How Does Krakauer Show Courage In Into The Wild

“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. He states that he “thinks that Chris …show more content…
Jim Gallien, who met Chris at the beginning of his journey said that “he wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and food as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip.”(Krakauer, 4) His supplies were supposedly not even close to being enough/sturdy for his long journey. Chris “admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions…[his] cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals…He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass.”(Krakauer, 5) It was questioned why Chris would go off into the wild with little supplies. He was seen as crazy because he put himself through such danger, and he should've known that a lack of supplies would be hazardous in the first place. Lori Zarza, a manager at the McDonalds that Chris worked at, stated that it was always like he “was off in his own universe.” Many people around him thought this. “[They] all thought he was missing a few screws.”(Krakauer,