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Stephen Amolegbe Jr

Mrs. Tatum

AP Language 4th

17 December 2019

Krakauer's Transcendental Account of Chris McCandless

A man named Chris McCandless was born on February 12, 1968, in El Segundo,

California and died by starvation on August 18, 1992 in Stampede Trail, Alaska inside an

abandoned bus. He became famous shortly after his death due to his extraordinary, bizarre life

story. His story became such a phenomenon that it was written into a book by Jon Krakauer.

The novel, Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer provides a transcendental account of Chris

McCandless. This idea is evident throughout the novel by the rhetorical devices Jon Krakauer

uses, such as the short excerpts of transcendental authors that Krakauer includes throughout the

book, and the contrast theme of self-reliance that Chris portrays.

Jon Krakauer uses transcendental authors in the novel providing a transcendental

perspective of Chris McCandless. Krakauer does this because Chris McCandless had numerous

transcendental authors’ books at his death. Some of transcendental authors like Leo Tolstoy,

Henry David Thoreau, and many more had a monumental impact on Chris McCandless’s life and

of the creation of the novel. For example, Krakauer included a quote from Walden, Or life in the

Woods, written by Thoreau; “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth...”

(Krakauer 117). Chris valued honesty in the chapter, Annandale, Krakauer explain Chris life

from when he graduated high school to him graduating from Emory and disappearing on his road

trip; however, during those four years Chris found out about his father's secret and lies. After he
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found out about this, he became enraged and increasingly more intense as Krakauer explained. A

theme that Krakauer developed in this chapter is Chris’s isolation from society, friends, and

family. Chris’s increasing behavior of become self-reliance, non-materialistic, and increasing

individual is portrayed by Krakauer in the novel all align perfectly to the beliefs of

transcendentalism. Additionally, Krakauer includes excerpts from Chris McCandless’s journal.

An example of this was when Chris listed his current accomplishment of surviving in the

wilderness; “No phone, no pool, no pet, no cigarette” and how he achieved “[u]ltimate freedom”

and his success in “kill[ing] the false being within” (Krakauer 163). Krakauer includes this

excerpt to display the account of transcendent mindset. Part of achieving a transcendent mindset

and lifestyle is becoming independent from everyone and everything. In the novel, Chris

archives this concept of transcendentalism.

While some critics would disagree with the notion that Krakauer’s account of Chris’s

McCandless is transcendental and argue that it is a naturalist account of Chris is more accurate

due to Chris’s love for nature. Additionally, most critics fail to comprehend the definition of

naturalism- a literary time period where literature focused on facts and scientific advancements

and moved away from emotions and feelings. Krakauer’s account of Chris McCandless achieves

the exact opposite; Krakauer describes Chris’s life and his feelings and emotions towards his

family, his life, and nature. They fail to understand that for Chris, nature symbolized freedom

from people and civilization. Nature became a place where Chris was able to explore his belief

and soul. On a shallow level the novel, Into The Wild, may appear as a naturalist account for

Chris McCandless due to the frequent reference to the theme of nature vs. man, but on a

profound symbolic level, Krakauer’s account of Chris McCandless uses the theme of man vs.

nature to develop a transcendental account.

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Krakauer demonstrated a clear and through transcendental account of Chris

McCandless’s life, based on the inclusion of transcendental authors and excerpts from Chris

himself.