Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a novel that describes the story of Christopher Mccandless. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Virginia, Christopher attended Emory University and embarks on a journey to find meaning and freedom. It takes him to Alaska where he eventually dies in an old bus from starvation. Christopher’s story is one of the sacrifices made and the chances were taken in order to live life to the fullest. During the book, the main character Christopher (Chris) McCandless changes his name to Alex McCandless and then to Alexander Supertramp. Each successive change illustrates his attempt to escape civilization in search of autonomy and independence, and the evolution of his character as he adopts elements of his name from his experiences.
Chapter 3 displays the transformation of the main character Chris in several ways, most notably the change of name from Chris to Alex. The change is equally noticed through Wayne Westerberg’s fond recollections of his unique experiences with Chris in Carthage, Chris’ complex background, and growing up surrounded by controlling parents. The inclusion of these new details allows us to see Chris in a new light and make his change more evident as a new person trying to find his way in the world. Krakauer uses rhetorical appeals, characterization, a formal tone, establishing the setting, and differences in sentence structure(syntax and diction) to make the character development noticeable.
The development of Chris’ character in Chapter 3 helps the reader understand Chris’ decision to leave his life behind and establishes the setting by using facts and figures to bring the reader into the mindset of someone living through Chris’ journey. His complex syntax and formal diction help characterize Chris and establish a formal tone throughout the novel. Because of his accurate use of facts and anecdotes, the author appeals to the ethos of the audience by establishing himself as a trustworthy source who put lots of effort into the novel.
Through the use of imagery and explaining the setting, Krauker shows how the town of Carthage becomes Chris’ family and grants Chris independence on his journey. Chapter 3 opens two months after the Alaska state troopers got involved in finding out who the corpse in the bus was. Krauker starts by characterizing Carthage as a tiny place with a small population of only 274 people, a “sleepy little cluster of clapboard houses, tidy yards, and weathered brick storefronts rising humbly from the immensity of the northern plains, set in adrift.” This imagery gets the reader into the mindset of Chris and an image of what it must have been like after coming from an upper-middle-class family in a well-populated place. Krakauer is speaking to Wayne Westerberg in the bar in which he had spent time with McCandless. Westerberg begins by describing McCandless when he first met him after finishing work in Montana on September 10th, 1990. He claims that “Something was arresting about the youngster's eyes. Dark and emotive, they suggested a trace of exotic blood in his heritage.” This may have been the reason why Wayne Westerberg would get out of the way and pick up a hitchhiker. This hitchhiker was intriguing and looked lost. McCandless was a hitchhiker wanting to go to Saco Hot Springs but during his travels, he had run out of money and was hungry. This was at the beginning of the quest to find himself as he was not fully confident, as further seen when he introduces himself as Alex McCandless. He holds onto a part of his past by keeping McCandless as his last name but discards a piece of it with the inclusion of Alex. Westerberg’s friends insisted on cooking for him, providing him with a meal and a chance to stay in Carthage for a few days. During this time Westerberg offered him a job if ever in Carthage again. McCandless returned to Carthage working for Westerberg and creating connections with people who lived in Carthage. Westerberg and McCandless create an especially close bond seen later in the book when McCandless writes his letters on the bus and when they exchange gifts. Carthage was a small town in which a large number of people grew fond of “Alex”(the name he went by while in Carthage): “If McCandless felt estranged from his parents and siblings, he found a surrogate family in Westerberg and his employee” (18). The information Krakauer presents is true because McCandless seemed to be fond of Westerberg and the people in Carthage. As a parting gift for when McCandless first left, he gave Westerberg his “treasured 1942 edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace” (19). Also, McCandless often wrote to Westerberg but never wrote to his family, his sister being the only exception. It was also said in one of his letters to Westerberg that he was a “great man” (69) while in another letter to his sister, he talks about his parents angrily, stating, “I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all” (64). From all the evidence provided, it is clear that Westerberg and the people in Carthage were more of a family to McCandless than his real family was.
