...Krakauer’s argument in chapters eight and nine display controversy over Chris McCandless’ journey, and eventual death. Numerous claims as to McCandless’ sanity where made, mostly by Alaskans. Krakauer explains these particular viewpoints through the story of Gene Rosellini, a man who spent a sizable portion of his life trying to “return to a natural state.” (page 74). Rosellini attempted to live his life as primitively as possible with the aim to subsist as a Stone Age native. After more than a decade, Rosellini concluded his experiment with a verdict saying that while he “realistically experienced the physical, mental, and emotional reality of the Stone Age,” ultimately, “it is not possible for human beings as we know them to live off the...
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...Throughout chapters fourteen and fifteen, Jon Krakauer’s own journey to climb the Devils Thumb in Alaska is discussed at length and is compared to the journey of Chris McCandless. In Krakauer’s adventures, he underwent circumstances that, in turn, help us to further understand the mindset of McCandless as he departed for Alaska. An example of this is the similarities between why Krakauer and McCandless left their homes. Both McCandless and Krakauer are described as people who are angered by figures of male authority. Additionally, both pursue their dreams with "a zeal bordering obsession" (page 134). Krakauer's reasoning for his journey was based upon John Menlove Edwards, a writer and psychiatrist who was deeply troubled and used rock climbing...
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...Justifying Krakauer’s Argument Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, received strong criticism from many about his work and its depiction of Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless, who journeyed across the United States and ultimately died in the Alaskan wilderness. As a part of his novel, Krakauer counters claims of Chris being “stupid, tragic and inconsiderate,” and instead paints him in a different light, displaying him as a young man with a profound moral compass seeking a higher truth. People such as Peter Christian had their two cents about McCandless; he reasoned from his own life experience that Chris was nothing special. Krakauer, on the other hand, writes to justify McCandless’s behavior, likewise, relating in his encounters...
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...from Emory, donated all of his savings, and embarked on a two year journey, which eventually resulted in his death in the wilderness of Alaska. Prior to his expedition, Chris uncovered the secret of his father's infidelity and of his second family. This cause Chris to separate himself from his parents, and fueled his desire to escape the greedy, complicated nature of society. On his travels across the western United States, Chris befriended many and kept in a distant touch with few, one of those select few being Wayne Westerberg, the owner of a grain elevator in South Dakota. After two years of hike-hiking as far south as Mexico, McCandless reached his final most northern...
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...task where nobody believes in you. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into the Wild, the main character Chris McCandless ultimately achieves transcendence on his journey. However, this can be argued. At the beginning of the book one of the first things revealed about Chris is his death. So how did he achieve transcendence if he died? Isn’t that failure itself, not succeeding at your task? Even though Chris’s life ends on his journey in Alaska, he found peace before his death. On his deathbed, Chris shows a change of heart. On page 199, he wrote a note, “McCandless penned a brief adios: ‘I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. MAY GOD BLESS ALL.’” This note was a goodbye. Chris was never able to say goodbye to his parents, friends, and other...
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...“I now walk into the wild.” Those were the eerie almost-haunting last words written in a letter by Chris McCandless addressed to Wayne Westerberg. One of many people that McCandless spent time with while during his compelling & exhilarating grand odyssey across America before his trip to Alaska. For as he described in his journal “The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.” Informatively written and researched by award winning adventure writer and journalist John Krakauer. He has pieced together a compelling and investigative look at what happened during the two years that McCandless shed his possessions and hit the road traveling across the country up until, his tragic death as...
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...Christopher McCandless was a young man who gave up everything when he decided to embark on a treacherous journey to Alaska. After a year of hitchhiking across the country, he finally arrived at his destination. Due to poor decisions, he eventually succumbed to his death. Many people, such as the Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer, believe that “McCandless wasn’t some feckless slacker, adrift and confused, racked by existential despair. To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily” (184). Even though I do not agree with the methods he used while on this spiritual journey, I do agree with Krakauer’s assertion that he kept hope alive even while close to death, and that his life “hummed with meaning and purpose”. McCandless came from a comfortable upper middle class family. Many people would say that Christopher McCandless had a relatively good life. His parents worked hard to provide him with all the necessary tools to ensure that he had a secure future. When he graduated, his parents were under the impression that he was going to attend law school. Chris had different plans which became evident when he donated all his money to OXFAM, and he disappeared into the wild. He didn’t want to be tied down by the stresses of today’s society; he didn’t want an ordinary life. He felt “emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers...
