The book Into the Wild is about a young man named Chris who ventured to Alaska to live in the wilderness. The motive as to why he made this decision and what he did on this journey remains unknown to us as he did not make it out alive. However, Jon Krakauer, the author of this book, went through a very similar experience and lived to tell his story. With Krakauer inserting his own experience at the end of the book, he was able to add to McCandless’ story. He does this by describing to the audience the difficulties he went through and the reason why he decided to do it.
Although we can’t know the exact story of Chris McCandless, we can take a look at Krakauer’s story, who had a very similar experience. When each of them was younger, they both had a very poor relationship with their fathers, which was one of the reasons they decided to go on their journeys.
As Jon Krakauer went on his quest to reach the Devils Thumb, he ran into several obstacles. Krakauer was very lonely during this trip, which means that Chris was undoubtedly very lonely during his journey as well. On Krakauer’s first attempt on reaching the top, he was interrupted by a snowstorm and nearly fell into a crevasse. Krakauer was also unable to reach the Devils Thumb on his first effort since the ice was too thin for him to climb any higher, causing him to go back down. Another complication that Krakauer had to deal with was when he accidentally set his tent on fire while lighting his stove.
All of these complications that Krakauer experienced add to Chris’ story because they show that it was very likely that Chris went through some very tough times as well. I know this because Krakauer was in a very similar situation as Chris, so there had to be some parallels. Krakauer’s story also shows that Chris didn’t go into the wild just to commit suicide, but that one of the main reasons for his journey was because of his unhealthy relationship with his father.
