Chapters 14 and 15: Krakauer Interjects

Chapter 14 starts with a quote about climbing by John Menlove Edwards, and a quote from Henry David Thoreau. In Chapter 15, there are quotes from The Mountains of California and The Dead Father.

Krakauer talks about himself in these two chapters to relate his life to McCandless's. He does this by talking about when he went climbing in Alaska when he was in his early twenties. I think he wanted to give his personal views on McCandless and also show the readers that he has been in a similar position that McCandless was in, and therefore understands McCandless's place to some degree.

I usually like Krakauer's interjections because they put things in perspective and help the reader to better understand how people like McCandless think. It also makes McCandless more relatable by comparing his life to that of others. However, sometimes his interjections provide unnecessary detail and can therefore be boring.

I was very surprised that Krakauer had climbed the Devil's Thumb and survived. I think he survived because he was way more prepared than McCandless was. Now I really understand why Krakauer was so fascinated by McCandless's story and decided to write a book about him.

As children, both Krakauer and McCandless disliked authority and pursued their interests with extreme enthusiasm. They both went to Alaska in their early twenties to experience the wilderness. Both of them had strained relationships with their fathers and couldn't live up to their father's expectations. They both went off on their own as well.

I don't think that climbing is always a psycho-neurotic tendency. I think that some people climb for sport, while others climb to find refuge from their inner problems. Some people probably climb for both of those reason. Everyone has their own personal reasons for doing the things they do.

It is hard to say whether Edwards defines McCandless because you can't really define someone without personally knowing them. Based off the evidence provided in this book, I think that McCandless definitely had times where he showed psycho-neurotic tendencies. He would often act on compulsion when deciding to leave towns and such.