Into The Wild Rhetorical Analysis

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Janelle Guereca Pre-AP English 2 August 11, 2011 Summer Pre-AP English Reading Assignment From what Krakauer learns about him, McCandless seemed to have been a deeply compassionate person and a significant part of his two-year quest was fueled by his sense of injustice at how selfishly and greedily most Americans lived. Although he was selfish enough to risk his own life especially when “seven weeks after the body of [Walt McCandless’s] son turned up in Alaska wrapped in a blue sleeping bag that [his mother] had sewn for Chris from a kit, Walt studies a sailboat scudding beneath the window of his waterfront townhouse. “How is it,” he wonders aloud as he gazes blankly across Chesapeake Bay, “that a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?”” (Krakauer 103-104) causing his own parents to question McCandless’s motives on his fatal voyage. His risky behavior over this time was, however, deeply selfish, causing pain to all those who loved him, and especially his family, who for two years did not even know if he was alive. And indeed, this is not just a side…show more content…
It looms even larger over this specific biography because McCandless has died and left an elusive trail. His journals are largely only descriptions of events and foods, and there spans almost a whole year during which he doesn’t leave any documentation. Krakauer does all he can to “make sense of McCandless’s life and death,” and he ultimately seems to come very close; yet a true, full understanding remains impossible towards finding if human relationships were important to

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