Chris Krakauer's Obsession With The Road

In the Book Into the Wild, John Krakauer seems to Idolize Chris McCandless. Throughout the book, Krakauer mindlessly adores McCandless and defends his every decision no matter how irresponsible it is. His predilection towards Chris is completely unreasonable, because McCandless makes some obviously imbecilic choices. Despite Krakauer trying to justify McCandless’ leaving home as trying to find meaning in his life, It sounded like an overconfident teenager going through a rebellious phase.

In the first part of Chapter 8, Krakauer quotes Alaskans who had opinions about McCandless and his death.

In chapters 14 and 15, autobiographer, Jon Krakauer shares his experience on the Stikine Icecap attempting to climb the Devil’s thumb. The inclusion of his personal experience helps the reader see how he can relate to Chris McCandless’s motivation to go to Alaska without having ever met him. Krakauer's experience illustrates the similarities of both of their lives and personalities.Krakauer describes himself as a willful, self-absorbed, passionate, and moody child who had problems with male authority figures. In his late twenties he becomes focused on climbing and begins to undertake more dangerous climbs. After a few years, he is determined to make the climb in Alaska’s Devils Thumb. Much like Chris, Jon will do the climb alone. He quits his

Krakauer begins the novel in medias res, which causes an interruption in the organization and lack of information about McCandless, in which case, he must use syntactical permutation to give all the information necessary and mirror the unknown thoughts of McCandless. Throughout the novel, Krakauer changes points of view to gain different perspectives of McCandless as well as jump to a different point in time as he does by starting chapter two with a narration and description of setting of the Stampede Trail, but then switches in the middle of the chapter to “Thompson made it to the far bank” (Krakauer 11). In addition to chapter two’s deduction, chapter three begins with describing Wayne Westerberg as a “hyperkinetic man with thick shoulders

One thing he said was “But I believe we were similarly affected by the skewed relationships we had with our fathers. And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul.” Him and Chris had similar experiences with their harsh fathers, they also shared the same hatred of conformity and society. Krakauer really does understand McCandless better than anyone else could because of all these things. You may not believe that Chris was courageous or intellectual, but it’s hard to deny the relationship between him and Krakauer.

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?

Throughout the novel Krakauer spends a lot of time reflecting back on the events, he often expresses how drastically his life has changed since the ordeal. One of the most significant changes he has had to face is his development survivor’s guilt, a condition causing a victim to feel guilty for surviving a traumatic event. Consequently, he felt as if he could have done more to save his partners. As time went on his condition gradually became worse, it wasn’t before long that he looked for outlet to channel his energy through, eventually, he decided to turn back to writing. To ensure that his writing would be as authentic as possible, he reconnected with many of the remaining survivors to interview them for their perspectives, working hard to

Krakauer presents this tone by quoting the McCandless family. Carine, Christopher’s younger sister, had difficulties getting over her brother’s death. “Ten months after Chris’s death, Carine still grieves deeply for her brother. “I can’t seem to get through a day without crying” ”(129). Krakauer also explains how Christopher’s family all suffered from an eating disorder and acquired unhealthy weight gain/loss. “ “I just don’t understand why he had to take those kind of chances,” Billie protests through her tears.” (132). Krakauer secretly indicates sadness within the text.

Krakauer does have one thing in common with Chris. Sympathising with random people who they have never met and who probably don’t deserve it. “ Chris apparently judged artist and close friends by their work, not their life, yet he was temperamentally incapable of extending such lenity to his father.” ( Krakauer 122) The artists he mentions did the exact same stuff as his father, who he despises. Jack London was a drunk who had no clue what he was writing about, Tolstoy wrote a book about celibacy, yet had 13th children, some were even conceived when he published it. One author Chris admired greatly was a drunk like Jack, but even worse, he would also beat up his girlfriends. All of them liars and terrible people, based on their actions. Chris’s father beat his wife and his children, including Chris. He also lied to his kids and tried to hide having two families at the same time. Yet Krakauer says “... that McCandless did not misrepresent the facts; telling the truth was a credo he took seriously” (29). Completely ignoring the fact Chris looked up to, thought highly of, and enjoy the work of these artists even though one of them, their entire book was a lie.

