Use Of Ancillary Character In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

It has been very perplexing reading this novel and trying to truly understand the motives one would have to have to make the decisions McCandless made. I am questioning Chris’ motives for cutting ties with his family and travelling all around the country. I think that he truly had a deep love and spiritual connection with nature. It began as a young child when Walt McCandless (Chris’ father) took Chris on many excursions in the outdoors, such as hiking in the mountains. Chris immediately fell in love with nature and all of the pleasures it had to offer. Also, Chris was motivated by his withering relationship with his family. Early in his life his parents worked tirelessly and it was difficult for Chris to spend time and build a solid relationship with them. Throughout his young life he had disagreed with his parents about many aspects of life. It was said that he

Chris McCandless's parents were prepared to send him to law school upon his graduation from Emory University because they were under the impression that that's what he wanted to do. They had no idea what their son was really planning. “'We misread him,' his father admits. What Walt, Billie, and Carine didn't know...was that he would shortly donate all the money in his college fund to...a charity dedicated to fighting hunger.” (20) They had no idea what he was really up to, and that's how he wanted it. He just wanted to live his own life without his parents even knowing where he was.

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.

One reason I believe Chris’s adventure was ludicrous is because he left originally in part to get away from his family due to ongoing conflicts. Conflicts between family members is a natural process within a family and certainly is resolvable with attention and problem-solving the issue. In McCandless’s situation specifically, he developed anger most directly related to his father’s adultery from his past. As Krakauer writes, “Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his

Another burden Christopher’s family laid on him was a massive amount of guilt. As mentioned above, Chris felt responsible for the ‘abandonment’ of Walt’s ex-wife and her children. Carine writes, “From the time we were small children, still unaware of how children come to be, I remember Chris being consistently told through our mother’s tears that the family struggles began with his birth, when she became ‘stuck’ with our dad. Chris carried this unfounded guilt with him until the wisdom that comes with age resulted in feelings of betrayal and eventually anger. This mislaid blame was never rescinded, only ignored.”3 Carine, Chris’s youngest and only natal sister, believed that the painful and unbearable family life that they endured provided Chris with a just reason to abandon his life. She respected this part of his motivation for leaving,

This is one reason why he decided to leave home; he wanted to experience the life of not having anything to his name, this is also shown through out the book during his journeys, however this not the only reason why he left home. The ultimate reason why he left home was because of what his father had done. A cab driver name Stuckey whom helped McCandless reach Alaska elaborated that McCandless said that he found out that his father was living a bigamist life and that it went against Chris’s beliefs (159). This was ultimately one of the reasons why Chris left home and had no feelings towards his parents. This exhibits the hatred and no remorseful attitude McCandless had through out the book towards his parents, especially his father. However, this attitude towards his father and civilization is justified completely when he decided to leave home and take on the wilderness.

The father and son conflict is a crucial theme in the nonfiction book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. In Jon Krakauer’s book, the main character, Chris McCandless exhibits a lifelong conflict with his father, Walt McCandless. Chris is an erudite, talented, yet stubborn young man. He yearns to leave the typical lifestyle of the upper middle class American family, and after graduating college at Emory, he mysteriously disappears. Walt is a controlling man with a morally unstable past, and his career and money is of more value to him than his family. The theme often appears in the background of the book, representing one of the major motivations for Chris McCandless’ absence. This theme is evident

Throughout the novel, Christopher McCandless’s character changed over time. Up to McCandless’s death, he wanted to live with the wild and to be away from civilization as far as possible. He changes his mind when he writes “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). His purpose of living in the wild is to live with freedom and do whatever he wishes to do. However, he realizes he was a “refuge in nature” (189) and intended to abandon his solitary life and rejoin the human community. It is assumed that McCandless died a preventable death because of his unpreparedness, but it is now undeniable that his adversity is what caused his mortality. “…McCandless simple had the misfortune to eat moldy seeds. An innocent mistake, it was nevertheless

