Milan Johnson

Ms. Crandall

AP Language, 2 pd.

18 December 2019

Argument- Naturalism

Into the Wild, by John Krakauer, follows the thrilling yet questionable journey of Chris

McCandless. The main character’s story follows Chris’s desire to take an individual turn into the

wild following problematic family issues. As Chris embarks on his journey, the author portrays

Chris’s death as the book begins, in a non-chronological order of events. Leading up to his death,

Chris’ story unfolds his unusual desires, actions, and thought of mind throughout this national

bestseller. The crazy journey of McCandless commences on natures ability to overcome and

crush a human being. Krakauer follows Chris’s steps into the wild in a naturalistic story.

Naturalism is best known as the focus on explanations that derive from the laws of

nature. Without naturalism, McCandless’s’ story would be told as an educated young adult who

leaves behind everything he loves and immaturely attempts to survive in chilling temperatures

and the dangerous setting of the Alaskan Bush. He attempts to live off the bare minimum of

necessities, which concluded to be a bad decision. As an abundance of information is portrayed,

someone who did not read Krakauer’s account, would only believe that Chris was a selfish man

who deserved his death. The author effectively dives into the reasons Chris made his decisions.

Krakauer also provides effective imagery to portray the chilling nature that overcame Chris and

his body. The text says that in “his diary and two notes found at the camp tell a wrenching story
of his desperate and progressively futile efforts to survive”, this excerpt from The New York

Times, can prove that nature will always beat humans.

One characteristic that this book brilliantly provides is the nature of Chris’ determinism.

Naturalistic novels portray people that do not have much control over their fate, as McCandless

did not. On the front cover of Into the Wild, Krakauer clearly states, “Four months later, his

decomposed body was found by a moose hunter” (Krakauer). The author did not have much of a

choice displaying this evidence as the general knowledge of it was spread across the news. The

story itself does not follow a timeline, which at times, can become extremely confusing. The

reader cannot directly infer Chris’ motives for his decisions, but Krakauer provides little

anecdotes from Chris’ childhood to make up for the era of confusion that may occur. Once again,

this evidence supports the naturalistic view as a naturalist’s social environment is responsible for

a large portion of their actions, as Chris’ childhood was.

As a reader, it is very pleasing to see how efficiently the author gathered evidence to

portray Chris McCandless in a different way. Some deceived him as a lunatic, but Krakauer

exemplified the use of supplying details, evidence, and imagery to contradict this common

perception. Krakauer also saw that someone cannot just run away and die off in the Alaskan

woods for no reason. He did outstandingly in creating credibility for himself while still leaving

the reader with question. Lastly, the author displays this journey of determinism and survival,

which are key components in making his account of McCandless’s naturalistic story.