Name: Andrew Foley

Major Works Data Sheet:

Biographical information about the author:

Title: Into the Wild

Author: Jon Krakaeur
Date of Publication: 1996
Genre: Biographical, Non-Fiction
Historical information about the setting:

The story of the Bus of which Christopher

McCandless spent over 100 days during his
Alaskan adventure goes back to the 1960s
when a coal miner, drove it into the wilderness
to use as a home. The historical information of
the book varies as Christopher McCandless
travels to various places, he goes to the
Colorado river, and kayakes down it, which
used to be home to the piquio Indian tribe 192
years ago.

Son of a doctor and amateur mountaineer, Jon

Krakauer was born on April 12, 1954, in Brookline,
Massachusetts, and grew up in Oregon, where he
began mountain-climbing at eight years old. After
graduating from Hampshire College in Amherst,
Massachusetts, in 1976, Krakauer worked as a
carpenter and a commercial fisherman in Colorado,
the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska, devoting most of
his free time to climbing. In 1977 he pioneered a new
route up the Devils Thumb in southeast Alaska, and in
1996 he reached the top of Mt. Everest, though four
of his five teammates died on the descent down the
mountain an experience Krakauer would write
about for Outside magazine and in his book Into Thin
Air.

Characteristics of the genre:

The characteristics of the genre of Into the Wild is mainly nonfiction, biographical. It sticks to the actual facts of Chris
McCandless's story and fills in the gaps with likelihoods that
occurred. The author, Krakaeur, adds his narrations and opinions
throughout the story to try and shed light on certain meanings and to
help you gain an understanding and opinion of Chris's lifestyle and
story.

Plot summary:
Into the Wild is the true story of Chris McCandless, a young Emory graduate who is found dead in the Alaskan wilderness in
September 1992, when he is twenty-four. McCandless grows up in wealthy Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and is a very gifted
athlete and scholar, who from an early age shows deep intensity, passion, and a strict moral compass. After graduating from high school
McCandless spends the summer alone on a road trip across the country, during which he discovers that his father secretly had a second
family during Chriss childhood. McCandless returns home and starts as a freshman at Emory, but his anger over this betrayal and his
parents keeping it from him grows worse over time.
By the time that McCandless is a senior at Emory, he lives monastically, has driven away most of his friends with his intensity and
moral certitude, and barely keeps in touch with his parents. He lets his parents think that he is interested in law school, but instead,
after graduating with honors, he donates his $25,000 savings anonymously to charity, gets in his car, and drives away without telling
anyone where he is going, abandoning the use of his real name along the way. He never contacts his parents or sister, Carine, again.
Not too long after leaving Atlanta, McCandless deserts his car in the desert after a flash flood wets the engine, and from then on, he
hitchhikes around the Northwest, getting jobs here and there but not staying anywhere for long, often living on the streets, and keeping
as little money and as few possessions as he can. During this time he gets to know a few people rather closely, and everyone admires
his intensity and willingness to live completely by his beliefs, but he avoids true intimacy.
After about two years of itinerant travel, McCandless settles on a plan to go to Alaska and truly live in the wilderness, completely
alone, and with very few supplies, to see if he can do it, to push himself to the very extremes. He spends a few months preparing,
learning all he can about hunting, edible plants, etc, and then he leaves South Dakota, where hed been working, and hitchhikes to
Fairbanks. Those whom he tells about the plan all warn him that he needs to be better prepared, or should wait until later in the spring,
but he is adamant and stubborn.
In April of 1992 McCandless gets dropped off near Mt. McKinley, and hikes into the wilderness. He spends the next sixteen weeks
hunting small game, foraging, reading, and living in a deserted bus made to be a shelter for hunters, not seeing a single human the
entire time. He is successful for the most part, although he loses significant weight. In late July, however, McCandless probably eats
some moldy seeds, and the mold contains a poison that essentially causes him to starve to death, no matter how much he eats, and he is
too weak to gather food anyway. McCandless is quickly incapacitated by the poison. Realizing he is going to die, he writes a goodbye
message, and a few weeks later some hunters find his body in the bus.

Major Works Data Sheet

Page 2

Describe the authors style:

The author uses first person accounts of

Christopher McCandless, demonstrates the story
and certain themes / symbols, then he inserts his
note and sometimes a story that relates to a
theme or characteristic of into the wild in order
to try and assist the reader in the understanding
and development of their opinions on the
chapter(s).

