In the novel, Into the Wild, the author, Jon Krakauer attempts to remain unbiased, but reveals himself as positively biased toward Chris McCandless. Krakauer illustrates the journey McCandless goes through as he spontaneously abandons his life as a well-off college student to hitchhike to Alaska. After McCandless’s body was found, many people believe that he was naive and wasted his life; however, Krakauer does not. To demonstrate this, Krakauer compares his younger self to McCandless, views McCandless as a intelligent, unique individual and applauds McCandless’ reason behind his journey. When exploring McCandless’ background life, Krakauer explicitly points out similarities between himself and McCandless, seeing part of himself in McCandless.
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Although McCandless chose to abandon his comfortable life and live as a hitchhiker, he exuded intelligence throughout his journey. Krakauer tries to look past the stereotypical remarks made about McCandless and view him as an individual, going the extra mile to undercover what really happened. Moreover, Krakauer illustrates that McCandless was different from normal hitchhikers “It would be easy to stereotype Christopher McCandless as another boy who felt too much, a loopy young man who read too many books and lacked even a modicum of common sense. But the stereotype isn't a good fit. McCandless wasn't some feckless slacker, adrift, and confused, racked by existential despair. To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose." (187). Krakauer emphasizes the good within McCandless, stating that all of his actions were deliberate and meaningful. By using extreme wording such as “even a modicum” and “feckless slacker”, Krakauer clearly distinguishes Chris from the regular man. He urges for the audience to look past what meets the eye with McCandless’ situation and instead seek to understand what was going on in McCandless’ complex mind. By viewing Chris as an intelligent individual, Krakauer’s positive position on Chris is
Although McCandless chose to abandon his comfortable life and live as a hitchhiker, he exuded intelligence throughout his journey. Krakauer tries to look past the stereotypical remarks made about McCandless and view him as an individual, going the extra mile to undercover what really happened. Moreover, Krakauer illustrates that McCandless was different from normal hitchhikers “It would be easy to stereotype Christopher McCandless as another boy who felt too much, a loopy young man who read too many books and lacked even a modicum of common sense. But the stereotype isn't a good fit. McCandless wasn't some feckless slacker, adrift, and confused, racked by existential despair. To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose." (187). Krakauer emphasizes the good within McCandless, stating that all of his actions were deliberate and meaningful. By using extreme wording such as “even a modicum” and “feckless slacker”, Krakauer clearly distinguishes Chris from the regular man. He urges for the audience to look past what meets the eye with McCandless’ situation and instead seek to understand what was going on in McCandless’ complex mind. By viewing Chris as an intelligent individual, Krakauer’s positive position on Chris is