How To Write An Essay On Krakauer's Life

Furthermore, another example is when Chris’s former co-worker at McDonalds talks about Chris’s time as an employee when he says, “He always worked at the same slow pace, even during the lunch rush, no matter how much you got on him”(40). This quote describes Chris’s work ethic while he worked at McDonalds, which is very surprising considering past reviews about him. However, he did not work very hard and did not to seem to care one bit about his job at McDonalds because his focus was all on Alaska. Chris’s arrogance is shown in this quote because he has given up on society. He just doesn’t care anymore and all he wants to do is go to Alaska. He is completely ignoring the fact that people are living normal lives and that not everything is about his adventure. Also, Chris is being very selfish because people that are actually a part of society who need things, but he is ignoring everybody that he does not associate with. That works when you are in the wild with no responsibility but in the real world, Chris needed have a sense of urgency. He was ignorant toward society because he does not think and function like everyone else that he was around. Since Chris didn’t fit into society he decided to run away from everything. Krakauer message is present because Chris couldn’t fit into society because he can’t handle responsibility. He could not fit into society and Chris was so ignorant toward society, so he just left the whole thing behind to go start a new life.

The first of many devices Krakauer uses is foreshadowing. He uses foreshadowing to methodically hint to what might take place next. In the book Krakauer is separated from the other members of his team knowing that “It would be many

Krakauer’s use of stylistic devices throughout his book is quite phenomenal. Just a few examples of the stylistic techniques that he uses to uncover his tone are: polysyndeton, anaphora, and antithesis. Krakauer remains indifferent towards Chris for a good 6 chapters, states all the facts, and tells the story as it is. He uses no emotion appealing words to hint to us how he feels about Chris. His indifference is shown through his use of polysyndeton, which is the use of several conjunctions when not necessary.

The main character and protagonist, Jon Krakauer, is a United States client and journalist who is on an expedition to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. He takes the reader through his horrifying experiences on the mountain, including the death of his team, lack of oxygen, and horrible weather. The conflict in this novel is an internal and external conflict. It is an internal conflict of man vs. himself. Jon Krakauer, had to go through mental states of giving up and dying on the mountain

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

Krakauer worked a dead end job that was going to get him nowhere, until one day he built up the courage to quit his job, leave his home town, and make his dreams a reality. He drove from his home, with nothing but his car, and two hundred dollars to his name. Krakauer felt that by climbing The Devil’s Thumb, he would find himself amongst the frozen rocks and deep crevasses. He thought that if he could not climb this mountain, then his life meant nothing. He strove to be respected in the eyes of others, and he thought that if he did this, then he would

Although Krakauer, through much of Into the Wild, offers a defense for McCandless’s-not to mention others’ and even his own-affinity for daring and high-risk behaviors, in Ch. 13 he concedes that those who engage in these behaviors often lack the empathy necessary to see the weight of their actions through the perspectives of friends and loved ones. McCandless’s sister, Carine, had taken note of this carelessness with his life. When Krakauer was meeting with her for an interview after Chris’s death, Carine had said that “Chris didn’t think twice” about the potential lethality of his situation, save for when he had “[Buckley] with him” (128). By including the perspective of a close family member, Carine, Krakauer is able to prove that McCandless,

“As a youth, [Krakauer was] told, [he] was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, moody. [He] disappointed [his] father…. Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in [him]…confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please. If something captured [his] undisciplined imagination, [he] pursued it with a zeal bordering on obsession, and from the age of seventeen until [his] late twenties that something was mountain climbing” (134).

Krakauer has a straight-to-the-point, concrete writing style. I tend to favor abstract writing with a great deal of figurative language. I had a hard time finding trope, but My favorite simile in the book is on page 96. It said, “Like a super villain in a Marvel comic book, he seemed to be endowed with the ability to absorb the mightiest blows his enemy could deliver, draw energy from them, and become more powerful as a consequence.” This quote is comparing Osama bin Laden to a villain in a comic book because it seemed like no matter what attempts the U.S. made to take him down, he always came back stronger. If there had been more similes like this, the book would’ve been better. Also, Krakauer’s excessive use of acronyms left me feeling frustratingly confused. Nevertheless, not all is bad about Krakauer’s writing technique. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he included actual entries from Pat Tillman’s journal and statements from Tillman’s friends and family. In doing so, Krakauer made me easily connect and empathize with Pat Tillman and his loved ones. This made a powerful impact on the book and reader.

