Mahan

Arabella

Mr.Smith

H 11 ELA

12/22/23

Into the Wild and other literature

The allure of the wilderness is a pull many ponder over. From its beauty to its danger, nature is a

force that proves to be too powerful for a single human to handle time after time. This

overwhelming power often tempts people to bet against natural order, and challenge it.

Conquering the world's most powerful force is a feat some few, like the protagonist of “Into the

Wild” by Jon Krakauer attempt. It truly takes a complex, deeply troubled mind to challenge a

force greater society so avidly avoids, but the author of this novel attempts to dissect that very

line of thinking, exploring his deepest motivations and inspirations in his ideology by presenting

a different flow of story, and looking at other forms of literature Chris was personally inspired

by.

The story of “Into the Wild” is further complicated by its structure as a non-linear story. By

segregating the story into interconnected storylines, it mirrors Mccandless’s fragmented life,

while providing an engaging insight to his journey and relationships. This allows the reader to

piece his journey together gradually, and encourages the reader to question, reflect on, and

ultimately gain a multifaceted understanding of Chris's character, instead of being fed a flat,

linear storyline about his journey. Krakauer implements not only this unconventional story

structure, but also other subjects of deeper reflection, as he quotes, “In trying to understand
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McCandless, I inevitably came to reflect on other, larger subjects as well: the grip wilderness has

on the American imagination, the allure high-risk activities hold for young men of a certain

mind, the complicated, highly charged bond that exists between fathers and sons.” (Krakaur, 4)

Meanwhile, Krakauer juggles multiple other stories to add even more depth to the character of

Chris Mccandless, so the reader understands not only his outward personality and actions, but his

inner motivation and inspiration as well.

The book follows two distinct plots, one focusing on McCandless's journey into the wild, while

the other focuses on the authors, and implicitly also the reader’s understanding of him through

other texts, details and implied correlation. The author's own partial understanding, and perhaps

reason behind his fascination of Mccandless was told through a story of his own life he told in

the novel. Krakour directly quoting in this telling, “But my sense of Chris McCandless's

intentions comes, too, from a more personal perspective.”(Krakauer, 102) Krakaur dedicated

two whole chapters of the novel to his own tale of descent of “Devil’s thumb” to parallel

Mccandless’s own story from his childhood, of climbing a mountain and being desperate to reach

the top. This insight to his mindset as a child serves its own weight in contributing to our

understanding of his inner motivations and desires, present within him from youth. However, this

display of inner motive also serves as evidence of krakauer's personal connection to Mcandless’s

ideals, as the retelling of both childhood events truly made evident the similarities of their

mindsets.

It's also made evident in the novel that Chris was especially infatuated and inspired by Henry

David Thoreau. Thoreau’s writing is both referenced and directly quoted several times
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throughout the novel, at times seemingly being present as attempts at direct insight to Chris’s

inner ideology, especially the instances of quotes from Thoreau which Chris quoted though

gospel. One such prayer he seemed to echo being, “Rather than love, than money, than fame,

give me truth.”(krakauer, 90) Which was also found highlighted in a book found amongst his

remains. It's truly remarkable to see the stark similarities between the pieces of Thoreau's

writings the author chose to include in the novel and Mccandless’s ideology, like excerpts such

as “These were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that

you greet them with joy, and life… is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,—that is your

success. All nature is your congratulation,”(Krakaur, 38) From a book aptly titled “life in the

woods”, another passage found highlighted with his remains. The inclusion of these quotes and

references to literature proven to be of value and imperativeness to him truly offer a deeper

acumen into his deeply personal influence.

Overall, Krakaur’s usage of other literature and Chris’s personal inspirations help the reader

further understand his ideology on a more personal, intimate level. The techniques he employs

gives a more multifaceted understanding of Chris Mccandless, as well as implicitly the author as

well, as he attempts to dissect his mind. All of these techniques accumulated together culminate

into a deeply rich look into another, otherwise incredibly complex and difficult to understand

mind.
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Works Cited

Skill N Foundational Proficient Advanced

Y

Thesis Establishes Specific mention Effectively

a basic of structural makes a claim
claim elements (and) incorporating a
Includes some complex idea;
aspect of author’s contrast, cause
purpose/ readers and effect, etc.
interpretation

Claims Makes a Previous (and) Previous (and)

statement Somewhat Considers the
that considers the thesis of the
requires thesis paper
evidence to Effective use of
support transition
words/phrases

Evidence Some Includes multiple Includes a

evidence pieces of variety of
relates to evidence/ specific,
the thesis examples that meaningful, and
clearly relate to well-chosen
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the thesis and evidence that

individual claims relates to the
Includes multiple thesis
pieces of
evidence in each
body paragraph

Analysis Sometimes Accurately Explains

identifies identifies and well-selected
structures conveys points of
Somewhat structures comparison
explains Explains how among
how evidence evidence and
evidence supports topic their connection
supports sentence of to the thesis
topic individual
sentence paragraphs
and thesis Explains how
evidence
supports the
thesis of the
essay

MLA Format Some Heading is No errors in

elements correctly MLA format
missing or formatted
some errors Pages are
in MLA numbered
format Most in-text
citations are
correctly
formatted
Works Cited:
each source entry
is in correct MLA
format

Conventions Shows Most quotes are All quotes are

evidence of correctly correctly
basic integrated integrated
proofreadin Follows essay Shows evidence
g organization of careful
Shows evidence proofreading
of proofreading

Fluency Simple use Demonstrates Strong use of of

of use of grade level vocabulary,
vocabulary vocabulary, diction,
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Simple diction, sentence sentence

sentence structures structures
structures Accurate use of
unit specific
vocabulary
(non-linear,
epigraph)