Nelson Okunlola

Evidence
Quote: If something captured
my undisciplined imagination, I
pursued it with a zeal
bordering obsession, and from
the age of seventeen until my
late twenties that something
was mountain climbing
(Krakauer 93).

November 18, 2015

Type of Appeals
Type of Appeal: Ethical

Devices: Personal
Story/Anecdote:
He describes his own personal
wildness as a youth, so that his
audience can relate to him and
see how he relations to
McCandless.

Context: Krakauer relates

McCandlesss wildness to his
own as a child. He says his
wild obsession was climbing
mountains.
Quote: It probably misses the
point, though, to castigate
McCandless for being ill
prepared. He was green, and
he overestimated his
resilience, but he was
sufficiently skilled to last for
sixteen weeks on little more
than his wits and ten pounds of
rice. And he was fully aware
when he entered the bush that
he had given himself a
perilously slim margin for error.
He knew precisely what was at
stake, (Krakauer 124).

Context: As Krakauer
compare Chris to Franklins, he
says although their similar,
Chris is substantially different.
Quote: It is hardly unusual for
a young man to be drawn to a
pursuit considered reckless by
his elders; engaging in risky
behavior is a rite of passage in
our culture no less than in
most others. Danger has
always held a certain allure.

Type of Appeal: Logical

Devices: Facts, And Deductive

Reasoning:
Krakauer list facts and gives
premises while connecting the
dots. This is to appeal to his
audiences reasoning

Type of Appeal: Logic

Device: Deductive reasoning:
He has little warrants and he sums
it all up to conclude a claim.

Period 1
Inference-Commentary
Analysis: Krakauer explains how
Chris isnt alone in his
recklessness but it is something
that many young people do too.
He discredits the presumption that
Chris is a Reckless idiot and
states that he was once a
reckless idiot. By establishing
this persona, he allows his
audience to relate to him, and at
the same time he draws a
connection between himself and
Chris. By showing this connection
between himself and Chris, his
audience can view him as a
credible source, making it easier
for him to convey his message.
My comparing and Contrasting
Franklin to Chris, Krakauer
notices some specific things
about Chris. He notes that Chris
knew what was ahead of him and
what was at stake and yet he still
ventured on this journey. Although
some people though McCandless
was crazy he was not, he went in
there un prepared completely on
purpose. With this , the author lets
his audience ask questions like ,
was Chris really a reckless idiot,
or was he a noble idealist? The
normal thing to think is that he
was just an idiot, but by
employing this logic and reason
he makes his audience truly think
and possible go against their
previous presumptions.

Analysis: Krakauer is unable to

reason out Chriss actions so he
automatically just concludes that
Chris does the things he does
because of his youth. Krakauer
concludes that Chriss behavior
and action arent completely
unusual but it is because he is
young. Throughout the book,

Nelson Okunlola
That, in large part, is why so
many teenagers drive too fast
and drink too much and take
too many drugs, why it has
always been so easy for
nations to recruit young men
to go to war. It can be argued
that youthful derring-do is in
fact evolutionarily adaptive, a
behavior encoded in our
genes. McCandless, in his
fashion, merely took risktaking to its logical extreme.
(Krakauer 124)
Context: Krakauer is unable
to reason out Chriss actions
so he automatically just
concludes that Chris does the
things he does because of his
youth.

November 18, 2015

Period 1
Chris is characterized as zealous,
adventurous and with unusual
intentions. By using deductive e
reasoning to appeal to logic,
Krakauer shows that Chris isnt a
noble idealist but rather a
reckless idiot. Krakauer tells his
audience (teenagers) to not take
their zeal to an extreme level.