Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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It’s hard to be able to convince someone a hundred percent on how to act or think about a certain subject. To be able to do so is nearly impossible. One may bring in lots of credible resource, but still be unable is get the audience to think a certain way. Jon Krakauer is one of the rare exceptions. Krakauer brings in numerous research, quotes, stories and evidence. Krakauer grew up in a parallel story to Chris McCandless, going on adventures at an early age. Krakauer has had his own fair share of dramatic nature expeditions including a climb of the Devils Thumb in Alaska and Mount Everest in Nepal. Both adventures cause him to be on the brink of death. In his novel, Into the Wild Krakauer includes numerous of credible interviews, passages …show more content…
As stated before, he’s been on several large journeys into the wilderness. Do to his experience, Krakauer is able to connect his life with that of McCandless. Krakauer feels that Chris and himself possess many similar attributes. “As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, and moody. I disappointed my father in the usual ways. Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please. If something captured my undisciplined imagination, I pursued it with a zeal bordering on obsession, and from the age of seventeen until my late twenties that something was mountain climbing” (pg. 134). This example of ethos describes Krakauer’s awareness to McCandless’s personality and that he is able to write about McCandless since he sees him as another version of himself. Krakauer believes that McCandless entered the wilderness with the same train of thought as himself. “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. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale” (pg. 155). Krakauer is able to relate his own life with McCandless, showing how the actions taken by McCandless weren’t totally irrational. Krakauer attempts to shed some light on the actions taken by McCandless. By giving examples of his own experience with his own thoughts and emotions, the audience is able to better relate and connect with McCandless’s controversial

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