"I now walk into the wild"
-ALEX SUPERTRAMP (Chris McCandless' chosen name)
Podcast & Examples of Style
Krakauer establishes his overall objective and straight-forward style through the presentation of facts, giving a balanced perspective, and writing in a friendly, easy to understand manner. His style serves to assist the audience in understanding Chris and his ideals and ultimately formulating their own opinion about him.
" When Chris was eight, Walt took him on his first overnight backpacking trip, a three-day hike in the Shenandoah to climb Old Rag. They made the summit, and Chris carried his own pack the whole way. Hiking up the mountain became a father-son tradition; they climbed Old Rag almost every year thereafter" (109).
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""McCandless wasn't some feckless slacker, adrift and confused, racked by existential despair.To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose" (184).- This is Jon Krakauer's personal opinion which contrasts with the previous opinion from a letter written in response Krakauer's article in Outside magazine.
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"He didn't appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at most. A rifle protruded from the young man's backpack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the forty-ninth state" (4).- This is a description of McCandless' appearance while hitchhiking in Alaska.
Additional Themes
Younger people have an allure for danger and discovery that older people do not tend to understand.
"The older person does not realize the soul-flights of the adolescent" (186).- Christopher Ruess (the father of Everett Ruess who also had a tragic ending after running away into the wild)
"The older person does not realize the soul-flights of the adolescent" (186).- Christopher Ruess (the father of Everett Ruess who also had a tragic ending after running away into the wild)
People should not judge someone they do not know by making assumptions about that person's circumstances without walking in their shoes and learning more about them.
"Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult. I've never done it. And I'd bet you that very few, if any, of the people that call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either, not for more than a week or two" (185). - Roman (one of the friends who accompanied Jon Krakauer on his trek to Bus 142 in Alaska where Chris met his end)
"Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult. I've never done it. And I'd bet you that very few, if any, of the people that call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either, not for more than a week or two" (185). - Roman (one of the friends who accompanied Jon Krakauer on his trek to Bus 142 in Alaska where Chris met his end)