Into the Wild (Ch. 8-Epilogue) Analyzing Stylistic Choices Analyzing Stylistic Choices helps you see the linguistic and rhetorical choices writers make to inform or convince readers. Precise writers make linguistic choices to create certain effects. They want to have their readers react in a certain way. Go back through the text and analyze Krakauer’s use of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and take note as to how effective a writer he is. Analyzing Chapters 8–10 Paragraphs In the first part of Chapter 8, Krakauer quotes Alaskans who had opinions about McCandless and his death. 1. Why does Krakauer cite these letters? How does citing them add to or detract from the text? 2. Choose one of these letters, and respond …show more content…
2. At the end of Chapter 9, Krakauer describes Irish monks known as the papar who sought out lonely places so much that they left Iceland for Greenland when some Norwegians showed up because they thought that it had become too crowded, even though the land was nearly uninhabited. Krakauer writes, “Reading of these monks, one cannot help thinking of Everett Reuss and Chris McCandless” (97). Krakauer implies that there is some kind of similarity between Reuss, McCandless, and the papar, but instead of making a specific connection, he just says “one cannot help thinking of.” Is this a good argument? Why or why not? 3. Krakauer argues in Chapter 14 that McCandless’s death was unplanned and was a terrible accident (134). Does the book so far support that position? Do you agree with Krakauer? Why or why not? 4. Look for other claims that Krakauer makes that might be weak or unsupported. What are they? Questions about the Writer (Ethos) 5. Chapters 14 and 15 describe Krakauer’s successful attempt when he was 23 years old to climb the “Devil’s Thumb,” a mountain in Alaska. He also describes what he thinks are parallels between McCandless and himself. Do these chapters increase his credibility for writing this book, or do they undermine his credibility by making it seem like he has his own agenda and is not objective? Questions about Emotions (Pathos) 6. Chapters 11-13 are about McCandless’s relationships with his family. Do any of these
I have never read any of Jon Krakauer’s books before and this was the first time I have heard of the author. At first, my intentions was to try to read endless amounts of book report and summaries online. After reading the summaries and reviews, I felt that it didn’t do the book justice. I felt an obligation to reading the book, after reading a couple random pages from the book, I started to love it. After examining the book, by reading the summary on the back, a few pages in the beginning of the book, and lastly made a commitment to reading the book.
Krakauer is now an adult person with greater experience of a 23 year old, in where he lived a life like McCandless, which is a person that has the experience to talk about Chris McCandless’ death. Krakauer and McCandless both went into the wilderness of Alaska, but for different reasons. About the same age “I was twenty-three a year younger than McCandless”(Krakauer 135). Krakauer decides to go into the wild because of the idea of claiming of his idol Edward, edward “Climbed not for sport, but to find refuge from the inner torment that framed his existence”(135). Krakauer puts this similarities, and experiences related to nature in order to make himself to appear as a person that knows of what he is talking about. Other than Krakauer adventures
In the authors note, Krakauer is talking to the reader and he says “My convictions should be apparent soon enough, but I will
Through this technique, Krakauer helps to develop Chris’s personality and t conveys the author’s purpose of tell McCandless’s story.
Krakauer’s illustration of McCandless’s story, reflects the beliefs of Transcendentalist writers, such as Thoreau and Emerson. Themes such as the pursuit of simplicity and truth are revealed throughout the novel, and present within Transcendentalist works. The search for truth motivated all three to stress and live simple lifestyles.
Jon Krakauer diverges from the story of McCandless’s journey, to inform the readers how all of the other adventures that occurred were similar. He wanted to show how other people were in his situation, that wanted to conquer the world with what the others had with them.