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...Christopher McCandless, the author of Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild." has been widely regarded as a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes the importance of individualism, nature, and self-reliance. This essay will argue that Chris McCandless fits into being a transcendentalist. Firstly, Chris McCandless embodies the transcendentalist value of individualism. Throughout his journey, he seeks to find his true self and rejects the expectations and constraints of society. He leaves his privileged life behind to live a simple and self-sufficient life in the wilderness. He does not conform to societal norms, nor does he seek approval from others. This pursuit of individualism is a key tenet of transcendentalism,...
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...Would you drop everything just to go live in a run down bus in the midst of an unknown area? In John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, a young man, by the name of Chris McCandless, embarks on a quest of independence. He believes life’s answers lie in the frozen Alaskan wilderness. Transcendentalism is the philosophy that one can discover a higher truth in nature and self perfection is achieved by transcending beyond the human experience. Therefore, Chor McCandless is a transcendentalist due to his desire to escape the society of conformity and his passion for self discovery. First, Transcendentalists believe in escaping society and conformity. In the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson states, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood...
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...Chris McCandless is a young man in Jon Krakauer's novel who drops everything to journey into the wilderness and find adventure. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher McCandless as careless and independant. Chris is described as man descriptive adjectives by many people but one that I believe fits him very well would have to be careless. “Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions… Alex didn't seem too worried” (Jon Krakauer 5). Chris went into the wilderness unprepared not ready for what he was about to encounter out there. He was prepared for what he was going to face mentally but not physically definitely not physically. All he had with hi was a pack of rice which probably didn't even last him a week so as you can there is one...
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...are two sides to every story. Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, which chronicles the life of amateur survivalist Chris McCandless, largely embodies this claim. It seems the people who ever heard Chris’s story were split into two sects: on one side, there are those who claim McCandless was a misunderstood anti-hero, who showed some twisted nobility through his actions. On the other side, there are those who simply deem McCandless, in Krakauer’s own words, “a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity” (4). While Krakauer falls into the former camp -- mainly due to his own life’s similarities to Chris’s -- it really only takes a moment’s glance at McCandless’s life to see that the latter camp is more correct: while Chris did show some semblance of courage and nobility on his travels, he was, first and foremost, a stubborn, arrogant misanthrope, and that is the reason why he never walked out of Alaska in August of 1992. From Chris McCandless’s early years of childhood, he showed stubbornness in his everyday life. As Chris’s father Walt ruminates, “Chris had so much natural talent, . . . but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up”...
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...opinion of him be? Would you think that he’s brave? Reckless? Jon Krakauer in his non-fiction story, Into the Wild tells the journey of a young man by the name of Chris McCandless. Chris, after enduring a childhood where he was given everything in the world besides a loving household decided to leave everything behind, burn and donate all of his money and walk into the brisk wilderness of Alaska’s Denali area after hitchhiking around the continent a couple of years prior. Krakauer is impartial enough to let the reader form their own opinion of McCandless, even though his own opinions slip in at some points. Krakauer uses negative...
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...idealistic, intelligent man. A critic of Chris's, as the one stated in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild novel, claims "Not only did Chris McCandless die because he was stupid, one Alaska correspondent observed, 'but the scope of his self-styled adventure was so small as to ring pathetic-squatting in a wrecked bus a few miles out of Healy, potting jays and squirrels, mistaking a caribou for a moose (pretty hard to do)...Only one word for the guy:incompetent". Meanwhile there are many who fall in between the distinct line that separates the average critic or supporter of Chris McCandless. This small select group of people would disagree with this critic for multiple reasons. First, the "caribou" was in fact a moose, secondly McCandless's would have survived if it weren't for a miniscule fatal mistake. Thirdly,...
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...Unlike many books, the structure of this narrative is nonlinear. Right off the back Krakauer announces the death of Chris McCandless within the first chapter. The chronology of the way Krakauer narrates the story of McCandless helps the reader better understand each part of McCandless’s life and journey “into the wild”. Many readers should take acknowledgement of how thoroughly Krakauer constructs this book and in detail how the narrative changes among two parts of Chris McCandless’s life. For example, the book begins with McCandless’s appearance in Alaska and the final individual to interact with McCandless before obtaining his anticipated goal of freedom and happiness in the wildness of Alaska. A few pages into chapter one Chris McCandless was, “Then, smiling broadly, he disappeared down...
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...Into the Wild Character Analysis Essay Chris McCandless, the main character in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, is a man with many problem in his life, in which, sets out to find his true self by surrounding himself with nothing but nature in the Alaskan wilderness. In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher Mccandless as foolish and determined. Christopher Mccandless is a guy who sought out nature to find the true meaning of life, but in doing so, it killed him because he was foolish. Chris was going to make the long journey to Alaska by foot, but everyone else knew he would end up needing a ride, but ¨… when they see that [machete]¨(Krakauer, 68), no one's gonna want to. He intended to make his long journey and live off nature...
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