Into the Wild study Guide 1

Where was his body found, and what condition was it in?

The action of the book fast-forwards to early September 1992 when five strangers fortuitously converge on a bus abandoned by a river near Alaska's Stampede Trail. The first two visitors, an Anchorage couple, notice a bad smell coming from the bus and see a note taped to the bus's rear exit door, which reads: S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is NO JOKE. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August? The Anchorage couple is too upset by the note and the smell of decay to investigate further. They are soon joined, however, by three hunters riding all-terrain vehicles. Looking inside the bus, one of the men, an auto-body shop employee named Gordon Samel, discovers a dead body in a sleeping bag atop a makeshift bunk. Another hunter uses his two-way radio to contact Alaska State Troopers so they can evacuate the body. The following morning, a police helicopter arrives and the body of Christopher McCandless is removed, along with his camera and film, the S.O.S. note, and a diary. An autopsy on McCandless finds no broken bones or internal injuries. Because his remains weigh a mere 67 pounds, starvation is recorded as the cause of death. Analysis This chapter introduces one of the primary motifs of Into the Wild, that of documents. Because the book's subject, Christopher McCandless, has died before author Jon Krakauer can meet him, Krakauer must rely on the testimony of the people McCandless encountered in order to stitch together the story of the young man's journey — and especially on the documents McCandless left behind. The first of these documents is McCandless's S.O.S. note. Others will include his journals, the notes he made in the books he read, graffiti he scratched into various surfaces, and photos he took of himself. To these Krakauer will add maps of the places McCandless visited, relevant quotations from a wide variety of authors, and even a brief memoir of the author's own young manhood, inserted near the end of Into the Wild. All of these enrich our understanding of McCandless and help us to believe that the amazing story we read in Into the Wild really happened. The fact that someone as articulate and effective at communicating as McCandless died alone, having written a kind of letter (the S.O.S. note) that went unread until it was too late, is an example of irony. Also ironic: McCandless, who encountered no one during the four months between his entrance into the bush and his death there of starvation, is discovered not by one fellow trekker but by five — all within days of McCandless's death.

-how do some of the things Chris says in his letter relate to our 5 Romantic and Transcendentalist themes (individualism, idealism, nonconformity, power of nature, simplicity)

The letter that Chris sent to Ron on page 56 really got me thinking. "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future" (56-57). I believe this quote is a major insight to what Chris is thinking about his trip. Because this novel is written from an outside view, we never have the chance to get inside McCandless's head and understand really why he is doing this. Certainly, this trip will not secure a future for him because it is both dangerous and spontaneous. As he writes to Ron, we start to see why he is doing what he is doing. Although going to college and getting a decent job will secure a future, Chris is one who needs adventure and doesn't like the idea of having a plan set for him. "Ron," he writes, "you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy" (57). Chris understands that what he is doing is off-the-wall crazy but he has full confidence in it and he wants other people to see it too. He is just someone who needs to live life on the edge and I don't necessarily believe there is any real connection as to why he needs this adventure.

Stikine Icecap

The majority of this chapter is devoted to Krakauer's reminiscences about his own youthful obsession with mountain climbing. At 23, for reasons not dissimilar to those that drove McCandless to head into the wilderness, Krakauer decided to climb a rock formation called the Devils Thumb, on Alaska's Stikine Ice Cap. Having reached Alaska on a fishing boat, Krakauer meets a woman who puts him up for the night before he sets out to scale the Devils Thumb. During his first two days of climbing, along a glacier at the base of the rock formation, Krakauer makes genuine progress. On his third day, however, high winds, stinging sheets of snow, and reduced visibility cause a series of dangerous mishaps. After almost falling into a glacial crevasse, Krakauer sets up camp on a plateau. Krakauer has arranged ahead of time for supplies to be air-dropped to him so that he can continue his climb. But the pilot engaged to deliver the supplies misreads the altitude, almost entirely missing Krakauer's encampment. Krakauer continues to climb up the glacier. He can now see 3,700 feet below him. "The sour taste of panic rose in my throat," he recalls. "My eyesight blurred, I began to hyperventilate, my calves started to shake . . . Awkwardly, stiff with fear, I started working my way back down. The climb was over. The only place to go was down." Analysis Up to this point in Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer has maintained journalistic objectivity, or at least the appearance of objectivity. In this chapter he abandons that perspective. Note, however, that Krakauer's integrity as a journalist is not compromised, since he is entirely up-front about the experiences he shares in common with his subject, McCandless. In fact, it would be more ethically suspect if Krakauer did not divulge that he had his own "into the wild" experience as a young man. Because of his candor, readers are able to take this into account when the author views McCandless's activities with some sympathy. And as a result of reading this chapter and the one that follows, the reader moves closer to McCandless and his perspective. Not only Rosselini, Waterman, McCunn, and Reuss (as well as the Irish monks described) have shared McCandless's impulses, but the author himself. Behavior that seemed utterly bizarre, at the start of Into the Wild, is becoming easier to conceive of with every successive chapter.

