A good portion of Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is focused on the characterization of the protagonist, Chris McCandless. Krakauer shares his opinions on Chris frequently throughout the duration of his novel. Krakauer very purposefully dictates what anecdotes he wants to include in his novel to shape how the reader views Chris. A very prominent theme that is made apparent to the reader about Chris is how young he is. By making this, a theme Krakauer asks the reader to treat Chris’ adventures the same way one would treat anyone’s college misadventures. Krakauer implores the reader forgive Chris for his youth and find meaning in his journey. London, Thoreau and Tolstoy are three men who all escaped Chris’ judgement. All three writers influenced
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Krakauer relates tales of other Alaskan wilderness survivalists including that many of the ones who made it to adulthood saw a lot of themselves in Chris. He also connects other youthful risks early twenty-something kids take to Chris’. “It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes. McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme” (Krakauer 182). He brings up war, drinking too much, driving too fast, and doing other reckless, more acceptable youthful indiscretions. This makes the reader see themselves in Chris. The reader draws clear lines between themselves and Chris and in that finds some sense of semblance between the two. This method of writing makes it harder to pass harsh black and white judgements on Chris and makes the reader want to cut him some slack. Throughout Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer makes his opinions on Chris obvious. He wants the reader to understand that even though Chris took risks that ultimately cost him his life that he was not evil. His intention was not to self-destruct in the wild, he was just young. The reader must forgive Chris, the same way the reader would want to be forgiven. Krakauer finds worth in Chris’
Krakauer relates tales of other Alaskan wilderness survivalists including that many of the ones who made it to adulthood saw a lot of themselves in Chris. He also connects other youthful risks early twenty-something kids take to Chris’. “It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes. McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme” (Krakauer 182). He brings up war, drinking too much, driving too fast, and doing other reckless, more acceptable youthful indiscretions. This makes the reader see themselves in Chris. The reader draws clear lines between themselves and Chris and in that finds some sense of semblance between the two. This method of writing makes it harder to pass harsh black and white judgements on Chris and makes the reader want to cut him some slack. Throughout Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer makes his opinions on Chris obvious. He wants the reader to understand that even though Chris took risks that ultimately cost him his life that he was not evil. His intention was not to self-destruct in the wild, he was just young. The reader must forgive Chris, the same way the reader would want to be forgiven. Krakauer finds worth in Chris’