Krakauer's rather informal yet factual tone enables him to relay the important details of McCandless's adventure while keeping the readers engaged in the story. Krakauer frequently inserts his own thoughts into the story, but his

Krakauer uses research about the life of McCandless in order to establish his ethos and convey his thesis of the novel. When Krakauer presents the information concerning McCandless’s death, he quotes directly from the moose hunters who found him dead and describes the exact setting of the situation. Krakauer beings by explaining the scene at which the moose hunters found him, “A few hundred yards beyond the river the trail disappeared” (Krakauer 12). Krakaurer’s use of description enables readers to visualize the scene better and create a major sense of trust between the author and reader. Krakauer then imbeds a quote directly from the moose hunters that found McCandless’s body who explains that there was “a real bad smell from inside” (Krakauer12). Appealing to the reader’s sense of smell, and also using the perspective of the exact people that found McCandless’s body, establishes a more ethical appeal to the audiences trust in the information the author is presenting. Also, Krakauer cites an exact note found on the bus where McCandless was discovered which states that he is “Near death” (Krakauer 12). The note displayed in the text is written in a different font, implying that the proceeding text is written by a different author, and is also signed by McCandless himself. The research Krakauer did is directly shown here because of his factual evidence. The use of factual information from the scene of the death provides a

Krakauer’s first person point of view shows his thoughts and his experiences as he climbs the Devil’s Thumb. “The climbing was so steep and so exposed it made my head spin” (142). Krakauer can easily show his encounter with the wild and what runs through his mind. His first person point of view also symbolizes how McCandless could have felt during his hike on the Stampede Trail. “My eyesight blurred, I began to hyperventilate, my calves started to shake” (143). Krakauer’s experiences were similar to that of McCandless’s because the Devil’s Thumb is abreast to the Stampede Trail and they went through comparable weather conditions. Not every day does McCandless write in his journal, so Krakauer must show what may have happened to McCandless using his first person view of his past. If Krakauer did not share his

Krakauer continues to use emotions through different language choices reflective in varieties of figures of speech to connect his experiences towards his audience, through his inclusion of guilt. Krakauer heavily focuses on the emotional appeal towards survivor's guilt and reflecting this emotional appeal towards his audience in his linguistic choices. The heavy guilt and wondering are directed towards the unknown of Andy Harris, haunting Krakauer continuously. Krakauer uses guilt to say, “My actions - or failures to act - played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris” (283). Krakauer emphasizes pauses to admit to the guilt he feels for not understanding what happened to Andy, as well as to think about the interactions he had to comprehend why the death has occurred. The use of figures of speech through pauses and emphasizing his “failures to act” shows how Krakauer is trying to understand the death of a significant figure in his life. The uncertainty of views when tracing his steps on how Harris’s death results from the small blame upon only Krakauer, rather than on the other dangerous factors. He continues to affirm his guilt, “...the stain this has left on my psyche is not the sort of thing that washes off after a few months of grief and guilt-ridden

In Krakauer’s story of fear, pain, and survival, he has ignited effects like suspense and tension, causing the reader to place themselves in his worn-out mountain shoes-mostly relying on devices like foreshadowing, pacing, manipulation of time and exposition as a cause.

The author skillfully uses literary techniques to convey his purpose of giving life to a man on an extraordinary path that led to his eventual demise and truthfully telling the somber story of Christopher McCandless. Krakauer enhances the story by using irony to establish Chris’s unique personality. The author also uses Characterization the give details about Chris’s lifestyle and his choices that affect his journey. Another literary element Krakauer uses is theme. The many themes in the story attract a diverse audience. Krakauer’s telling is world famous for being the truest, and most heart-felt account of Christopher McCandless’s life. The use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme help convey the authors