Chapter 3 familiarizes readers with Chris McCandless’s true character and how he was far from a ‘nutcase’ or ‘slacker’. Many people assumed without meeting Chris/Alex that he was crazy or a coward. It would be easy to think that without having met Chris, and knowing that Chris McCandless not only discarded his own name but distanced himself from his family. This announces at graduation that he is leaving his family behind to embark on a journey. He donates most of his remaining money from his college fund to OXFAM America and goes off with very few possessions. He is turning over a new leaf and forgetting the life he once had. McCandless was cowardly in not telling his family of his whereabouts; however, in Chris’s search for himself, he did not want the restraints that would have been placed upon him had he told them.
His family would have been constantly worried, probably appearing in the places McCandless had been or not allowing McCandless to embark on his spiritual journey. During his journey, he comes back to Carthage and works for Wayne Westerberg, and lives a modest life. He uses the philosophy mentioned in the epigraph, where he tries to do everything the hard way and looks for a challenge in everything he does, showing how hard-working he is. This encouraged him to keep going after experiencing challenges at every turn. According to Wayne Westerberg, he was an extremely hard-working young man, who was also very intelligent and studious. The author uses complex sentence structures to show us Chris’ characteristics as a hard-working person. Krauker writes, 'Didn't matter what it was, he'd do it: hard physical labor, mucking rotten grain and rats out of the bottom of the hole-- jobs where you'd get so damn dirty you couldn't even tell what you looked like at the end of the day.' This quote sums up Alex’s work ethic and how he would persist through anything. This is seen again when he is in Alaska fighting for his life. Krakauer wrote the chapter this way to show the complexity of the main character, Chris, and how he is not just someone running away from the past. He is a guy that wants to make it work. Chris was very intelligent, and he was always thinking and making situations harder than they needed to be. This was shown through Chris’s acceptance at Emory University. Krauker uses complex sentences to emphasize Chris’ grit and work effort. In this chapter, he uses many complex sentences to create vivid imagery and better the description of Chris’s journey. The complex sentence structure also demonstrates the complexity of the main character himself. He is very intelligent and always made situations more complicated than they had to be. But also At the end of the third chapter, the author explores the theme of this novel by revealing McCandless’s plan to seek a transcendent experience. He uses sentences with simple syntax structure to emphasize McCandless’s fast-paced desire to graduate from college and pursue his destiny to live in the wild, void of any other humans and materialistic desires.
Before Chris Mccandless went to Carthage he was a kid from a middle-class family who went to Emory University. The author not only uses Chris’s logos [i don’t understand logos] as an Emory graduate to instill irony, but also other organizational devices such as syntax. In this chapter, he uses many complex sentences to create vivid imagery and better the description of Chris’s journey. The complex sentence structure also demonstrates the complexity of the main character himself. He is very intelligent and always made the situation more complicated than it had to be. He graduated from Emory University, a very tough medical school, which was ironic as well because he was very conscious of how to take care of himself.
Chapter 3 also talks about when Chris was not always intelligent. When Wayne Westerberg first picked up Alex Mccandless, the setting changes to McCandless picking up “Alex” while he was hitchhiking. McCandless displays a lack of confidence, claiming he was talkative, intense, and hungry, not sure of what will happen at the beginning of his journey toward self-discovery. Krauker writes, '...September 10 (1990), driving out of Cut Bank after buying some parts. ..he pulled over for hitchhiker, an amiable kid...Alex McCandless.' because Westerberg used the word amiable, you could tell he liked Alex because amiable means displaying a friendly and pleasant manner..“Alex” was hungry for food as well as being hungry to explore the wilderness. McCandless conveys, “It was a different story with Alex. He was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen”.
There is a lot of characterization in this chapter. Krakauer shows a contrast between the McCandless of back then and the “Alex” of now, who is eager and ready to dive into the wilderness. He discarded his old name to signify the start of his new life and a new beginning. McCandless not only discarded his name but distanced himself from his family. He donates most of his money and goes off with very few things with him. He is turning over a new leaf and forgetting the life he once had.
