AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE IN JON KRAKAUER’S INTO THE WILD

For centuries, nature has been an integral part of the American identity, intertwining a rich and lasting narrative. The wilderness has always inspired both fascination and fear, leading man to the perception of nature and culture as contrasting forces. While nowadays society has been giving even more importance to advanced technology for several years, the ancestral bond that interconnects man and wilderness persists. Incorporating evidence from American and Western American narratives, excerpts of Turner’s speech, Heike Paul’s study on American myths, magazines, etc. this study attempts to shed light on the complex relationship between man and nature. In particular, it delves into the ambivalent experience of Christopher McCandless, as narrated by Jon Krakauer in Into the Wild, the main source of this thesis. As a critically acclaimed text, the book is not just a gripping travel essay but a litmus test for crucial themes that define the American identity, including the fascination nature holds in the American imagination and the idea of a self-reliant and independent young man forged by challenges. In three chapters, this thesis analyzes the attraction that nature exercises in the American mind despite the passing of time, from the myths of early America to the climate crisis in the 1990s, and eventually introduces the contemporary figure of Christopher McCandless as the inheritor of American mythic fascination with the wild. Ultimately, the study concludes that while Christopher embraced some valuable principles, his radicalism turned against him, who became a victim of his own personality. In light of this, McCandless is an example of how man’s unpreparedness could be a trap in the wilderness, dismantling in a certain way the label of cruelty through which nature has been marked by man.