ITW Study Guide

Obliquely

Indirectly; not in a direct way

Jan Burres

Jan Burres is a middle-aged rubber tramp who travels around the West selling knick-knacks at flea markets. She meets McCandless when she picks him up hitchhiking. They become close, and he stays in written contact with her until going into the Alaskan wilderness.

Who was the last person to see Chris alive

Jim Gallien

Jim Gallien

Jim Gallien is a union electrician and accomplished hunter and woodsman who picks up "Alex" four miles outside of Fairbanks and drives him to Denali. He is the last person to see McCandless alive

John Waterman

John Waterman is a very talented young climber from the suburbs of D.C., whose drive to climb dangerous slopes intensifies as he loses his mind, and who eventually embarks on a suicidal assent of Denali, and is never heard from again.

Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer is the author and narrator of Into the Wild, whose life in certain ways parallels McCandless's. Obsessive about mountain climbing from his teens to his late twenties, like McCandless he also has issues with male authority figures, and has a very conflicted relationship with his father.

Why was author Jon Krakauer interested in writing Chris's story

Krakauer identifies with McCandless's attraction to nature and to high-risk activities, and also understands the young man's troubled relationship with his father.

What were the author's thoughts of Chris? What about his criticism towards Chris?

Krakauer seems to believe that McCandless wasn't consumed by existential despair, but driven by meaning and purpose

Where did Chris abandon his car and why?

Lake Mead National Park, at the detrital wash. Because a flash flood hit and he could not drive his car out of the area.

Derelict

Left or deserted; abandoned

Who was Chris' favorite author?

Leo Tolstoy or Henry David Thoreau

Ramshackle

Loosely made; shaky

Where did Chris McCandless come from?

El Segundo, CA

Where did he go to college?

Emory University

Who is Ronald (Ron) Franz?

He is a retired old man who befriended Chris in California

Robust

Strong and healthy

Environs

Surroundings; an area or a space close by

What appears to be Krakauer's main motive in writing INTO THE WILD

To defend Chris McCandless from his critics.

Concocted

create or devise

What is the epilogue about?

traveling with Chris's parents to the site of the bus where he died

Rapport

A close relationship where people understand each other

Mercurial

A person that has a sudden or unpredictable changes of mood

When Jim Gallien helped Chris, what did Chris attempt to give in return?

Alex gave Gallien eighty-five cents in change, his watch, and his comb.

Anomaly

An odd, peculiar, or strange situation

How does Krakauer classify Chris as opposed to the way most people saw him

As not very different from many idealistic, if short-sighted, young people.

What was one of the main reasons why Chris could not return to society?

Because the glaciers were melting and made the river level too high to be able to cross

What did both Walt and Billie leave behind in the bus?

Billie and Walt leave food and first aid supplies in the bus, along with a Bible that belonged to Chris when he was young and a note that says, 'Call your parents as soon as possible.

Butch Killian

Butch Killian is a coal miner and emergency medical technician from Healy, the closest town, who arrives at the bus soon after Samel has found McCandless's body.

Carine McCandless

Carine is Chris's younger sister, with whom he is extremely close. Carine looks a lot like Chris, and is also energetic, self-assured, and a high-achiever, but unlike Chris is very gregarious, forgiving of people's faults, and happily fits into capitalist society.

Carl McCunn

Carl McCunn is a thirty-five year old amateur photographer who hires a pilot to drop him in the wilderness for a five month long stay to take photographs of wildlife. He forgets to arrange for someone to pick him up, and so ends up killing himself once his rations run out.

Billie McCandless

Chris and Carine's mother, Billie is a very petite woman who meets Walt while working as a secretary at the company he works for before they split off to start their own company together. Like Walt and her children, she is very passionate, with a strong temper.

How did Chris appear in his last photograph according to the author?

He appears to be at peace

Which charity did he donate his money to and how was it ironic according to his death?

He donated his money to OXFAM America, which is a hunger relief program. This is ironic because he ultimately died of starvation.

What strange actions did Chris take right after graduating from the University

He gave away his entire savings to charity, abandoned his possessions, and became a drifter and wilderness explorer.

What was Chris like growing up? What were some of the things he cared about, was interested in, etc.?

He was very intelligent, athletic and determined. He was interested in cross country

What do his parents find when they visit the bus Chris lived and died?

His boots, his toothbrush, and a fork from their family home.

When Chris worked at McDonald's, what did his co-workers complain about?

His coworkers complained that he never wore socks, works very slowly and that he smelled bad.

Before departing from Chris, what did Ron ask Chris?

