Rhetoric

"In writing Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer has obvious opinions about the subject and employs rhetoric to show this. If you were writing the story of Christopher McCandless, how would your rhetoric differ from that of Krakauer? Would it? What types of rhetoric would you use, and why? What might this story be called?"

I would most definitely play up the idea of Chris as living out what he'd always dreamed of. I'd go about the Tim O'Brian way; tell people the story in a way to make you feel the emotions that the character feels. Sure, it would require me to exagerate certain things, some would argue that Krakauer does this already, but I think that the pathos needs to be felt. Too many people dislike Chris because they get caught up in logic - I would point out that yes, Chris was being naive and foolish to think he could survive. Readers need to understand that Chris wasn't making the journey to be an example, or to have a claim to fame. He was doing it to be the novel hero he always wanted to be. Arguably, Krakauer already does many of these things, but I don't think he ever explicitly says that Chris was acting out his ideal escapist novel. I would say that.