Throughout his adolescent to young adult years it was very clear that Chris had an attachment to the wild. In chapter 11, as Walt reminisces about Chris and their family camp trips he reflects, “‘Chris loved those trips, the longer the better . . .’”(108). Even at a very young age, Chris had a fascination about living within

His parents, who believed their son was in college, quickly became aware of his absence after seeing his vacant home and months of mail, which were redirected to their house by Chris. They instantly got in contact with Chris’s rented house manager, but “By then Chris was long gone. Five weeks earlier he’d loaded all his belongings into his little car and headed west without an itinerary. The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything”(22). Without warning McCandless left, starting his journey across the country to escape and find himself in nature. Chris, motivated by the urge to explore himself and the United States, left on a legendary adventure which would change him and the people he met along the way. Chris’s traits of exploration, thrill seeking and motivation are expressed in both Tolstoy and Stegner epigrams. Chris is prepared to leave his peaceful life in search of a true purpose for himself, and to live like no ordinary person would. These traits Chris expresses are similar and inspired by Tolstoy work, which was found with the remains of

Not only did Chris McCandless sacrifice so much for the future that he wanted, but he remained focus on his goal and he never ever regretted a minute of it. Even close to his death he was always smiling in the pictures he took and he never looked for a way out. He came into the wild and learned to be one with it. He respected it and learned from it all while staying at his peak of happiness. Chris McCandless’ did not necessarily have a bad life, but it was clear that he was not always happy. When he was truly happiest, he was alone. His disapproval of modern day society is evident throughout the book; “I told him ‘Man, you gotta have money to get along in this world’ but he wouldn’t take it” (46). He realized he needed to be separated from these people and live on his own. He decided to change his course for the future into an isolated lifestyle all without notice to the people that loved him. He was set up for a great life, but he ended it all to follow his dreams and fulfill his purpose. Not

The major contribution making it a fiction was the dad lived a double life. Chris found out when he visited his neighborhood (El Segundo) where he grew up the first six years of his life. There he pieced together the information about his father’s first marriage. Found out that Walt did split from his first wife and remarried, had Chris. Meanwhile, he continued his relationship with the first wife. When Jon Krakauer wrote that, “I’m going to completely knock them out of my life. I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live” (64). Such a quote showed that Krakauer understood that McCandless hit the maximum point where he could not tolerate this “fake relationship” and would have a hard time forgiving his parents. This shaped Chris to be independent and closed off from sharing his feelings. On the other hand, relationship with his younger sister was a genuine one. As Carine described it, “He was always really nice to me” (110). When the parents would be quarreling, Chris would protect her, when they walked down the street, Chris would hold her hand. Even though he was the shortest in his class, he was strong. All these actions made them close and were able to count on each other. This relationship shaped Chris in a way maybe to see his potential in protecting others first and see if he can protect and survive

When we think of minor characters of a story we think that they aren’t important or contribute anything towards the development of the plot. We usually think of them as background extras or unrelated plot to make the story longer, however that's not the case, minor characters are very important in advancing the theme or plot. They can have a major impact as in changing how the main character feels or act, or develop the story even further. Even if they don’t have a tremendous effect to the main character or story. Minor character plays certain roles to bring the story together. In this essay I will show three examples of minor characters in three different stories.

Chris is a charismatic young man, but takes extensive measures to ensure he does not become too close with anyone. By going out into the wild without so much as a letter to his parents,

The success of literary works depends greatly on the quality of its characters, which is why it is essential to have characters, both major and minor, with distinct and contrasting personalities. Not only are minor characters used as foils for the major characters by emphasizing their important character traits, but in many cases they furthermore play a crucial role in the advancement of the plot. In the three novels that were examined this year, The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner, and The Handmaids Tale, the minor character had a pivotal role in the development of the plot. In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is not only the narrator but he is the image of order in a society of disorder. In The Kite Runner, Rahim Khan is the moral center