Summary Of Leo Mellor's 'Lure Of The Wilderness'

“The Oregon Trail,” written by Francis Parkman is a description of the experiences traveling into the unknown depths of the American west in 1846. The story is told from the first person point of view of Parkman, a scholar from Boston who embarks on the great expedition of traveling into the west in hopes of studying the lives of the Native Americans. His journey is also one of the first detailed descriptions of the beauty and the bounty of a largely uninhabited North American territory. But one of the most critical elements of the story was Parkman’s encounters and recruitment of members to his band of travelers who ultimately play a major role in the success of the western journey.

In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.

“Into the woods” by Cheryl Strayed is a not only a story about the journey to the inner

All over the world books are getting banned with the intention of protecting people, but most importantly protecting children from inappropriate things. People such as librarians, parents, teachers, and others give their opinions about the content in books, which leads to the banning of a book or titled as challenged. Jack London 's book The Call of the Wild got banned between the 1920 's and 1930 's in Yugoslavia and Italy. Besides being banned, it also was burned in Nazi Germany. They said that the socialism in the book angered and threatened them. Also, the animal cruelty made them think that London was accepting of it (Banned Books). Due to this book London was called a "nature faker" by President Theodore

“Each house-hunting trip I’ve made to the countryside has been fraught with two emotions: elation at the prospect of living closer to nature and a sense of absolute doom at what might befall me in the backwoods” (White 1064). In her essay, “Black Women and the Wilderness, Evelyn White describes her contradictory feelings about nature, and throughout her text, her experiences display a very complex perspective of nature. Raymond Williams, in his article, “Nature” describes the word ‘nature’ as the most complex word in language (Williams 219). When referring nature, people generally think of it representing something of peace, comfort, and a place where most can feel safe, almost as if it were a home. White revises our understanding of nature

Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on an adventure across the U.S. Chris lived for adventure, and sadly met his demise in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris’ death brought about a large debate as to whether Chris was insane or simply idealistic. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to prove Chris’ sanity and soundly completes that task by using rhetorical devices to persuade his audience.

The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.

Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of a young man named Christopher McCandless who decided to go and survive in the wilderness of Alaska without correct preparation. McCandless was a man with as transcendentalist-like mindset, an adventurer, an explorer, and a hiker. He migrated away from civilization and society with the goal of living in solitude and living his life to the fullest through nature. The audience was introduced to McCandless’ views towards society through McCandless’ journey through Alaska, and the depressing yet inspiring events that led up to his death. Krakauer creates emotional appeals to connect him with McCandless to credit himself as a writer, as well as to develop the audiences’ feelings of McCandless. Krakauer

In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”.

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.

When the young Chris McCandless set off into the wild in April 1992, many people were unsure of whether or not he would make it out alive. Unfortunately, Chris died in the Alaskan wilderness and captured the attention of a curious writer. Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, was very intrigued by what had caused this young man headed to a life of future and promise to leave everything behind to pursue a life of hardship. In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer uses letters, testimonies, analogies, anecdotes, and language to help divulge why Chris McCandless turned his life upside down and was more happy with his life after doing so.

The “wilderness idea” has influenced me to become more pro-environment and to embrace nature whenever the chance is given. These sacred places could easily be destroyed by bulldozers to create new storage and office buildings. Pure wilderness has become a rare site in America due to this. When the wilderness is simply there, it reminds us of where our culture came from and how we’ve altered it for better or worse. The freedom in America has allowed business and discovery to thrive. With these advantages, we are on the path to permit the elimination of the last virgin forests, wild species, clean air, and clean water. Our freedom has led to the limitation of being free from the noise of human establishments. Society needs to come to this realization that it is destroying the pureness of the wilderness and the impact that it has on the human psychology and spirituality. Recycling, becoming minimalistic, and ensuring the conservation of the remaining wildlife is vital to the survival of individualism, creativity, and

The author, Jon Krakauer, was born April 12, 1954. He is a mountaineer and an American writer. He married Linda Mariam Moore in 2010. Krakauer attended Hampshire College, Emery University, and Corvallis High School.

“‘ He was unheeded, happy and near to wild heart of life.’”Christopher McCandless, pseudonym Alexander Supertramp makes the daunting decision to go off grid and live a nomadic lifestyle. Author Jon Krakauer uses fervent diction and descriptive imagery to depict McCandless’s turning point in his life and beyond to his final days in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer choses a specific tone to narrate the story, not far from a hypercritical sense. Krakauer places himself throughout the story to compare his experiences with McCandless’s. Although he does express his opinion frequently, Krakauer still allows the reader to create their own ruling of the wandering itinerant.

When McCandless graduated from college, he found the possibility to go away for a while, “He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family” (Krakauer 55). McCandless could finally go away looking for a journey full of adventures, but he wasn’t going to five stars hotels or luxurious places. His journey was precarious and wild, that was exactly what he was looking for. Places that were difficult for someone to reach and loneliness was abundant, the only interaction was with nature and savage animals. Happiness engulfed McCandless when backpacking anywhere, it was his joy. Christopher also knew that his journey could be dangerous and that he could be stepping on the edge of death. Christopher writes this letter to Wayne Westerberg the grain elevator operator who becomes McCandless friend, “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild” (Krakauer 69). After reading or listening to the story, many