Conduplicatio in Into The Wild

                                           

Conduplicatio is the repetition of a significant phrase or word at the start of consecutive sentences or passages. The word conduplicatio comes from the prefix con-, meaning with, and the component duplicate, meaning to repeat or recreate. Hence, conduplicatio refers to saying something with repetition. 

Conduplicatio allows a writer to emphasize the significance of a particular phrase. Additionally, conduplicatio lets the writer connect sentences or ideas together through the use a phrase. Finally, conduplicatio can be used to relate two entities that were previously unrelated through this key phrase. 

In Into the Wild, Krakauer employs conduplicatio to connect Walt McCandless to Sam McCandless. Krakauer writes, "Sam had been raised in California and Colorado, in his mother’s household, and hadn’t moved to Virginia until 1987, after Chris had left the state to attend college in Atlanta, so Sam didn’t know his half brother well...Samuel Walter McCandless, Jr., fifty-six years old, is a bearded, taciturn man with longish salt-and-pepper hair combed straight back from a high forehead" (Krakauer 110). Krakauer relates Chris's father to Chris's half brother by employing conduplicatio. He does this by emphasizing Walt's entire name for the first and only time immediately after referring to Sam. This connects the two through their first names, Sam. Furthermore, Krakauer has created this particular connection with the purpose of illuminating a potential reason for the split that Chis has with his father. This can be recognized based on the fact that Chris does not have the family name of Sam. Conduplicatio allowed Krakauer to connect the subjects of two passages together through their names.