TOW #20 - IRB #1 "Into the Wild"

In "Into the Wild", the story of Christopher McCandless' adventures through the Alaskan wilderness as well as across North America, Jon Krakauer uses several rhetorical devices that help to characterize Christopher and retell his amazing journey. Most prominent in the book are the anecdotes. For example, Krakauer uses several interviews to tell different parts of Chris' life. Wayne Westerberg, an elevator operator who becomes a close friend of Chris and offers him a place to stay, tells of many accounts of Chris' abnormal tendencies. He speaks of Chris' intelligence, work ethic, and the strangest of all: a need to travel the country by himself. This gives the reader an inside look to Chris' true personality on a friendship level, so the reader can understand Chris' actions and truly be immersed into the story. Another important aspect of telling this particular story is the imagery used to describe the locations of Chris' travels. Krakauer describes a stop on Chris' journey; "Carthage, South Dakota, population 274, is a sleepy little cluster of clapboard houses, tidy yards, and weathered brick storefronts rising humbly from the immensity of the northern plains, set adrift in time. Stately rows of cottonwoods shade a grid of streets seldom disturbed by moving vehicles. There's one grocery in town, one bank, a single gas station, a lone bar." He then goes on to even further describe the scenery, so the reader has a clear mental image of exactly what Chris had seen, and it is almost as if the reader is standing in Chris' shoes, gazing upon the town. This allows the reader to get the full effect of the story, and ultimately helps Krakauer achieve his goal of retelling this amazing journey. Through anecdotes from several sources as well as descriptive imagery, Karukauer effectively characterizes Chris and brings the reader on the road with him.