconnect himself from society and instead tries to find his own meaning of life in the wild. Shaun Callarman says “ I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time.” and i really agree with him on that because
Into The Wild was a tremendous story which Shaun Callarman did not have many positive things to say about Chris McCandless, the main character. He went on this adventure to find out what life is all about in his own eyes. He wanted to see how different living in the wild really was compared to society because he was not satisfied with his living arrangements and household. Shaun’s quote says that he thinks “Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on arrogance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy,” shows that Shaun believes Chris had no common sense in his doing for leaving society for the wild. I agree with Callarman’s position of thinking “ he had no common sense” and that he was “bright and Ignorant” because Chris thinks he did not have much to offer in his society, ditched all his possessions to take a trip into the Alaskan Wilderness and did not have much common sense or survival skills.
Romanticism was a movement during the late 18th century that encouraged imagination, exploration, individualism, and emotion. From it derived Transcendentalism, one of the first movements to originate from America and which bore the first American philosophers. These movements are often present in many pieces of American literature and this is no exception in Jon Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild. The historic account retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless, who adopts the pseudonym Alexander Supertramp and takes to the road, only to die of starvation in Alaska. On the surface it appears to be cautionary tale, but Krakauer literally retraces McCandless’ steps, talking to the people who Chris spoke with and even traveling to Chris’ final resting place.
Into the Wild is a story about a passionate, very gifted athlete, and scholar named Chris
Family, for most people, is defined as a sort of safe haven for people to go to. For others, families may be fragmented, split, or may have wrong ideals as a whole. Broken families, while they may have a long lasting effect on the spouses, can also have a detrimental, long-lasting effect on the children of these marriages which can lead to certain mental illnesses. For example, in the story of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Deborah faces the emotional effects of her mother’s death. Other stories such as “A Rose for Emily”, show how Emily 's fathers parenting techniques and a lack of a mother figure burdened her future. Into the Wild explores the emptiness of love which affects the life choices of a man named Chris. All of these situations