Brandon Waldrep
Period 2
9-28-14
AP Lang & Comp
“Into the Wild” Essay Prompt #1
The presentation of Chris J. Mccandless story is influenced by the authors supposed relation to Chris, empathy for Chris, and emphasis of Chris’s intellectual/charismatic encounters with the people he meets. Krakauer portrays his views of Mccandless through these personalized presentations of Chris’s life or his own in the book. Krakauer uses, overall, empathy and emphasis of Chris’s good deeds and attributes in the presentation of his story to portray his views of Chris.
Krakauer emphasizes opinions of people who encountered Chris throughout the book that tell about Chris’s good attributes. Westerberg, whom Chris worked with on a farm before going to Alaska, says “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent” (Krakauer 18) and Franz, an old man that gets close with Chris, says “God, he was a smart kid” (Krakauer 52). These examples in the book of the author highlighting these opinions make you start to think it’s the authors. Especially since these opinions are from several different people, but all seem to focus on the opinion that Chris had intellectual ability. The book constantly reminds you of the author’s opinion of Chris throughout the characters in the book including Franz, Westerberg, Borah, Burres and Stuckey. All of Chris’s encounters with these people are drawn out, taking many pages of the book like chapter six that talks about almost nothing but Chris’s relation with Franz. The chapter starts off with a letter from Franz requesting a magazine highlighting Chris’s death which sparks empathy at the beginning just like the beginning of the book from chapter two talking about Chris’s death of starvation mentioning that no fat remained on Chris’s body and his desperate S.O.S. flag. The empathy and details that surround Chris death in the book do not share pity, but a respect or awe of his life portraying the author thinks the situation is more complex and special. In chapter two regarding Chris’s death it says “that recorded the young man’s final weeks in 113 terse, enigmatic entries” (Krakauer 13). This quote is talking about what is on Chris’s camera at death as the author uses the word terse to describe Chris’s words as concise, but enigmatic or mysterious inside his journal. The author thinks Chris is special in a way from this statement, that Chris didn’t just write some words down like any other tramp who wandered off into the wilderness. That he was more than the sum of his actions, more than what the people of outdoor magazine thought of Chris’s death, a man of dreams, or an adventurer. Such close detail is the work of an author who feels he has a relation to the character.
In the article “Wild Thing” by the blogger funnyface on blogspot.com, it says “Krakauer had an experience very similar and can relate to Mccandless and his hunger for adventure. He doesn’t think Mccandless was batty but as an explorer”. Krakauer portrays his views of Mccandless through a big part of the story right before the chapters on Chris’s death to give you his final rhetorical statements. The article “Into the Wild-By Jon Krakauer Book Review” posted by erin berman states “Krakauer oversteps his boundaries as an author by emphasizing their similarities in order to draw conclusions”. This statement says the author now, breaking the barrier of himself and the book, doesn’t have to share his opinions through people in the story. He can share it through himself. In chapter 15 he says “When I decided to go to Alaska that April, like Chris Mccandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic” (Krakauer 155). This view of Chris shares the author’s empathy for him, as the author can see himself in Chris when he was a younger man. You’re thinking yeah, but the author says Chris acted on a gap-ridden logic right? Well the author is relating himself to a young man’s not fully developed frontal cortex and still shares his views that he was intellectually adept and had high moral standards in his other statement “I possessed neither his intellect nor his lofty ideals. Lofty? Doesn’t that mean superior views? “His intellect”? The author clearly is saying Chris isn’t a no brain hiker, that he has intellectual ability and is just a dreamer with a passion like him for adventure and the wilderness.
The author finally directly shared his views of Chris after trying to present the story in a way to share his views through people Chris encounters and the empathy for Chris or his enigmatic nature that is not seen by the people that contradict the author in that they think Chris was a dumb, typical tramp. The author tried to present the story through empathy and other people to share his views, but ended up interjecting, presenting the story directly through himself to share his views.

Bibliography * Berman, Erin. “Into The Wild-By Jon Krakauer Book Review”. Erinberman.wordpress.com.11Apr.2010.Web.20Sept.2014. <http://erinberman.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/into-the-wild-by-Jon-Krakauer-Book-review/.> * “Wild Thing”. Blogspot.com. /Jan.2012.Web.20Sept.2014. <http://funnyface-wildthing.blogspot.com/2012/01/Krakauers-attitude-toward-Mccandless.html.>
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