The Things They Carried Fear Analysis

Improved Essays
Studying the motivations of humanity, American Literature analyzes the positive and negative effects of fearing the unknown. Terror and panic brought on by fear are more paralyzing than any other feeling within the human range of emotions. American Authors assess behavioral changes caused by the crippling fear of the unknown, ranging from personality shifts, to reckless behavior, investigating the way fear affects different individuals. Tim O’Brien uses his war book The Things They Carried to exemplify the most unavoidable unknown that people face: the fear of death. Tim announces it as well, “I was scared,” (O’Brien, 215). Tim and all the soldiers around him have a near constant fear of death while in battle because in reality, no one has any tangible facts about life after dying and that unknown creates a paralyzing …show more content…
Pieces of American Literature similar to Into The Wild often show the world how honest fear can be. They give a glimpse of the raw emotions of the human soul and how every fear, from dreading conformity to the basic trepidation of death, giving American Authors the ability to teach the public about themselves in the most basic and enjoyable way. Studying defense mechanisms, American Authors illuminate how fantasies arise from the subconscious denial of reality and produce grave consequences. Denial is one of the biggest defense mechanisms within human nature. American Authors use it to showcase flaws within the minds of their characters, pairing it with the invention of a false reality. For example, in Into the Wild, Krakauer illustrates Chris McCandless 's denial of danger and stupidity through the illusionary name “Alexander Supertramp” and his journals written as a story, “Alex has one spare oar. He calms himself. If loses second oar is dead,” (Krakauer, 36). Writing his journal in third person removes him from the terror-filled

