Into the Wild

"Throughout Into the Wild Krakauer has compared Chris's story to other "adventurers." Do you think these comparisons help Krakauer's storytelling or hinder it? Find an example that stands out to you."

I believe that Krakauer's method of sharing similar stories of other "adventurers" to be really useful. At least to me, it made Chris seem less insane. I hadn't realized that there were several other men who ventured off into the wild for reasons similar to Chris'. In the chapters to follow, Krakauer mentions that he, himself made quite a crazy journey into Alaska to climb to the thumb of the Stikine Ice Cap (Chapters 14 and 15). I'm not sure if Krakauer's story counts because he didn't include his own account with the rest; I, however, found Krakauer's story to be the most effective. For me, I think I found Krakauer's story to be the most moving because from reading the previous chapters, I already gained a sense of who Krakauer was whereas the other stories he told around chapter 8 (I'm guessing...) were just young men who "came and went" in a matter of pages. Krakauer mentions, "[i]n my case--and, I believe, in the case of Chris McCandless-- that was a very different thing form wanting to die" (156). In this quote, Krakauer explains that death, of all things, seem so "abstract" to young adults around the age of 20. Some of them feel invincible and that is why they believe they can survive out in the wild; it's as if their age was a shield that could protect them from disease, natural disasters, starvation, etc. The message I got from Krakauer's story was that McCandless was just being a young, adventurous man who didn't catch the break that he did. The other stories clearly showed how simple it was for other unprepared and naive young adults to enter the wild as if they were walking into a death trap. Chris, like all the other "adventurers", wasn't any different.