An Author’s Manipulations Chris McCandless’s whole life was an adventure. After graduating from college, he left home for the rest of his short-lived life to go on expeditionss into the uninhabited wilderness of the United States. Two years later, he was found dead in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail on the border of Denali National Park, twenty-five miles west of Healy, Alaska. Jon Krakauer, an inspired author, wrote a 9,000 word article for Outside Magazine about this boy’s story and ultimate fate. Into the Wild was made in response to the countless requests Krakauer received for a more comprehensive story of young Chris McCandless. Jon Krakauer’s purpose in the novel is to justify the acts of Chris McCandless by using a forced perspective
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This is especially the case in Into the Wild, due to the fact that the subject of the biography is now dead and the basis of the story is that nobody knows the full extent of what happened to Chris McCandless. Jon …show more content…
Unlike most life stories, Into the Wild was not linear in the slightest. The consistent jumps in time were intentionally made by Krakauer to soften the harsh acts of McCandless and justify his actions. Many times throughout the story, Chris made rash or unexplainable decisions which Krakauer feels the need to immediately justify by breaking the lineage of the story and rewind back to childhood. One example of this is when McCandless receives criticism for being unprepared to live in the wilderness, in the form of a letter to Krakauer. Nick Jans, author of said letter, states, “His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him” (72). Instead of directly addressing the claims made here, Krakauer goes on a long-winded series of anecdotes before he can justify McCandless here. Then, Krakauer justifies Chris’s unpreparedness by saying he was always that way. “The only way he cared to tackle a problem was head-on, right now, applying the full brunt of his extraordinary energy” (111). From this quote, it can be deciphered that Krakauer is justifying the acts of McCandless simply because that it the way he has always been. Krakauer jumps in time here to skip a lot of the story and conveniently gets
This is especially the case in Into the Wild, due to the fact that the subject of the biography is now dead and the basis of the story is that nobody knows the full extent of what happened to Chris McCandless. Jon …show more content…
Unlike most life stories, Into the Wild was not linear in the slightest. The consistent jumps in time were intentionally made by Krakauer to soften the harsh acts of McCandless and justify his actions. Many times throughout the story, Chris made rash or unexplainable decisions which Krakauer feels the need to immediately justify by breaking the lineage of the story and rewind back to childhood. One example of this is when McCandless receives criticism for being unprepared to live in the wilderness, in the form of a letter to Krakauer. Nick Jans, author of said letter, states, “His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him” (72). Instead of directly addressing the claims made here, Krakauer goes on a long-winded series of anecdotes before he can justify McCandless here. Then, Krakauer justifies Chris’s unpreparedness by saying he was always that way. “The only way he cared to tackle a problem was head-on, right now, applying the full brunt of his extraordinary energy” (111). From this quote, it can be deciphered that Krakauer is justifying the acts of McCandless simply because that it the way he has always been. Krakauer jumps in time here to skip a lot of the story and conveniently gets