Into The Wild Essay Revised
Johnny Wong
ENG 214-67
Nancy Sours
Fall 2012
Irate Truth
In his nonfiction book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer starts out the story with the death of young Chris McCandless and his two-year adventure ending at Alaska in April 1992. The discovery of Chris McCandless’s body influences Krakauer to write a brief article of his death for the Outside magazine. Readers of the magazine had different point of views for Chris’s death. Some admired him for his “courage and noble ideals” (Author’s note), while others thought that he was a “reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist... undeserving of the considerable media attention he has received.” (Author’s note) This controversy among many readers, along with Krakauer’s own insight into Chris’s point of view due to his previous experiences with his own father encouraged himself to write this book that started out from a simple magazine article. His story became like a scrambled puzzle set, when put together, may give us a better understanding of Chris McCandless’s journey “into the wild”. One important piece from this puzzle includes his discovery of his father’s secret. But another broken piece of the puzzle involves his naïve, risk-taking perspective to solving the problems he encounters in his life. While the reason behind this mystery can forever be irretrievable, we can make an assumption that Chris McCandless has spent his entire two-year adventure trying to find a greater meaning in life and avoiding truth in reality.
Krakauer suggested that a possible reason for Chris’s rebellion was due to his father’s long-ago marital problem. While his father believed he had succeeded in hiding this secret, he does not account for Chris’s ability to uncover the past. It was not until Chris’s junior year in college, where his suppressed anger begins to build up to a climax, yet he continues to keep his knowledge a secret, “expressed his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal.” (123) The tension built within Chris led to his
ENG 214-67
Nancy Sours
Fall 2012
Irate Truth
In his nonfiction book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer starts out the story with the death of young Chris McCandless and his two-year adventure ending at Alaska in April 1992. The discovery of Chris McCandless’s body influences Krakauer to write a brief article of his death for the Outside magazine. Readers of the magazine had different point of views for Chris’s death. Some admired him for his “courage and noble ideals” (Author’s note), while others thought that he was a “reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist... undeserving of the considerable media attention he has received.” (Author’s note) This controversy among many readers, along with Krakauer’s own insight into Chris’s point of view due to his previous experiences with his own father encouraged himself to write this book that started out from a simple magazine article. His story became like a scrambled puzzle set, when put together, may give us a better understanding of Chris McCandless’s journey “into the wild”. One important piece from this puzzle includes his discovery of his father’s secret. But another broken piece of the puzzle involves his naïve, risk-taking perspective to solving the problems he encounters in his life. While the reason behind this mystery can forever be irretrievable, we can make an assumption that Chris McCandless has spent his entire two-year adventure trying to find a greater meaning in life and avoiding truth in reality.
Krakauer suggested that a possible reason for Chris’s rebellion was due to his father’s long-ago marital problem. While his father believed he had succeeded in hiding this secret, he does not account for Chris’s ability to uncover the past. It was not until Chris’s junior year in college, where his suppressed anger begins to build up to a climax, yet he continues to keep his knowledge a secret, “expressed his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal.” (123) The tension built within Chris led to his