Summary Of Chapter 1-22

The stories in Chapters eight and nine not only provide a more concrete look into Chris’ sanity, but also allow us to more deeply understand his person and his purpose. In Chapters eight and nine when are introduced to the stories of Gene Rosellini, John Waterman, Carl McCunn, and Everett Ruess. Each man had a different story however obviously the same skeletal structure. Gene had began his journey into the wild as an experiment “in knowing if it was possible to be independent of modern technology” and revert to primitive lifestyles (Krakauer 74). Previously being a 4.0 GPA student and a star athlete, Gene eventually became overcome by his soon-to-be failed hypothesis “convinced that humans had devolved into progressively inferior beings” (Krakauer
John Waterman was an avid climber at the age of sixteen. He had climbed up Mount McKinley/Denali by then and didn’t seem to be slowing down. However after the departure of his father among many deaths of loved ones his sanity took a huge decline. As a result his death and story did not receive as much attention, most likely to the fact of being dismissed as a nutcase. John had started “[prancing] across campus in a long black cape[, with] blue Elton John-type glasses[, and playing] a cheap guitar” praising his stories and adventures of climbing. John took a solo climb of Mount Hunter which unraveled his mind even more than it had been prior. After that John attempted many other expeditions only to fail over and over again. This eventually lead to his death and disappearance on Ruth Glacier during his final attempted climb. The other two stories, in addition to many others, follow the same path of intense climbing, eventual mental decline and death by nature or themselves. Taking all these stories into account we can assess Chris more accurately. This being said we can say that his story was much different that the others that have been