Throughout the novel, Christopher McCandless's character changed over time. Until his death McCandless had wanted to live in the wilderness and be as far away from civilization as possible. He changes his mind when he writes “HAPPINESS IS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). His purpose for living in the wilderness is to live with freedom and do whatever he wants. However, he realizes that he is a “refuge in nature” (189) and intends to abandon his solitary life and rejoin the human community. McCandless is presumed to have died a preventable death due to his unpreparedness, but it is now undeniable that his adversity is what caused his mortality. “…McCandless had the misfortune of eating moldy seeds. An innocent mistake, but it was still enough to end his life” (194). If he hadn't eaten the moldy seeds, he would have lived to tell the tale. The unintended effects of Jon Krakauer's propaganda techniques may persuade that Christopher Johnson McCandless was reckless and ignorant in several ways throughout this chapter. Krakauer inadvertently demonstrated that McCandless was reckless by quoting McCandless as saying, “How I feed myself is none of the government's business. Fuck their stupid rules” (6). McCandless doesn't know that his choices will negatively affect him and cause his death. McCandless was very careless in his preparation. “His rifle was only .22 caliber; too small a bore to rely on if he thought about killing large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to stay in the country very long. He had no axe, no insecticides, no snowshoes, no compass” (5). “In most places there aren't many animals to hunt. Living in the forest is no picnic” (5). Christopher McCandless was ig… middle of paper… the flood, is nevertheless unthinkable” (173). The word "thunder" was used to glamorize the sudden and dangerous circumstances of the raging river. “I hear rocks the size of bowling balls grinding along the bottom, dragged downstream by the powerful current” (173). Krakauer used a metaphor to analogize the size of rocks. His analogy was used to describe how strong the river was, pushing bowling ball-sized rocks downstream. “A few inches away sits a skull the size of a watermelon, think ivory tusks protruding from its bleached jaws” (179). The analogy here was used to compare the bear skull found in the bus to the size of a watermelon. The comparison between the two reveals how massive the bear must have been and generates fear towards that bear before it was killed. Work cited Krakauer, Jon. In the wild nature. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.