Diction For Into The Wild

Jon Krakauer had the same experience as McCandless with his family and travel to Alaska, but Krakauer knew more about survival and had company in case of any danger. Krakauer compares, “as a young man, I was unlike Mccandless in many important regard… And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul” (55). Acknowledging McCandless’s background, Chris left society because, in Krakauer’s point of view, of the “agitation of the soul” and the “similar heedless” of society. McCandless didn’t agree with society’s standards that being successful meant having a well paid occupation, especially when McCandless’s parents enforced it onto him. McCandless truly did not want to uphold the wishes of his parents, for Chris to go to college and get high paying career, but it wasn’t what Chris really wanted, so he left all of his conflicts with his parents and his values or “agitation of the soul” to create a new identity as Alex Supertramp and live in the wild. In today’s modern world, humanity lives in an environment where people are controlled and dependent on others. Chris’s father is someone he despises because of his characteristic of being controlling. Walter becomes controlling over Chris, who pressured him into college. As a result, Chris has an “agitation of the soul” to become independent, and a “heedlessness” for society and had an “intensity” for

Throughout Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, there are many details that help give the reader a deeper, more profound, meaning of the book's intended purpose. Krakauer is one of the most renowned American writers, publishing many books focused specifically focused on nature, and people’s struggles in nature. Through much of the book, Krakauer incorporates many examples of diction and imagery to help the reader grasp the essence of the book. By using a wide range of literary techniques, Krakauer is able to communicate the events that transpired throughout the book.

This is a very important part of the book because it shows the reader that the

Until, when he finally decided that it was time to escape society, and start living independently, to find out exactly who he was. “Hey, Guys! This is the last communication you shall receive from me. I now walk out to live amongst the wild. Take care, it was great knowing you. ALEXANDER” (Krakauer, 69). The day Chris said those words he was finally living his own life, instead of the life his parents gave him. He was proud to walk out of the life he didn’t want anymore and live the life that he always wanted to live. Besides Chris living his own life instead of his parents, he also lived to find his inner self.

One method Krakauer uses is characterization. He uses this technique to draw parallels to himself and the main character. The author convinces the reader just how similar he and Chris are for example, “As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, 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” (Krakauer, 134). This quote directly describes how similar Chris and Krakauer are. The author’s goal in writing this story was to tell Chris’s saga and give life to a truly eccentric man. He succeeds by describing how both his and McCandless’s journey had a huge impact on their personality and feelings towards society. During much of his trip, Chris avoided close relationships with people and had very little interaction with other human beings. As the reader learns more about the character and his life, we learn that he matured a great deal on his sojourn. Towards the end of his journey, he realizes, “happiness is only real when shared”. (McCandless, 189) By adding this quote, the reader feels sympathy for Chris because he is in such poor condition. At this point in the novel, the reader feels connected to the main character and his exuberant personality. Krakauer

In the story Into the Wild, Krakauer uses ethos, logos, and pathos in order to persuade his readers that Chris’s character is noble instead of reckless. Models of this are found when Krakauer writes under the assumption that the majority of his audience has a negative perception of McCandles, seeing him to be a character that likes crazy adventures, and whose suicidal predispositions lead them to meet their fate in the wild. Krakauer contradicts this through the use of different rhetorical appeals- logos, pathos, and ethos. He uses emotion and logic in order to prove to the audience that no, rhetorical to be and that there is much, much more to the story than a single gravestone in the Alaskan wilderness. The most obvious rhetorical appeal in this novel is Krakauer’s appeal to logos, which he establishes through the use of factual evidence. When describing McCandles’s family history and past achievements, Krakauer notes that “Chris graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, where he had been a

Furthermore, Krakauer, in the structuring of his book, presents the reader with great amounts of irony, both dramatic and situational. Fairly early in the story, we know that Chris is dead, and Krakauer uses this to an ironical advantage. By already knowing his fate and his background, the reader is able to see the irony is Chris’ death. By dying in a bus in tandem with dying only a couple of hours from civilization, Chris was not truly in the wild. Once again, Krakauer makes the reader sympathize with Chris, for he died not able to fulfill his dream and escape from society. Like in the bus, he was trapped within society, unable to escape no matter how hard he tried. His use of periodic sentences solidifies this idea. Specifically, when Krakauer travels with Chris’ parents to the place of their son’s death.

