Into The WildJon Krakauer

Stanley Zalta

Argument• Jon Krakauer try's to explain, what different

factors can drive a person to leave everything they have behind and start a new life in the wild. In this particular non-fiction book, the author tells us the story of Chris McCandless who failed at surviving and died of starvation in a stranded bus.

Subsections 1-2• Chris McCandless, a young man decided to

abandon society and hitchhike to Alaska where he settled in the wilderness. He had left everything behind, his money, family, car and his possessions all he had was a small backpack with materials useful for his survival. Four months later his body was found inside an abandoned bus, decomposed.

• Chris was a very hard worker and a very intelligent kid and he came form a good family

Subsections 1-2• Chris McCandless body is found decomposed in

an abandoned bus, the cause of death was starvation.

• In October of 1990 Chris abandoned his car because he got caught in a flash flood and this caused the battery to die. He burned all of his possessions and hitchhiked west and found a job in a farm witch he later left because they weren't going to pay him.

Subsections 3-4• In 1991 Krakauer pieces together that he spent

time in California and Bullhead City, Arizona. He spent two months in Bullhead City, got a job at McDonald’s, opened a bank account, and even introduced himself by his real name, Chris McCandless.

• In Chapters 8 and 9, Krakauer compares McCandless with other explorers before him. Krakauer notes the lack of sympathy Alaskans felt for McCandless when they read the article Krakauer wrote about his death. Many felt that he was a foolish child, who arrogantly attempted to brave the Alaskan wilderness.

• when he had gone to the neighborhood where he had spent his earliest years, he gets enough information to piece together that his father had continued his relationship with his first wife in secret long after falling in love with Billie and fathering Chris, even fathering another son with her.

• “But he did not confront his parents with what he knew, then or ever. He chose instead to make a secret of his dark knowledge and express his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal.”

• Into the Wild, 123• Krakauer points out that one of the main reasons of why Chris left

to Alaska was because he had family issues, mainly with his dad. I agree with this quote because the fact that Chris kept all this dark feeling inside and didn't deal with them influenced him to leave to Alaska unprepared and lead his to his death.

• "McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well."

• Into the Wild, 55• This passage illuminates McCandless’s deep problems with

intimacy, which are very central in his two-year quest for meaning and peace. During these two years, McCandless doesn’t contact his sister, with whom he was very close, and while he meets many people and becomes close to a few, he always makes sure to maintain a certain distance.

Subsections 5-6

• In this quote I am agreeing with the author. Krakauer is implying that McCandless has intimacy issues and this is evident in many cases thought the book.

Subsections 7-8 • In the last part of the book the author inserts his

own personal experiences. Krakauer shares much in common with Chris McCandless and the other men he has discussed he was young and willful and also had a strained relationship with his father.

• The last section of Into the Wild is especially tragic, in that it shows that McCandless, at least from what little evidence is available from his last weeks, had matured, and was ready to rejoin society.

• « I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Good bye and may god bless all!» (119)•  He takes a last picture of himself in

front of the bus, holding his farewell note, and then crawls into his sleeping bag and at some point in the next few days, dies.