An example that demonstrates the style:

The hint of what was concealed in those
shadows terrified me, but I caught sight of
something in the glimpse, some forbidden and
elemental riddle that was no less compelling than
the sweet, hidden petals of a woman's sex...
In my caseand, I believe in the case of Chris
McCandless-- that was a very different thing from
wanting to die.

Memorable Quotes
Quote
Please return all mail I receive to the
sender. It might be a very long time before I
return South. If this adventure proves fatal
and you dont ever hear from me again, I
want you to know youre a great man. I now
walk into the wild.
Seven weeks after the body of his son
turned up in Alaska wrapped in a blue
sleeping bag that Billie had sewn for Chris
from a kit, Walt studies a sailboat scudding
beneath the window of his waterfront
townhouse. How is it, he wonders aloud as
he gazes blankly across Chesapeake Bay,
that a kid with so much compassion could
cause his parents so much pain?

As she studies the pictures, she breaks down

from time to time, weeping as only a mother
who has outlived a child can weep, betraying
a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that
the mind balks at taking its measure. Such
bereavement, witnessed at close range,
makes even the most eloquent apologia for
high-risk activities ring fatuous and hollow.

Roman, Andrew, and I stay up well past

midnight, trying to make sense of
McCandlesss life and death, yet his essence
remains slippery, vague, elusive.

Significance
This passage consists of McCandlesss own words, written on his last
postcard to Wayne Westerberg before he goes into the Alaskan wilderness.
The fact that he acknowledges the chance that he might not survive has
been used as evidence that his trek was suicidal in intent, but this seems
highly unlikely. Instead, this acknowledgment of the risk, and of what is
truly at stake, shows that his arrogance and hubris are not as extreme as
many imagine
This passage is emblematic of the problem at the core of McCandlesss story. From
what Krakauer learns about him, he seems to have been a deeply compassionate
person, and a significant part of his two-year quest was fueled by his sense of
injustice at how selfishly and greedily most Americans lived. His risky behavior over
this time is, however, deeply selfish, in that it causes pain to all those who love him,
and especially his family, who for two years do not even know if he is alive. And
indeed, this is not just a side effect of his quest, but part of its aim

This passage, about Billie McCandless after Chriss death, emphasizes that
no matter how well-intentioned Chris may have been, his behavior was
deeply cruel to his parents and family. The passage is also interesting
because of the meta-commentary it offers. Over the course of the book,
Krakauers view of McCandless is largely forgiving, and Krakauer
certainly understands the allure that high-risk activities held for him.

This sentence is representative of one of the significant themes of the book

that it is impossible to ever really know another persons story, what
drives them, how they end up where they do, etc., and that this is a problem
inherent in biography. It looms even larger over this specific biography
because McCandless has died, and has left a fairly elusive trail. His
journals are largely only descriptions of events and foods, and there spans
almost a whole year during which he doesnt leave any documentation.

Major Works Data Sheet

Name
Christopher
McCandless

Role in the story

The Protagonist

Page 3
Characters
Significance

Adjectives

Young man who believes that life is best lived alone, in

nature. He spends two years testing his theory
throughout the western United States before entering the
wilds of Alaska unprepared and starving to death.

Intelligent, idealistic,
individualistic

Pair who stumbles upon an abandoned bus along

Alaska's Sushana River in August 1992. They read
McCandless's S.O.S. note on the rear door and perceive
a rotting smell emanating from the bus.

naturalistic, adventerous,
acrobatic

Anchorage Couple

Hunters that stumble

across the abandoned
buss where Chris's body
lied

Jan Burres and

Bob

Hippys that become

good friends with chris
and help him out.

Ronald Franz

Old man that becomes

good friends with
Chris.

Jim Gallien

Drove Chris on road

near Stampede trail and
gave Chris supplies.

Jon Krakauer

Narrator/Author of the
book.

The author. Describes his own youthful assault on a

notorious Alaskan peak to offer comparisons with and
insights into McCandless's journey.

dazzling, daring, dapper

Chris's younger
sister and
confidante.

Chris's younger sister, she can relate to Chris and

understand him more than anyone else.

envious, direct, diligent

Carine
McCandless

Couple who meets McCandless in the summer of 1990

when he is searching for edible berries alongside U.S.
Highway 101. Estranged from her own son, Jan takes a
special interest in McCandless.