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Ethos In Into The Wild

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jon Krakauer, in his novel Into the Wild, tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who set out to survive in the Alaskan wilderness without proper preparation. Chris was a young man who ventured all throughout North America living off of the barest of essentials/resources. Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price for his lack of preparation and naivety in the end. Chris was found dead in an abandoned Fairbanks City bus on the Stampede Trail in Alaska. Thus the novel was written to further describe the events leading up to Chris McCandless’ death.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel, Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is a riveting, cautionary tale about the death of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarks on a journey to Alaska to seek the truth of happiness through the solitude of nature and free himself from the constraints of society. No doubt, the ongoing theme throughout Krakauer’s novel is the dysfunctional father-son relationship between Chris and his dad. In fact, McCandless died before he had the chance to grow out of his anger. Into the Wild examines the fatal expedition of Chris McCandless as he breaks all ties from society and challenges his ability to survive in the wilderness. Through the use of primary sources, situational irony, and syntax, Krakauer thoroughly captures the compelling tragedy of Chris McCandless.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is important to live life doing what one loves. In the nonfiction book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the main character Chris McCandless leaves home to accomplish his dream of living off the land in Alaska on his own away from society. The main character in this story has been called both a hero and a fool and it is still a controversy today. This topic has sparked a lot of debate among the readers of the novel. The purpose of this novel is to reveal all of the significant events that happened throughout Chris McCandless’s journey to Alaska.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As we jump “Into the Wild” story of Chris McCandless’s journey throughout the Alaskan wilderness, Jon Krakaur, the author uses rhetorical devices to further delve into the novel and the underlying points of McCandless’s adventure. In the novel, “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakaur uses pathos, imagery, and arrangement to solve the overarching questions related to motive, the effects of setting, and the mental state of Chris McCandless. These uses of rhetorical devices also help readers formulate opinions on McCandless and other Characters in the novel. The use of pathos in “Into the Wild” creates empathy for the people he affected in his lifetime and his family.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Isolation: The Struggle to Find One’s Self In Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer investigates a young man’s struggle between isolation and forgiveness. This book shows the compelling, incredible adventure of Chris Mccandless, who leaves his home, family and money to disconnect himself from society and live the life he has always wanted.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch, and map, and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the wilderness” (71). The national best selling book, “Into the Wild” written by Jon Krakauer tells the story about a man name Chris McCandless. The story takes place in 1990’s and tells the adventures of the a man who changes his name to Alex Supertramp. The story tells the readers of the book:all the different people he met on his journey, where he want and how he died. As the author writees about Chris’s life and his connections with the story he includes many different types of writting styles including rhetoricstragides.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a true story based on a gentleman named Christopher McCandless, who died on an odyssey while trying to escape the poisonous civilization, he was living in at the time. As the story develops it describes the experience McCandless had on his journey Krakauer was inspired to tell Chris’s story because he too encountered a similar experience when he was his age. Jon Krakauer illustrates Chris McCandless experiences he articulated in his daily journal as well as feedback from individuals Chris met throughout his journey. In this essay I will be analyzing Jon Krakauer's rhetorical situations, as well as his rhetorical appeals, and it will demonstrate that Krakauer is an effective writer.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Into the Wild, John Krakauer uses connotative diction that reveals his sympathetic bias towards Chris McCandless. With efforts to justify that Chris’s desire to follow his own plan in life was not strange, he explains that “it is hardly unusual for” man “to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless” by elders (182). In addition, John describes danger as holding a “certain allure” which hints that the adventure that Chris longed for came from natural desires to obtain it (182). Chris had the same lofty dreams that every teenager has, and John makes Chris seem relatable through diction. However, by describing others who venture out to the Alaskan frontier as “marginal characters”, John points out that Chris is unlike the other people who go…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.” states poet and novelist Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Courageous and strong-willed characters are shown throughout many works of literature- but it is often debated on whether or not their actions are courageous and noble or thoughtless and irrational. This conflict is prevalent in readers of Into The Wild by John Krakauer- a true story of how a young man, Chris McCandless, left society and ventured into nature to travel to Alaska. Unfortunately, Chris did not survive his trip and the harsh conditions that came with it. He will not be able to tell his own story, but people formed their own opinions on Chris’s actions, such as Shaun Callarman.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story Where Have You Gone, Charming Bill? , by Tim O’Brien, Private First Class Paul Berlin, the main character, is constantly consumed by his fear. He is fighting in the Vietnam War and the one thing that seems to always be on his mind is his fear. He tries to be brave, for his father, but his attempts fail due to his overpowering fear that controls him. Private First Class Paul Berlin fails in trying to achieve his goal of not being afraid because of his misunderstanding of what war really is. Paul is also too young and immature to be fighting in the Vietnam War.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Effective communicators are people who develop effective communication skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Also, effective communicators develop communication skills appropriate to the setting and the audience. In other words, effective communicators are people who adequately understand and express thought in a specific concept towards their audience. The Writing and Research 102 Into the Wild essay is an essay done for the Writing and Research class here on NOVA as a branch of Concordia University of Irvine.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Into the Wild describes the story of Christopher McCandless. He hitchhiked in 1992 to Alaska where he was found dead four months later in a deserted bus in the Alaskan wilderness. Author Jon Krakauer uses accounts from people who interacted with Chris and personal research to account the story of Alex Supertramp, another name proclaimed by Chris. The book starts with the description of Chris’s last day in society before starting his journey in the Alaskan wild.…

    • 1948 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fear is something that drives this world. It is a natural emotion that causes damage to the body and mind, affecting our decisions, communication, and productivity. Whether we want to accept it or not, fear has a purpose which is to help us during times of struggle. We take comfort in our fears and let it soothe us. Eula Biss in her essay, “On Immunity: An Inoculation” brings a great point on how people seem to base their paranoia off of other people’s fears, and lack of knowledge.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author Jon Krakauer is able to create “Into the Wild”, a story based on true facts about a young man who undertakes a risky trip to get in touch with his inner self, from a scratch with information and evidence alone itself. The story explores deeply into Christopher Johnson’s life, a young man who had just graduated from university and takes on a nature and self-knowing trip to make decisions about his future which actually leads him to death. As Jon Krakauer looks deeper into Christopher’s life, he is able to stitch up everything that happened during and after his trip and develop a proper character. Krakauer is able to do so by placing and telling the story out of chronological order, being able to show how Christopher’s way of being is…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    With their families missing and life as they know it destroyed, we get an up-close and personal look at fear in various forms: fear of losing loved ones, fear of bodily harm, fear of dying, and…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays