Comparison and Contrast Essay - Brittany Fulcher

An Outside View vs. An Inside View

In between the years 1992 and 1996, Jon Krakauer researched and wrote the book Into the Wild, telling the story of what happened to Chris McCandless. During the years 1990 to 1992, Chris McCandless lived the story Krakauer shared with the world. Both have different views because Chris McCandless experienced the events and Jon Krakauer shared the story.  

Chris McCandless experienced the events from a first person point of view.  McCandless lived through those two years and made the story happen. After his college graduation, McCandless left and disappeared for two years. McCandless gave away his savings, left behind his invaluable possessions, and eventually abandoned his car. According to Jon Krakauer, author and researcher, “McCandless did not want to be a part of society anymore and that is what he accomplished.”(Krakauer 2 ). After getting rid of his car, no one had anything to track him down and it knocked him off the map. Since he did not have his car, McCandless traveled through America by hitchhiking and stopped along the way to get on his feet when he struggled. Even though he suffered from starvation, weight loss, no money, no place to stay, and several other things, McCandless kept going. It was like nothing could stop him from achieving his goal. McCandless met the people through his journey and got to know them. While he was with the people he met, he made relationships with them, even though he gave a fake name. McCandless was on the good side of everyone he met; they all enjoyed his company. He was the one who researched survival skills to live in the Alaska bush on his own.  Throughout his entire journey, he discovered more about who he was and separated himself from society. McCandless survived through those two years until he was injured in the bush. He’s the one who died trying to find himself. McCandless actually lived through the events unlike Krakauer.

Krakauer experienced the events in a third person point of view and learned about Chris McCandless by reading about him and researching. In 1993, he wrote an article about McCandless in Outside Magazine, which was when the story first caught his attention. Ever since he wrote the article, he has been trying to figure out the exact reason McCandless did not make it out of the Alaskan bush alive. Three years after the publishing of the article and research,  Krakauer published his book Into the Wild. The book provides readers an outside view of the occurrences over the two years Chris McCandless was unknown to society. He started by interviewing the family and friends he made over the two years. While interviewing, he learned his parent’s views and emotions, his sister’s views and emotions, and his friend’s views and emotions. The parents of McCandless had no idea what made their son want to disappear, but gave an insight on what type of person he was. His sister told Krakauer that McCandless despised their parents, but never seen his disappearance coming. His friends told about their experience with McCandless and who they believed he was. Krakauer learned their sides of the story before trying to learn and understand McCandless’ side. He looked through McCandless’ journal and pictures to try and get an inside perspective on what McCandless was thinking and why he left. Krakauer's entire insight on what happened was an outside view. He made his own opinions and tried to make sense of why McCandless did what he did. His experience learning about Chris McCandless was completely different from McCandless actually living through it.

Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer told the story differently. McCandless’ side of the story is first person point of view. He told his side from the pictures he took and the journal he kept over the two years. The photos and journal entries give an insight of what McCandless was thinking and what he did over those two years. His photos show how he progressed over the two years and a view of the things he did. Some photos show his accomplishments, like animals he killed, or they are just photos of him. One photo is of him holding up a moose that he killed. Another photo is of him sitting in front of the bus with a smile on his face. The pictures vary as time went on. His journal entries give us an insight of why he actually went out and basically abandoned society. It also gives us a view of things he did along with the pictures. One entry goes along with killing the moose and he writes about how proud he is of himself for the kill. They give us information on how he felt about his parents, the places he went, and his emotions. His true feelings are unknown because he was unable to tell the story because he passed away before he could get out of the bush. Jon Krakauer tells the story from a different view than McCandless.

Krakauer tells the story from a different angle. His side is in third person. He was not there to experience the journey with McCandless, but he did give us an insight of what actually happened based on his research. Throughout the book, Krakauer gave his opinion and observation on what he learned about Chris. It was different because McCandless was there and lived the story, while Krakauer just put it to words. Krakauer published the book about McCandless in 1996 and an article about him in 1993. The book was written to show people what happened to Chris. Since McCandless couldn’t tell the story himself, Krakauer took it upon himself to do so.

Even though Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer experienced and told the story differently, there are similarities between the two men. Both men were criticized for the story. McCandless was criticized because people believed he was not smart because he went out into the Alaskan bush. He was accused of not being educated about what is in the woods, what he could eat, what animals he could kill, and just basic survival tips. McCandless was actually educated about what he needed to do while staying the bush. As a result of McCandless being criticized for his death, Krakauer worked to prove those people wrong.

Krakauer tried to prove a point that McCandless did not die because he was “dumb” as people would call him. He worked so hard to figure out the real story of Chris McCandless, which led to his book Into the Wild. After the book was published, Krakauer received criticism for writing about. Readers viewed the book as unimportant because McCandless chose to go Alaska and it was his fault he died. Krakauer fought the criticism and worked to prove them wrong.

Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer views for the story are not the same. McCandless experienced it first hand, while Krakauer served as an outside view on the story. Their views are different because McCandless faced all the obstacles and lived those years on the road, while Krakauer researched the story and shared it with the world. An outside view is entirely different from having an inside view and the experience.