Krakauer begins the novel in medias res, which causes an interruption in the organization and lack of information about McCandless, in which case, he must use syntactical permutation to give all the information necessary and mirror the unknown thoughts of McCandless. Throughout the novel, Krakauer changes points of view to gain different perspectives of McCandless as well as jump to a different point in time as he does by starting chapter two with a narration and description of setting of the Stampede Trail, but then switches in the middle of the chapter to “Thompson made it to the far bank” (Krakauer 11). In addition to chapter two’s deduction, chapter three begins with describing Wayne Westerberg as a “hyperkinetic man with thick shoulders
Throughout the novel, Krakauer conveys the idea of following one’s heart to reach a sense of self completion. He became quite erudite on McCandless’s life to accurately portray his inspiring story. In order to strengthen his thesis, he includes facts from McCandless’s journey starting from Atlanta, Georgia and ending on the Stampede Trail in Fairbanks, Alaska. He begins by first announcing the death of McCandless, followed by detailed stories of when he was alive, then an analyzation of his death towards the end of the novel. The audience becomes informed on McCandless’s odyssey as Krakauer goes into specific detail to give the readers a larger insight on his last couple of months alive. By doing so, the audience is impacted by the inclusion of precise aspects of McCandless’s life; it helps them see what he went through to follow what his heart desired. When McCandless travels up north, he meets Wayne Westerberg in “Carthage, South Dakota, population 274…” (Krakauer 15). Krakauer includes the specific population of this town to show how few people reside there in order to correctly document the
Krakauer has a straight-to-the-point, concrete writing style. I tend to favor abstract writing with a great deal of figurative language. I had a hard time finding trope, but My favorite simile in the book is on page 96. It said, “Like a super villain in a Marvel comic book, he seemed to be endowed with the ability to absorb the mightiest blows his enemy could deliver, draw energy from them, and become more powerful as a consequence.” This quote is comparing Osama bin Laden to a villain in a comic book because it seemed like no matter what attempts the U.S. made to take him down, he always came back stronger. If there had been more similes like this, the book would’ve been better. Also, Krakauer’s excessive use of acronyms left me feeling frustratingly confused. Nevertheless, not all is bad about Krakauer’s writing technique. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he included actual entries from Pat Tillman’s journal and statements from Tillman’s friends and family. In doing so, Krakauer made me easily connect and empathize with Pat Tillman and his loved ones. This made a powerful impact on the book and reader.
“As a youth, [Krakauer was] told, [he] was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, moody. [He] disappointed [his] father…. Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in [him]…confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please. If something captured [his] undisciplined imagination, [he] pursued it with a zeal bordering on obsession, and from the age of seventeen until [his] late twenties that something was mountain climbing” (134).
Krakauer uses research about the life of McCandless in order to establish his ethos and convey his thesis of the novel. When Krakauer presents the information concerning McCandless’s death, he quotes directly from the moose hunters who found him dead and describes the exact setting of the situation. Krakauer beings by explaining the scene at which the moose hunters found him, “A few hundred yards beyond the river the trail disappeared” (Krakauer 12). Krakaurer’s use of description enables readers to visualize the scene better and create a major sense of trust between the author and reader. Krakauer then imbeds a quote directly from the moose hunters that found McCandless’s body who explains that there was “a real bad smell from inside” (Krakauer12). Appealing to the reader’s sense of smell, and also using the perspective of the exact people that found McCandless’s body, establishes a more ethical appeal to the audiences trust in the information the author is presenting. Also, Krakauer cites an exact note found on the bus where McCandless was discovered which states that he is “Near death” (Krakauer 12). The note displayed in the text is written in a different font, implying that the proceeding text is written by a different author, and is also signed by McCandless himself. The research Krakauer did is directly shown here because of his factual evidence. The use of factual information from the scene of the death provides a
To briefly reiterate, Krakauer is accompanied by three experienced men who revisit the Teklanika River. The same river Chris McCandless struggled to cross while attempting to leave Alaska. Unlike Chris, Krakauer is prepared with a detailed topographic map,which guides him to a gauging station downstream. With the maps help, Krakauer successfully crosses the river, whereas Chris had failed. After their long trek, Krakauer and his men finally reached Chris McCandless’s home, a bus. With a brief understanding of the chapter, which I’m confident everyone read, we began our class
Krakauer's rather informal yet factual tone enables him to relay the important details of McCandless's adventure while keeping the readers engaged in the story. Krakauer frequently inserts his own thoughts into the story, but his
Krakauer from what I know is a cragsman. To be accurate he is primarily known for his writings about the outdoors, especially mountain-climbing. I figured out this information by reading the book “INTO THIN AIR”. I know you’re thinking why or how Jon Kraukauer is a hero, but he is a hero in many ways if you ask me. Krakauer does not have any ordinary like features. He is a guy who reaches the summit of Everest. Of course it takes skill but even with skill it is still taken a risk. After reading the book I still can’t believe that a human is on top of the world and
Jon Krakauer 's non-fiction novel Into the Wild explores the mystery surrounding Christopher McCandless and his life before he inevitably ran off into the heart of the Alaskan wilderness in an attempt to discover himself in some manner. In order to tell this story as accurately as possible, Krakauer uses a variety of techniques to give different perspectives to Chris’ life. The most prominent decision Krakauer makes though is in regards to his decision to try include or exclude himself and his views from the text. When telling Chris’ story, Krakauer takes an almost fully unbiased approach, and yet when he does present his biased