Amused,
Ample,Anguished

Eighty-year-old man who gives McCandless a ride from

Salton City, California, to Grand Junction, Colorado.
After McCandless's death, Franz heeds the young man's
advice to "hit the road" and live off the grid.

Angelic, Anchored, Ample

Last person to see McCandless alive. In April 1992, he

drops off the young man on Alaska's Stampede Trail,
giving McCandless his boots and advising him to
reconsider his plan to live off the land.

Samuel
McCandless

Chris's father.

Chris's father, a NASA scientist and entrepreneur who

develops advanced radar systems. Married twice, Walt
McCandless has a total of eight children. Chris is from
his second marriage.

Wilhelmina
McCandless

Chris's Mother

Chris's mother and Walt's second wife, who works with

Walt on various business ventures involving his radar
systems.

Ken Thompson,
Gordon Samel,
Ferdie Swanson

Moose hunters

Grain elevator
operator

Wayne
Westerberg

Moose hunters who happen upon the bus in which

McCandless has died of starvation.

Grain elevator operator who befriends McCandless in

north-central Montana in the fall of 1990. Westerberg
offers him a ride, a place to stay, and then a job.

Big-hearted, generous,
aching

diligent, dismal, flustered

flippant, feline, elaborate

Stern, content, conscious

stern, dismal, discrete

Major Works Data Sheet

Page 4
Setting

Significance of the opening scene

The setting of Into the Wild varies. Throughout

the story the protagonist, Chrisopher
McCandless travels on the raod or through train
to many different states, such as Arizona, New
Mexico, Colorado and even Mexico. The setting
of the story switches from Christopher
McCandless in the Alaskan wilderness,
surrounded by tall mountains, diverse hills and
rivers, and a large, abandoned buss of which
Chris turned into his shelter.

The opening scene of Intro the Wild introduced

us to some of the dangers of going into the
Alaskan frontier, Christ's passion for wanting to
be independent and go into the wilderness and
live off the land and how he does not have all
the required items to be fully prepared to go into
the Alaskan Fontier. These ideas carry on
throughout the story, as McCandless goes
around the country, meeting people and gaining
new items and preparations for the Alaskan
Adventure.
Significance of the ending/closing scene

Symbols
Yellow Datsun - The yellow Datsun is emblematic of
Christopher McCandless's genuine disinterest in material
things. Americans value their cars. McCandless leaves his in
the desert.
Mountains In Into the Wild, mountains function not as
scenery, nor are they especially significant geologically or
historically. Instead, a mountain is an obstacle to be
conquered, a way of testing one's capability and character,
especially in the chapters of the book where author Krakauer
recalls his own youth.
Mountains - The moose that McCandless shoots and then,
heartbreakingly, fails to preserve stands for his relationship to
the wild in general. Moose meat could prevent McCandless
from starving to death. Because of his hubris, however, he has
not prepared adequately for the enormous task of curing the
flesh and ultimately fails at it. The consequences are fatal.

The last scene of Intro the Wild ends with

Chris McCandless wrapping himself
up with his sleeping bag made from
Billie, laying peacefully staring at the
beautiful Alaskan surroundings as he
dies from starvation. The significance
of this scene is the idea that even
when he is dying of starvation he still
recognizes the beauty of Nature.

Possible Themes
Materialism - Christopher McCandless denounces and rejects what he sees as American materialism, in
general when he leaves his parents and the upper middle-class suburban setting in which they raised
him, and very specifically and concretely when he donates all his savings to charity, abandons his car
in the desert, and actually burns his paper money on the desert floor.
Young manhood - Into the Wild is very much the story of a young man, of his energy, his idealism,
and the arrogance that ultimately kills him. It is hard to imagine anyone besides a male in his late
teens or 20s who would do and say the things that Christopher McCandless does and says in this book
though, bizarrely, the octogenarian Ronald Franz tries to model aspects of his life after McCandless.
Father and Sons - If there is a single turning point in the life of Christopher McCandless, it may be
the discovery that his father had a second, secret family. This revelation seems to inspire him to reject
his parents completely and commence an odyssey into wild America. Along the way, McCandless
gravitates toward substitute fathers including Wayne Westerberg and Ronald Franz (and one substitute
mother, Jan Burres).