Into The Wild Analysis

I’ve always loved the outdoors and the sense of adventure that only nature can bring, which is how one day last summer I ended up ziplining in Tennessee. As I hooked my harness into the final platform and looked over the mountains, I experienced a sense of wonder. All of my problems seemed far away, and I felt invincible while breathing in the clear air that seemed to hold infinite opportunities waiting to be discovered. I didn’t know it then, but I would later be reminded of this moment while reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, which tells the story of Christopher McCandless. McCandless grew up in a wealthy family but gave up all of his possessions to wander the country and discover the world’s truths, which eventually led him to his final …show more content…
For instance, Krakauer tells the story of Carl McCunn who, similarly to McCandless, trekked into the Alaskan Wilderness alone and died of starvation caused by a serious lack of preparation. McCunn was “a little bit out of touch with reality” (81) and “had a tendency to wing it sometimes,” (81) similarly to how McCandless dreamed of his Alaskan odyssey and never considered that he could fail. By telling stories of other journeys that had similar factors to McCandless’s final escapade, Krakauer allows readers to begin to understand what draws young men away from their safe lives and into the wilderness where “life [thrums] at a higher pitch. The world [is] made real.” (134) While drawing parallels between the personal anecdotes and McCandless’s own story, readers begin to get a clearer picture of what evasive concept these men were chasing that led them to take such great risks. Krakauer uses these narratives comparable to McCandless’s story in order to allow readers to gain a better understanding of who McCandless was and why he was drawn to the wild like so many before