Preview

Evolution Of Characters In Into The Wild

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2119 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evolution Of Characters In Into The Wild
How can authors show the evolution of characters? Employing various settings for a character throughout literary pieces can change their attributes. Diverging environments can affect characters’ tones along with their ethics, motives, and worldview. By devising multiple situations in which characters reside, authors deliberately insinuate change. Setting, therefore, directly correlates with the advancement of characters and their personas. Exemplifying this relationship, Jon Krakauer frequently depicts an evolution of the main character, Chris McCandless, in his book Into the Wild, as he treks across country in search of a greater purpose in life. Throughout the novel, Chris ventures to various locations, each of which ultimately bring him …show more content…
After his departure from Detrital Wash, Chris soon after found himself in Carthage, South Dakota, where he became considerably attached to a man by the name of Wayne Westerberg. Picking up a hitchhiker on the side of the road, Wayne was clueless as to the fact this stranger would soon become much more than simply an acquaintance. Some time after Wayne had given Chris a ride in Montana, Chris sought out Wayne in Carthage with the prospect of work at Wayne’s grain elevator. After his shift in motive at Detrital Wash towards his ultimate goal of Alaska, the pressing concern to be prepared for that journey followed. This ultimately led to a more concentrated objective in Carthage, finding work to gain money for supplies. Although Chris’s intent may have been only to stay as long it took to acquire an adequate amount of money for his needs, he became attached to Westerberg, forming a bond which would evoke a change in Chris’s personality. Wayne got arrested a short time after Chris began working for him. However, exemplifying Chris’s shift in ideals towards commitment and friendship, Chris left for a short period of time but eventually returned after Wayne’s sentence was over to help out. Chris came back not since he needed any more money for his Alaskan journey, which he did not, but since he had formed a bond with Wayne, developing aspects of his character and personality. This progression of his persona allowed him to become more social, regaining a connection to society which he had long ago attempted to sever. As Borah, a man whom worked closely with Chris at the grain elevator, recalled, “[Chris] talked a lot when we were together. Serious stuff, like he was bearing his soul, kind of. He said he could tell me things he couldn’t tell the others,” (Krakauer, 63). His environment in Carthage permitted Chris

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    "...the basket was in the same place as it is now, on his side of the canyon...Because he had no topographical map; however, he had no way of conceiving that salvation was so close at hand." (Krakauer, 174) In these circumstances, Chris argued with his father's, which turned him away from his parents, and his decision to leave for Alaska in the spring instead of staying in Carthage, created a sad irony that appeals wishful thinking.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This is a close analysis essay of a random 9 page selection from Spring 2014 Narrative, focusing on an interesting, but flawed sliver of life of a man named Wayne. I shall point out the good and bad points, and argue them, concluding with a final observation to ponder.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    McCandless experiences, a childhood well off Virginia rural areas of Washington, D.C., and is an exceptionally talented competitor and researcher, who from an early age showed a deep intensity and passion toward the things he did. After graduating from high school McCandless, goes on a road trip around the county, during which he discovers that his father secretly had a second family during Chris’s childhood. Knowing this McCandless returns home and starts as a freshman at Emory, but his anger towards his parents was getting worse until he decides to leave everything behind and go into his journey. However he first has to convince his parents that he is going to go into law, so by the time he was a senior at the university, he finally graduated and out of nowhere he leaves everything and goes on his journey to find himself.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless was a young man from California who loved to be outdoors and was always very athletic. He always had the desire and ambition to do things on his own. However this was a positive and negative side to his personality because it would cost him his life by wanting to live this way. In school Chris was always a very smart student who had good grades and could have gone to college if he chose to. His parents wanted him to attend college but he felt it wasn’t for him so instead he chose to travel and hitchhike. This caused tension between the McCandless’s and adding gas to the fire, Chris’s father had an affair which angered him even more.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book, To Build a Fire, by Jack London, Chris mirrors the protagonist, for instance, both men ignored the advice about the winter weather in Alaska, and they both die for being unprepared. The man in To Build a Fire, only had one goal, just to meet up with his friends, as oppose to Chris. In Emerson’s essay, Nature, Chris resembles the protagonist also; both of them want to feel as if they were one with their surroundings. They both loved the idea of life within the wild.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Similarly, Chris McCandless story is his journey throughout the United States, and the interaction of people he meets, the hardship he faces with every step, and the desperation to survive. Both him and Cheryl,…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris’s adventures took him to many different places where he met many different people that helped him along the way. In the film “Into the Wild” Penn, S (Director). (2008), Chris is portrayed as a man that believes he can do anything he puts his mind to. His main goal was to make it all the way to Alaska where he could live on his own in the wild. Now many people admire Chris for his dedication in following through with his plan to move to Alaska, while others believe he was arrogant believing he could survive without any experience being in the wild. Now Chris is a very intelligent man in the fact that he graduated from not just high school but from a…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Short Story About 9/11