In the story, Henry David Thoreau has implemented numerous ideas that help Chris McCandless in his journey. During his journey to Alaska, Chris had to find ways to find food, build shelter and basically survive in this environment. One day, Chris killed a moose and started to cut him for food. After a couple of hours, he started to read one of his books, Walden by Henry David Thoreau. He circles and underlined one of the paragraphs in the book where

An epigraph is used to introduce themes and concerns. In the epigraph above the themes include angels (spirituality), gather (family) and river (water). The prologue constantly focuses on these three themes and they each have their own individual representations and meanings.

Much of the human race live their lives in accordance to what society sees as acceptable, but Christopher McCandless disregards societal norms in the novel Into the Wild. Within the novel, Jon Krakauer explores the story of Christopher McCandless’s journey to Alaska and investigates the events leading up to his death. Krakauer tells the story concerning McCandless’s life in a fashion that reveals a truth about nonconformity. Krakauer sends a message to common readers that nonconformity is not possible and the only way to survive the world we live in is to conform to our surroundings. Jon Krakauer express’s his ideals on nonconformity within Into the Wild through his non-chronological organizational structure, the use of logical reasoning,

Occasionally in a person's life, he or she wonders about a certain purpose in life. In extreme cases, when a person attempts to find one's self, he or she may find his or herself in a dangerous or even deadly position. In Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Chris McCandless goes out into the wilderness of Alaska to find himself, but he never returns. Jon Krakauer organizes his novel in a circular way, which ties the story together well, and he uses long, periodic sentences to detail and emphasize his points about life and death situations in order to create an aspect of imagery and description throughout the novel.

Although Chris McCandless’ controlling and toxic family environment was a major motive for his escape, his deep-seated internal battle was simply an irresistible impulse for discovery and liberty. Chris’ journey shows a new level of freedom; what true independence holds. He set out into nature alone without support of family or friends, searching for a path unlike those of most, and running from a barred cage of conventional living. Unsatisfied and somewhat angry with himself and his life of abundance in money, opportunity, and security, his preceding experiences and determined character lead him to an inevitable flee into no-mans land. Throughout the novel, Krakauer wants the reader to understand that there is more to Chris than his habit of criticising authority and defying society’s pressures. He needed more from himself, and more from life. He wasn’t an ordinary man, therefore could not live with an ordinary life. Krakauer demonstrates this by creating a complex persona for Chris that draws you in from the beginning.

The novel Into the Wild is a nonfiction novel published by Jon Krakauer who investigated the life and death of a free spirited individual named Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a recent Emory University graduate who sought to suck the marrow out of life through an independent experience in nature and purposely sought to this experience in the rawest form of supplies. He was found dead in August of 1992 in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. For the sake of his journey, he purposely didn't bring an adequate amount of food or supplies.   Consequently, those who read of his actions wonder what evoked him to live the way he

124). He furthers this by describing how Chris’ parents sent a letter saying” You have completely dropped away from all who love and care about you. Whatever it is—whoever you’re with—do you think this is right?” (p. 124). According to Krakauer, Chris saw this “as meddling and referred to the letter as stupid when talked to Carine” (p. 124). At this point, Krakauer is clearly pointing out Chris’ flaws and how he seemingly didn’t enough about his family to bother contacting them for long periods of time. He builds upon this when mentioning how Chris went on trans-continental journeys through the Mojave Desert and various places multiple times without saying a word. He even goes as far as to describe how in July 1992, 2 years after Chris left Atlanta, his mother awoke one night with tears rolling down her cheeks screaming, “I don’t know how I’ll ever get over it. I wasn’t dreaming. I didn’t imagine it. I heard his voice! He was begging, ‘Mom! Help me!’” (p. 126). Krakauer could have deliberately left out such disheartening details that portrayed Chris in a negative manner, as someone who would make his mother suffer in such a way, but he included them in order to give the reader as much perspective on Chris as possible.

Write an essay that discusses three different significant symbols from the book. Explain the significance of the symbol, why it is symbolic and how over the course of the novel that symbol changes. Make sure to explain why the changes to the symbol are significant to the interpretation of the novel. (remember symbols can be both objects and characters)