One's Meaningful Life: Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

Christopher was not insane, ‘lost’, or suicidal when he decided to leave everything behind to venture to Alaska. To many, Christopher was ‘lost’ in every sense. Many believed that his future wasn’t going anywhere it should have headed. He chose to make a contribution to a charity with the money that was in his college fund, casted off all his family, and began a trip all over instead of doing ‘normal things’ he should have been

Stuckey was one of the many people that Chris met and impacted when traveling up to Alaska. Stuckey decided to give the clean-shaven Chris McCandless a ride to Fairbanks, Alaska, despite policy stating against picking up hitchhikers on the trucking route. In the short three days of traveling together, Stuckey learned that Chris had wanted to “live off of the land” since childhood. The book Into the Wild gives a quote from Stuckey that explains one idea of Chris’s motive for the actions taken. “He wanted to prove himself that he could make it on his own, without anyone else’s help” (Krakauer 159).

Into the Wild- Allusions Analysis Analyze 7 Literary Allusions from the entire book (choose from any of the epigraphs) Quote (page #) Author’s name and brief bio Connection to McCandless (1-2 sentences) (at least 4 sentences) “Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you shall hear from me… I now walk into the wild,” (3).

He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well,” every time someone tried to become close to him, he pushed him or her away. When Ronald Franz asked to adopt him, Chris told him that they would talk about it when he returns from Alaska. Chris’ problems with his father affected his ability to form new, close relationships, and ultimately sent him to his death.

There’s a difference between being ignorant and being intelligent, Chris was staying put on that line. He fell to either side every now and then, for example: burning his money was ignorant. He should have known better to leave with a plan more thought out than “Get to Alaska.” Man vs. Wild’s Bear Grylls, Survivorman Les Stroud, and Man, Woman, Wild’s Mykel and Ruth Hawke are all people who appreciate how fascinating nature can be as well as how great it is to be out in the wilderness away from civilization, but they also understand that they cannot go out ill prepared. Not only did they leave their life with materials that could protect them, nourish them, and help them stay alive, but they studied up on the possible problems they could face both major and very minor.

When Chris started his adventure he was happy. He was just living the moment where no one could stop him, just to follow his beliefs. Being on his journey Chris didn’t want to stay in contact with anyone. “Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return South.”

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.

The two became very close infact Ron wanted to adopt Chris, however Chris had his heart set on reaching Alaska. In a note Chris wrote to Ron he explains his viewpoints on the way mankind functions. “The very basic core of a man 's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” Krakauer uses rhetorical appeals and devices to illustrate to the audience that Chris was trying to sever his ties from the materialistic world he once lived in because he wanted to pursue his own non-conformist

Christopher McCandless’ Ride Into the Wild, a book by Jon Krakauer and a film by Sean Penn, is about the journey of Christopher McCandless. He was the son of wealthy parents, Billie and Walt McCandless, who graduates from Emory University as a top student and athlete. He also had a younger sister, Carine McCandless. However, instead of embarking on a more respected and profitable career, he chose to give his savings to charity, rid himself of his possessions, and set out on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Christopher McCandless was looking to find himself as to who he really was.

I think he just wanted to pursue life in a different way. Chris was not seeing life the way anyone else was, so he decided to brush off into the wild and be free on his own. Though he did not survive, he was still a very bright, arrogant human being. Shaun Callarman states, “He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Chris knew going into the wild that he did not have much survival skills, but that did not stop him from doing what he wanted to do because he did not care about society and was just completely over everything which was why he made the move to the wilderness.

(Krakauer 18). McCandless shows that the expedition was self-discovery, to take a risk to improve his own life. Throughout his journey, McCandless lies in harsh environments as well as having several ways and chances to get home, but he does not take them. Many would try to say that risky lifestyles are dangerous and best to take the easiest approach especially since Chris dies in Alaska in his journey. Proving that risk can take your life or loved ones, but that is why it is important to do risky choices in life since it pays back in the long run.

Chris McCandless was a foolish person but he was wise in other aspects. McCandless was foolish by running away from everything that he loved. McCandless ran away from his college dorm without a trace. When his family came to check on McCandless they had no idea where their son disappeared to. His family especially his sister was hurt and worried for her brother.

Also they will only base off their opinion of what they had read and will not want to know the real true form of McCandless. Therefore, people should not make up their mind by reading the article because people do not know the actual person he is. Krakauer structures his book to let the readers have an in-depth view of McCandless motives in going to Alaska. He chose to write this book because he and McCandless have a similar personality of wanting to connect to nature more and like the wilderness. Can writing a story base on your own opinion can have people’s mind be

It was important to McCandless to prove to himself he could make it on his own without anybody else’s help (205). McCandless planned to go out into the bush of Alaska and live off the country. Krakauer believed that McCandless had very little experience of living with nothing a year prior to his “great Alaskan odyssey”. It is noted that McCandless subsited for a month of the Gulf of California living just off five pounds of rice and a bounty of fish he caught (206). After find McCandless’s writing from his journals and in the bus Krakauer explains that McCandless wasn’t going into the wild to pinder nature or the world at large,but, rather to explore the inner country of his soul (220).

To conclude, Krakauer uses three valuable techniques to capture the meaning behind Into the Wild and McCandless’s journey itself: narrative structure, epigraphs, and tone. Chris McCandless was an intelligent young man who sought adventure far from his dull stable life. He essentially went off the grid to capture what he wished for the most, which was ultimate freedom and happiness. It was like a tag on a shirt that keeps bothering the tenderness of one’s skin. It was the reason why the tag was ripped off.