{"id":78,"date":"2006-04-20T04:54:44","date_gmt":"2006-04-20T09:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/04\/20\/krakauers-caption-to-chris-life-paper-4\/"},"modified":"2008-02-13T20:58:38","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T01:58:38","slug":"krakauers-caption-to-chris-life-paper-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/04\/20\/krakauers-caption-to-chris-life-paper-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Krakauer’s Caption to Chris’ life: Paper #4"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/44285884@N00\/131688722\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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1) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Alex,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Gail Borah, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153could really play.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean he was good<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The picture shows hands fervently playing the piano, causing the hands to be blurry.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose the caption first, because I thought that Chris playing the piano very well was a rare insight into another part of his personality.\u00c2\u00a0 It came to a complete surprise for me as a reader to read that he played very well and entertained for so long through his piano, and in another part of the book, through his voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Aside from jumping into the life of a hobo and drifter, I see a Chris who is educated and talented.\u00c2\u00a0 Considering his house on Willet Drive is literally less than a mile away from my house, it is hard to visualize anyone from these parts becoming a drifter.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose the picture because I thought it captured an atmosphere of a pianist being expressive through his music.\u00c2\u00a0 In the book Chris plays \u00e2\u20ac\u0153honky-tonk country tunes, ragtime, and Tony Bennett numbers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 So Chris probably had a classical education but actively pursued other musical interests.\u00c2\u00a0 This further provides insight on Chris, how he refused to go with the flow or follow anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s footsteps.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/daniel_t_schmitt\/97733161\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Near the end of his trip, it turned out, Chris had gotten lost in the Mojave Desert and had nearly succumbed to dehydration.<\/p>\n

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This is a neat picture of water flowing from a regular water fountain into its drain.\u00c2\u00a0 The picture is ironic because a water fountain provides unlimited amounts of water for a thirsty soul who walks to it and presses a lever. \u00c2\u00a0It would have been easy for Chris to be prepared or at least be helped by people or technology, but he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t and that is the irony between the caption and picture.\u00c2\u00a0 We find that Chris once had a near death experience in the Mojave Desert when he went on a road trip from home.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of starvation though, he was dehydrated.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw this picture and I thought of technological society, and how it helps us live a better life.\u00c2\u00a0 Protective gear and nonperishable foods for example, would be a way that technology helps Chris, yet he always refused it unless it was shoved down his throat.\u00c2\u00a0 There are so many ways that people tried to help him, that this water from the water fountain could help him, but instead Chris wanted to walk away and find his lake so that no one would help him, that he would find some truth in his journey.\u00c2\u00a0 Dehydration apparently didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t snap him out of trying to brave the elements out in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/88937568@N00\/110659281\/in\/set-72057594055069675\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d figured out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at inner-city missions.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d figure out Alaska, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

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This is a picture of a freight train.\u00c2\u00a0 Coming out of Fairfax, Virginia Chris figured out how to be a hobo hopping trains.\u00c2\u00a0 I selected the caption because Jan Burres asks a question of if he can do all these things, he can figure out how to life in Alaska too.\u00c2\u00a0 Canoes, freight trains and beds are things in a technological world; living in the wilderness is on a completely different plane.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose the picture because it was simple the most stereotypical freight train I could find, something simple.\u00c2\u00a0 A freight train has boxes that someone has to get into and hide from cops.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 How starkly different this is to surviving in the wilderness!\u00c2\u00a0 But Chris saw it all on one level, him against the world, whether it was freight trains or Alaska.\u00c2\u00a0 I am fairly certain that Chris never hopped freight trains before ever in his life.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris was out of place, mentally at least, from everyone else he was around.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that Chris was so disgusted with mainstream American life that this was the abrupt change he needed to see something different in his country, something different and unknown to him previously<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/55531326@N00\/129550284\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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4) A little more than a year after McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death he regards the world through wary blue eyes.<\/p>\n

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This is a picture of a young boy with big blue eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose the caption first because I knew exactly what I wanted to find to juxtapose it with \u00e2\u20ac\u201c energetic, young blue eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 When Franz hears about Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 death it is one of the most poignant parts of the book aside from when we hear Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 family.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel that Franz is jaded with time, with how life treats people unfairly at times, and how that has taken a toll on him.\u00c2\u00a0 On the other hand Chris (whose eyes I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember being discussed in the book) sees life as a place to help people and find himself.\u00c2\u00a0 Although several times Chris accepts the possibility of his death, at one time breaking down, I do not feel he completely accepts it.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris might have been ready to suffer physically to the point of near death, but a 24-year old simply cannot cope with death that young.\u00c2\u00a0 His eyes are still young and hopeful, even in the picture he took at near death.<\/p>\n

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Summary<\/p>\n

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A photograph influences a caption by giving an impression of what that caption is supposed to associate with.\u00c2\u00a0 With the hands on the piano, I feel a rush of energy from the fingers to the piano. That energy stays in my head when I read the caption about Chris playing the piano very well.\u00c2\u00a0 In my mind it accentuates this energy I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153read\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the photograph and carries it to my idea of Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 personality.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris could be sociable, energetic, and entertaining with friends he met, and the energy illuminates this aspect.\u00c2\u00a0 The caption frames a photograph by highlighting a distinguishing characteristic.\u00c2\u00a0 In my photo with the boy, there are several things one could dwell on, but the caption makes me put my attention into what the young eyes show me, and what they make me feel.\u00c2\u00a0 His skin, hair, or background does not matter to me anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 In this same way, Krakauer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whole book is a caption of Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 life, giving us glimpses of his life through words and interviews.\u00c2\u00a0 We can simply be turned to different aspects of his life but we do not have the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153picture\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Chris to scrutinize, and so I find myself trying to make a whole out of the pieces Krakauer gives us, which in itself is biased and ironic at times. When Into the Wild<\/em> is quoted out of context, it misleads the reader to think that the author (may be it Joyce or London) to be of a certain thought.\u00c2\u00a0 When London describes the desolate wilderness, we see the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153picture\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Chris one way, and when we read onward about how life still prevails, we see it another way.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/44285884@N00\/131688722\/ 1) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Alex,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Gail Borah, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153could really play.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean he was good. The picture shows hands fervently playing the piano, causing the hands to be blurry.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose the caption first, because I thought that Chris playing the piano very well was a rare insight into another part of his personality.\u00c2\u00a0 It came … Continue reading Krakauer’s Caption to Chris’ life: Paper #4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}