He lived a lie for a short time in his life. He been told before that his birth is what started the chaos in his large family. He’d taken himself through college and he was on the brink of starting his life. In my opinion, I think Chris didn’t let go of his childlike personality and reckless behavior because after learning so much about transcendentalism he wanted to do something that he wanted to do because he wasn’t ready to start living in this modern society. Krakauer explains,“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it,” (Krakauer 155). This excerpt was more of Krakauer’s feelings about Chris McCandless. He doesn’t think McCandless is so naïve or arrogant but sees that Chris was young and that was his main flaw. McCandless’s youth is what was his main downfall.

In chapters eight and nine, Krakauer interrupts Chris’ story to tell a few strikingly similar stories of journeys into the wilderness. Through

Jack Kerouac is considered a legend in history as one of America's best and foremost Beat Generation authors. The term "Beat" or "Beatnic" refers to the spontaneous and wandering way of life for some people during the period of postwar America, that seemed to be induced by jazz and drug-induced visions. "On the Road" was one such experience of Beatnic lifestyle through the eyes and heart of Jack Kerouac. It was a time when America was rebuilding after WW I. Describing the complexity and prosperity of the postwar society was not Karouac's original intent. However, this book described it a way everyone could visualize. It contained examples and experiences of common people looking for new and exciting

     Jack Kerouac is the first to explore the world of the wandering hoboes in his novel, On the Road. He created a world that shows the lives and motivations of this culture he himself named the 'Beats.' Kerouac saw the beats as people who rebel against everything accepted to gain freedom and expression. Although he has been highly criticized for his lack of writing skills, he made a novel that is both realistic and enjoyable to read. He has a complete disregard for developed of plot or characters, yet his descriptions are incredible. Kerouac?s novel On the Road defined the post World War II generation known as the 'beats.'

In one of the first few pages of Krakauer’s novel, he notes that Chris’ story was heavily criticised. “Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity--and was undeserving of the considerable media attention he received.” (pg. 3). This, of course, was proven to not only limited to the negative feedback he received from Alaskans; but globally. In the case of Simpson’s article, it gave off a sense of disapproval. In her own words, “We were too cynical to read entry after entry from people looking for meaning in the life and death of a man who had rejected his family, mooched his way across the country and called himself “Alexander Supertramp” in the third person. I struggled to imagine the emotional currents that had carried people here to the bus, so far from their homes, to honor his memory.”. To interpret from this, it seems to be frequent that Alaskans hold no personal interest towards the meaning behind his death. More or less, Simpson generalizes the typical Alaskan take on his story. On the other hand, Jim Gallien was also an adventurer in Alaska who was the last to see McCandless before his journey, and his attitude was much more open minded.

Jack Kerouac was an American writer and poet of French-Canadian descent who made a significant mark in history in writing during the post-World War II era. He was recognized as the leader of the Beat movement generation and most popular book, “On the Road” which was published in 1957. The Beat Generation was known as the movement that was started by a group of authors that researched and influenced American culture and politics at the time. It can be understood to say that the Beat Generation was the precursor for the Flower Children of the 1960’s. These group of authors of the Beat Generation included Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Sal Paradise and others. Majority of the work of the Beat Generation was recognized and published during the 1950s. Jack Kerouac’s first novel “Town and City” was published in 1950 was an autobiography of small town values and inspirations city life. Unfortunately, his first novel did not give him much recognition. Jack Kerouac also wrote The Dharma Bums, Visions of Cody, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Lonesome Traveler and several other novels. He originally wrote “On the Road” in 1951 on a single scroll manuscript paper stretching 120 feet long which publishers rejected for six years. “On the Road” took Jack Kerouac three weeks to write and was an immediate best seller once it got published in 1957. Jack Kerouac’s writing of the book