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chris listened to the rest of his little brother’s story without another word. He knew after dinner and after they spent time together in the family room, he was gonna be questioned about what just happened. No matter what I have to pretend to not know what Eli the little brat was talking about. How did he know about Elena? He had no friends. Chris thought to himself. He knew saying his brother had no friends would not make him feel any better so he just sat and listened until the story was finished.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who was Chris ? What kind of person was he ? Some say he was foolish others say he was intelligent. Some say that Chris was a man full of hate others say he was full of love. What was Chris searching for? Perhaps it was Happiness others say it was an escape from society. If you read the book Into the Wild by John Krakuer it is clear that Chris is the mix of the both Worlds.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless ventured on a grand journey that would change everything and transform his life. He grew up in a hostile environment where his choices were not his own. His parent's violence toward each other began to affect his world views at a very young age. This lead to Chris having high standards for himself and to embark on a journey to find peace and serenity in the wilderness. Radical adventurer seeking enlightenment through traveling motivated by the authors he admired and government corruption.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One day in July of 1990, Chris McCandless severed all contact with his family and set out West and started his two year long journey that would ultimately end with his untimely death in the frozen, unforgiving landscape of Alaska. Something drove McCandless to venture out of the secure lifestyle his future had become and do the unexpected thing and journey across the Western hemisphere. Many people speculate that McCandless left because of simple rebellion and a penchant for risk-taking. While rebellion and risk-taking might have played a small role, I believe that McCandless’s family issues and philosophical beliefs were the true reasons he left to explore the vast and wild north.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nick Jans a schoolteacher and alaskan hunter, said that “McCandless was hardly unique; there's quite a few of these guys hanging around state, so much alike that they are almost a collective cliché. The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead,with the story of his dumbassedness splashed across the media...McCandless is, finally, just a 20th-century burlesque of london's protagonist, who freezes because he ignores advice and commits big time hubris”(pg 71-72). Chris is a fool knowingly going out to the most unforgiving,coldest, and most relentless places in the world. He makes the most simplest but most damaging mistakes, becoming just like the predecessors before him like london, like london's protagonist he mirrored the same image bestowed on the book and like a fly was hooked and couldn't escape,chris sought to copy that image and make it his own. Chris went to the depths of the most unforgiving isolated remote places and was able to turn a blind eye and be an arrogant person who thinks he can take the most brutal environment without any preparation, or knowledge of the ferocity the wild has,he greatly underestimated the wild thinking he can go in and out without anything but the bag on his back and luck by his side and forgetting the most important things like a compass or map or his common…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “Looking for Alaska” it showed the developments and growth of a characters which changes throughout the story. This book showed how a role of a character changes in just a matter of time. Influences throughout the story changes the person personality and makes him a completely different person. Sometimes when you don’t expected it, it turn out to be a big twist in life. This booked showed how people can change in a matter of time.…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris gives up all of his luxuries in life such as his home, car, family life, college education, and money to accomplish a sense of what he firmly believes will bring him happiness. He goes through extreme measures, all to fulfill his dream, only to realize that “Happiness only real when shared,”(Krakauer 189). Chris realizes towards the end of his life that he has no one to share his eye-opening experiences with.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jack London

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Both Chris and Jack traveled often, and neither of them had smooth sailing while they were traveling. Chris had many experiences where he was completely lost, and lacking food and money, while Jack developed scurvy when he was heading towards the Klondike during the gold rush.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays