Thesis Proposal Sample: Comparison/Similarities between the book, “Into the Wild” and the L.A. Riots”
Publication Date:
Introduction
Into the Wild is a non-fiction book composed by Krakauer Jon in 1996. In 2007, the book was adapted to movie and directed by Penn Sean. Into the Wild is a factual tale of McCandless Chris (5), a young gentleman from a fortunate background who after he graduated from the university, begins walking into the wild where he lived off the territory and in total isolation.
Hence, he achieved his desire to run away from the entrapment of what he observes as an artificial society of consumer. Nevertheless, by August 1992, he starved and lost his life, only four months following his walking into the wilderness of Alaskan.
On the other hand, the novel L.A Riots by Gattis Ryan is the most intense way of experiencing riots in Los Angeles. The author describes a series of civil disturbances and riots that took place in the County of Los Angeles in 1992. Disturbances started in South Central L.A on April 29, when a trial judge set free four detectives of the Police Department of Los Angeles. They were charged for using unnecessary force in the beating and arresting of Rodney King. The case was videotaped and extensively viewed in the television broadcasts.
In my five-page essay, I will try to establish how the experiences of author, Krakauer Jon, relate with the experiences of Chris in the book Into the Wild. I will show how Krakauer relates the adventures of Chris to his own. I plan to demonstrate how the author tries to educate readers on the importance of self-confidence and unity in families. In general, I will also try to show how L.A chaos heavily affected Gatti’s health and life. I will equally prove how these riots changed his perception for the better.
Into the Wild can both be viewed as a novel and biography, it relies on facts and it is heavy on speculation. The book appears to fall between these two descriptions, which makes it difficult to categorize. Nevertheless, this does not matter because it does not obstruct the enjoyment of the narration.
Even though I agree that the book is heavy on assumption and light on facts, I believe this can be mentioned on any factual text, which depends on the perceptions and memories of other people for some of the contents.
The author’s style of comparing the romantic scripts of London, Thoreau and Chris, with a cold mood of the detective reports forms a gripping and engaging account. It shows how the Krakauer’s work is a true reflection of his times and life. Many individuals can recognize with the concept of yearning to have the escapade of a lifetime and abandoning all the burdens and accountabilities of daily life behind. Nevertheless, for majority of people, there is some little voice in their mind that prevents them from completely leaving life and the people they love.
L.A Riot is very organized and structured, which is essential in marshalling the countless perceptions and voices that constitute the account. This format shuns any necessity for authorial description as casts weave in and out, leading to the weft and warp of the story. The story draws from broad study where Gattis won the trust of members of gang to record witness memories from the individuals who participated. Hence, he re-narrates the anecdote in first person, gradually, through a sequence of seventeen continually transforming but interconnected casts.
The experiences of Gattis when Los Angeles riots took place are a critique of the crimes that were committed during this time. Officially, riots in Los Angeles continued for six days and led to 2,000 damages and 50 losses of lives. However, Gattis sets his goals, instinctive narrative among gangs in Latino who took advantage of the disorder to settle old animosities and cause even more chaos.
Gattis criticizes how people were treated during these riots and says that he would not wish what happened to him on anybody else. The author says that this informs how he writes violence. His reason for this is because he writes violence from the viewpoint of someone who has felt it, who has experienced it, or who has had to lay in a hospital bed for a long time.
Gattis also spoke to various individuals regarding what they believed the riots achieved. What he got is that it assisted people comprehend Los Angeles better. After he was punched on the face by a nasty lineman, he was forced to have two facial reconstruction operations. This changed his perception towards life and negatively affected his self-esteem because it was nearly a year before he could taste and smell again.
He describes how one day he walked into a bathroom and observed his face in the mirror and though that his life was over. He believed that nobody would love him again and that he would not get an employment because of his condition. This is one of the big fork times of his life.
When comparing Into the Wild with other books such as L.A Riots, I think it is a multifaceted and passionate narration. As most of the victorious non-fiction escapade tales have been composed by the writers who survived to narrate the story, Krakauer did an excellent work of narrating the tale of Chris for him and still developed an emotional and personal piece. I think Krakauer established a very passionate and fascinating book. His devotion to Chris’s tale infiltrates through the pages and his individual connections to the story add a passion and profundity, which could have been lost.
The author turns what could have been an anecdote of a psychologically and spoilt deranged young man residing in the wilderness into an intensely moving account of escapade and self-discovery. One of the similarities that I noted from the books is the aspect of loneliness and solitude that the main character went through.
In Into the Wild, Krakauer describes how MacCandless resorted to staying alone in the wilderness because of the challenges he was experiencing with his family. Similarly, in L.A Riots, Gattis explains how after he was beaten very hard in the face by a hateful lineman on the football team, he wanted to spend time alone by reading and watching films.
Another similarity is that both the books offer first-hand description of the events that took place during the times mentioned. In the book Into the Wild, Krakauer offers his own interpretation of what occurred to Chris, according to police reports, his intensive investigation, and a confessed personal link to the story of Chris. Likewise, in L.A Riot, Gattis provides first-hand description about how the unrest spread all through metropolitan region of Los Angeles. He provides vivid description of how many individuals demonstrated over a period of six days after the verdict was announced.
Gattis was very interested in tales, and in some ways allowed him an incredibly huge share of sympathy. Gattis’s work criticizes the actions of law enforcement on innocent civilians. He also criticizes the racial prejudices that took place and how minority races were harshly treated (Vargas 220). Equally important is how he believed there was a tale worth describing concerning the L.A Latino gang (Sebastian and King). He reached out to some friends he made through a Los Angeles street art team where he was a member and requested if they would want to secretly talk to him concerning their previous years.
The rate of crime is gradually reducing and numbers of gang are slowly going down. Gattis attributes this to the improving economy compared to its state in1992. Gattis tries to shed light on the impacts of the riots. Readers understand how Korean Americans and Koreans all resided together and how African Americans later lived in harmony.
Readers understand that during that time, there was no sufficient conversation; and there were insufficient community dialogue to find ways of living together. However, Krakauer educates readers that ego destroys relationships and youths should learn the art of effectively communicating with friends and family (Marcia 551).
Conclusion
With the speed of a fast-paced crime story and the powerful skill of an amazingly adept author, L.A Riot is an epic narration of commitment, revenge and race. Into the Wild is a magnificently cautionary story and the writing of the author is spectacular.
L.A Riot was initially recognizable as a novel of L.A, but it is also identifiable as an American anecdote. Its injustices, its history and its intricacies, lay bare. However, both the books enlighten the society on how to love one another and live in harmony without prejudice.
Works Cited
Gattis, Ryan. All Involved: A Novel of the 1992 L.A Riots, 2016.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild, 1996. Retrieved from http://www.metropolitancollege.com/Into%20The%20Wild.pdf
Marcia, James, E. Development and Validation of Ego Identity Statuses’ Journal of Personal and Social Psychology 3(5): 5551-558
Sebastian, Zach, and King Alex. Into the fires of Hell: Author Ryan Gattis on the L.A Riots, Tattoos and the Lynwood Vikings, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/print/fires-hell-author-ryan-gattis-la-riots-tattoos-lynwood-vikings/
Vargas, Costa. The Los Angeles Times’ Coverage of the 1992 Rebellion: Still Burning Matters of Race and Justice. Journal of Indexing & Metrics 4(2): 209-236