...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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...Christopher McCandless can be considered one of the most controversial figures of time. As one can see Into The Wild, some thought he was a fool, that he was incompetent, while some thought he was a hero, an 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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...In Chapter 8, Krakauer quotes Alaskans and their opinion on McCandless’s death. Many of the letters all have the common opinion that McCandless was another dumb and crazy young man who walked right into his death by fantasizing the Alaskan wild. This is the counter-argument to Krakauer’s rhetoric that he presents when he uses other “Jack London's” and compares their journey to McCandless’s. He argues that McCandless wasn’t mentally ill like John Waterman who walked into the wild of Mount Denali purposely unprepared in order to escape his life problems. McCandless also wasn’t naive and expecting a savior like Carl McCunn. The letters from the Alaskans add to the text because it shows the judgement that many had; these “Jack London’s” “could...
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...September 27, 2013 Writing Project 1 What would drive a person to abandon his or her life in society? Apparently Christopher McCandless is dumb enough to put everything he’s worked for on the line and just leave it all behind. Instead of moving on to graduate school, in May 1990, McCandless decided to abandon his family and social network to begin an adventure across North America that lasted two years and culminated in Alaska. You’re probably thinking, “Well, what’s so idiotic about that?” Well, perhaps it is his outcome that appears so mindlessly stupid, for McCandless' story of self-discovery ended tragically with the discovery of his remains in a derelict school bus by three hunters in September 1992. In “Selections from Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer, a travel writer and biographer, attempts to piece together what happened to McCandless, trying to determine what drove him to leave his old life behind, what prompted him to travel the continent, and ultimately what caused his early demise. In my essay, I will analyze Krakauer’s argument about Christopher McCandless. Specifically, the essay will analyze claims Krakauer makes about McCandless, different types of support he uses to strengthen his main point, and how Krakauer structures his argument. What Krakauer is truly trying to grasp is why did McCandless decide to make such a decision to embark on a journey that he was not really prepared for that eventually ended up in tragedy? He is so curious as to the events that took place...
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...what appears on the outside to look like a detachment from the common physical reality; they cannot consciously function in two realities simultaneously. Some people experience these detachments only briefly, and live most of their lives mentally focused on the physical reality. In “When I woke up Tuesday Morning, It was Friday,” Martha Stout attempts to explain the excessive mental detachment a number of her therapy patients experience, and the reasons for their prolonged escapes to their mental realities. In his Selection From Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer investigates the travels of a man named Chris McCandless, attempting to explain McCandless’s decision to escape into the Alaskan wilderness in an attempt to go as far away from modern civilization as possible. Juhani Pallasmaa argues that one’s senses have great effects on their interpretation of the reality they are in; his argument brings up the question of whether both author’s escapees did not simply feel a lack of belonging to the realities they were originally in, and therefore decided to escape. “Going away” is the escape method an individual uses to move from consciously being in an unsatisfying reality to being in a different, fulfilling one.s To understand this concept, we must first understand what a reality is. A reality is a unique set of surroundings one perceives around them. Pallasmaa describes how cities around the Pavlovsky 2 world have unique auras, claiming, “Every city...
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