Analysis Of The Novel 'Into The Wild' By Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a non-fiction novel that tells the story of Christopher McCandless and his journey and adventure through the Alaskan wilderness. This is a very powerful novel to me and I really enjoyed it. The use of quotes at the beginning of every chapter, the respect Krakauer has for McCandless, and the mental and physical toughness of McCandless really make this a powerful book with a meaningful message. Krakauer begins every chapter of Into the Wild with a quotation. The quote chosen always pertains to the upcoming information in the chapter. Through quotations, Krakauer is foreshadowing the upcoming events of the chapter. For example, a quote from Leo Tolstoy's Family Happiness, opens chapter three. This is because this quote was found underlined in McCandless'scopy of Tolstoy's book, that was discovered with McCandless's remains. This is about the love of danger, which is obviously very important to McCandless. This quote also leads Krakauer to talk about McCandless's family.
Krakauer was one of the only people that understood McCandless and why he did what he did. I think this is in part because they are very similar people. Like McCandless, Krakauer loves the wilderness and through another book, Into Thin Air, tells the story of his climb of Mt. Everest. After McCandless is discovered dead in Alaska, Krakauer immediately writes an article about him and defending him against those who spoke negatively about him. He knows McCandless's story and wants to tell people, because it is meaningful. There was more to McCandless than meets the eye and Krakauer felt like it was his responsibility to make this