The use of “different” in the sentences relates to the story of “Alex” as well as the type of person “Alex” was. “Alex” is an outcast compared to society and lives a different life by surviving the wilderness of Alaska with nobody but himself. McCandless also asserts, “He never explained why he’d changed his name”. “Alex” wished to part himself from his family and their materialistic way of living; changing his name, represented a new start in life. He could now pursue his dream of living to the fullest without being weighed down by the standards of society. “Alex” receives $24,000 from his remaining college account. He chose to donate the money to a charity concerning hunger, which is ironic because “Alex” dies of starvation. “Alex” also demonstrated some sort of cowardly traits by not informing his parents of his whereabouts. He seemed to want to escape the restraints of his parents but could not stand up to them himself.
The chapter ends with “Alex” revealing the destiny that awaits him. The most expressive representation of McCandless’s personality can be seen in the items he chose to renounce: money ($24,000), and his name. Giving up these things indicated ‘Alex’s’ rejection of his family and their acquisitive values, which gradually begins to acknowledge his determination to venture into the Alaskan wilderness. On the other hand, others may believe that McCandless’s silence in confronting the parents of his plans is described as an act of cowardice.
Chris 'emancipated from' upon his college graduation--' the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence' Krauker uses rhetorical strategies to build up how that happened and use examples from the story of when he switched names and states the rhetorical strategies he used to accentuate the fact.
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Alex's parents' reaction to the donation of money shows us their emotions and thoughts of parents as they felt mad and offended by Alex’s announcement to embark on his journey in the middle of graduation. “Alex” shows cowardice in not informing his parents of the journey he planned to take. This is not just cowardly but selfish which relates to the theme of selfishness in chapter 3. After graduation, he only sent them his transcript and then got up and left. Billie, his mother had even said, “It made us very, very worried,” when they had not heard anything from Chris in weeks. For Chris to just leave without informing his parents, was not only selfish but also cruel to his parents. However, it is mentioned that he counted down the days until college graduation so he could be “emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers… and material excess” (Krakauer 22). He uses sensory adjectives and vivid verbs, to sum up, McCandless’ dissatisfaction with what his life has become and his desire to reconnect with the very core of his existence. The sentence “to symbolize the complete severance from the previous life, he even adopted a new name” is in itself symbolic of how passionate he was about returning to the roots of human life.
Notes difference in lang when he's with his parents and in the past life when a good student
Change when becoming a rebel
And he becomes Alex Supertramp
Change helps show a change in person and more confidence in the character
Alex's past also helps establish him as a character who came from a middle-class family and then went on to be a good student
Then we see he takes a turn in life and donates money and goes on a hitching journey
There is a change in Chris from graduation and school dude to Alex like
Burning money is an extreme move that shows getting rid of past life.
This quote shows how stubborn McCandless was with his parents. He didn’t want them to buy him anything new for some reason. He told them that he didn’t want to give or receive anything anymore from anybody. In the letter to his sister, he also said in a letter to his sister that he will have to be careful not to accept any gifts from his parents in the future. He also said he has the best car in the world that has traveled from Miami to Alaska. This quote shows that McCandless will use his things until they are of no use.
If I was Jon Krakauer, I would not do anything different in the story, except for adding more pictures Chris took of himself. I think he did a great job writing this novel and I really enjoyed it. I have a little bit of sympathy for Chris McCandless. I feel bad he had to die in the wild as he did, but he brought it upon himself. He didn’t come prepared and didn’t accept much help from anyone. The choices he made confused me at times. Another bad thing is how he left his parents and made them very worried. Then his parents eventually found out he had passed away. I don’t think any parent should have to go through that with their child.
The information is related to the events that transpire because the information that Krakauer puts in this chapter tells how Chris was stubborn and didn’t accept much from anyone. This tells you that this was the reason he died in the wilderness.
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