Ron asked if he could adopt Chris, if he would be his grandson

Ron Franz

Ronald Franz is an eighty-year old devout Christian and soldier who picks McCandless up hitchhiking and takes a strong liking to him. He has lost his wife and children long ago, and so feels a fatherly affection for Chris, whom he offers to adopt. After hearing of Chris's death, he stops believing in God

When Chris' body was found, what did the autopsy declare as the most plausible cause of death?

starvation

Unencumbered

Having few or no burdens or obligations

Eccentric

Mysterious; extraordinary

Idiosyncratic

Peculiar or individual

Describe Chris' personality. What was he like? What were some of the things he disapproved of?

Chris was intelligent, rebellious, and determined. He disapproved of society and their expectations

How did Chris' death affect Ron? What did he end up doing?

Chris's death affected Ron negatively, he renounced God and turned to alcohol

Walt McCandless

Chris's father, Walt is an eminent aerospace engineer and the father of eight children from two marriages. He is fifty-six at the time of Chris's death. He is taciturn, passionate and stubborn, much like his son, and also brilliant, musically talented, with a mercurial temper.

Describe Chris' philosophy of life?

Christopher McCandless's philosophy of life is that one should be able to go and be free and decide what they want their own fate to be

Emasculated

Deprived of strength and vigor; weakened

Destitute

Deprived or lacking

What was one thing that the police struggled with when they found Chris' body?

Figuring out who he was

Convivial

Friendly lively, enjoyable

Enigmatic

Full of mystery and difficult to understand

Gaylord Stuckey

Gaylord Stuckey is a sixty-three year old man who meets McCandless in the Laird River Hotsprings, and, taking a liking to him, drives him the rest of the way to Fairbanks.

Gene Rosellini

Gene Rosellini is a brilliant man from a wealthy family who decides to see if he can live as primitive man did, and succeeds at it for over a decade before deciding his experiment has failed, and killing himself.

What did Chris write in the book Doctor Zhivago? What did it show about Chris?

HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED, it showed that Chris was ready to return to society and he wanted to go share his happiness with the world.

What is the famous quote written by Chris about happiness?

Happiness is only real when shared.

Chris McCandless

McCandless is an intelligent, extremely intense young man with a streak of stubborn idealism. He grows up in a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., where he succeeds both academically and athletically. He graduates from Emory University with honors in 1990, and soon afterwards gives all of his savings to charity, starts going by the name of "Alex," abandons almost all of his possessions, and spends two years hitchhiking and traveling around the west. He then hitchhikes to Alaska, where he walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley in April 1992. He is found dead four months later.

Loren Johnson

McCandless's maternal grandfather, Loren is proud, stubborn, and dreamy, and never can quite fit into society, just like Chris. The two get along very well together. Loren is especially fond of wildlife, and finds hunting very emotionally difficult.

Clemency

Mercy, lenience

Intermittent

Not constant; occurring at irregular times

Emancipated

Not constrained by custom or tradition

What does Krakauer think might have made the difference in Chris's survival

Not making one or two critical mistakes

What was Chris' car, the Datsun, eventually used for?

Rangers now use the car to make undercover drug investigations

What do some people think about Chris McCandless?

That he was a foolish boy who threw away his life.

Meadered

To wander aimlessly

What is Transcendentalism and how does it relate to Chris?

Transcendentalists believed that human beings and nature were equal, something McCandless demonstrated throughout his journey. In April of 1992, roughly two years after he started his journey, he camped away in the Alaskan wilderness, displaying acts of self-reliance by gathering his own food and lived without society.

Itinerant

Traveling from place to place

Wayne Westerberg

Wayne Westerberg is the owner of a grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota, who meets McCandless when he picks him up hitchhiking in 1990. He gives McCandless jobs multiple times, and becomes close to him.

What event happened in April 1992 that prompted the writing of INTO THE WILD

What event happened in April 1992 that prompted the writing of Into The Wild? Christopher McCandless hitchhiked to Alaska and entered the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley and four months later, a party of hunters found his body.

What happened when Chris killed a moose? What did he try to do and ended up failing? How did he feel during this time?

When Chris killed the moose he was very proud. he attempted to cure the meat but failed and it got infested by bugs. He felt very guilty because he killed the moose but couldn't eat it.

Voluminous

a great size

Estranged

alienated; no longer close to someone

Precipitous

extremely steep

What was Jim Gallien's first impression of Chris?

he thinks he is another delusional visitor to the Alaskan frontier.

Sonorous

loud; deep; rich in sound