What does Chris buy that he plans to use to help him find food in Alaska?

a rifle The short answer is not much, and sadly, not enough for him to survive. He had basic clothes, personal care items, camping supplies, and a tent with him before he hitchhiked from Carthage, South Dakota to Fairbanks, Alaska. He also had a small library of favorite and inspirational books. In Fairbanks, he bought a ten-pound bag of rice, a book about local plants, and a used gun. His intention was to live off the land as much as possible: eating berries and roots, as well as killing and butchering game. The last ride he got was to the Stampede Trail with Jim Gallien, who gave Chris two sandwiches, a bag of corn chips, and a large pair of rubber boots. In turn, Chris gave Jim his watch, his comb, and the last of his spare change. Then off he went, into the wilderness and wildness he had been seeking for most of his life.

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.

Who are these two chapters about?

Chris and his family

Everett Ruess

20 year old in the early 1900's , very passionate about nature, similar to McCandless disappears in Utah never seen again, where he carved Nemo 1934

-Chris's hobbies

35

-Chris's unusual beliefs

36

What are they doing?

47

Gene Rosellini

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.

Stampede Trail

After hiking along the snow-covered Stampede Trail, McCandless found an abandoned bus used as a hunting shelter and parked on an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park, and began to live off the land. He had a 10-pound bag of rice, a Remington semi-automatic rifle with 400 rounds of .22LR hollowpoint ammunition, a book of local plant life, several other books, and some camping equipment. He assumed he could forage for plant food and hunt game. McCandless poached porcupines and birds. He managed to kill a moose; however, he failed to preserve the meat properly, and it spoiled. Rather than thinly slicing and air-drying the meat, like jerky, as is usually done in the Alaskan bush, he smoked it, following the advice of hunters he had met in South Dakota.

Roman Dial

An Alaskan companion who accompanies Krakauer to McCandless's bus, Roman grew up in and felt stifled by the same suburbs as McCandless, and makes Alaska his home immediately after graduating high school at sixteen. He teaches at Alaska Pacific University and is known throughout Alaska for many brave back-country feats.

When did Chris die (month, year)? And when was his body discovered?

August 18 or 19, 1992: Dies, apparently of starvation, in his sleeping bag in the bus along the Sushana River in Alaska. September 1992: Hikers and hunters discover McCandless's S.O.S. note, then his body in the bus.

Who visits the Alaskan bus in the short Epilogue?

A year after McCandless wanted to cross the river, Krakauer stands on the other side, also wanting to cross, with three companions. Krakauer has a map that shows that there is a gauging station only half a mile downstream, which has a wire crossing the river, and a basket that one can ride across in. When they get to the station, they see that the basket is on the far side of the river, and it had been there when McCandless wanted to cross—had he known about it, he easily could have crossed to safety. McCandless, however, wanted to be on uncharted territory, and so didn't carry a good map with him. Because the basket is on the other side, Krakauer uses his rock climbing hardware to pull himself across the wire. He then gets into the basket and heads back to the other side to ferry his companions across. Before crossing the river, the trail was well-marked and fairly easy, but on the other side it is overgrown and indistinct, since so few people cross the river in the spring. It is never exceedingly difficult, but many parts of the trek are unpleasant, and it has a kind of malevolent feel to it. At nine pm they come upon the bus, which is an appealing spot, open and filled with light. The bus is surrounded by lots of tiny bones from the small game that McCandless ate, as well as the skeleton of the moose that he so regretted killing. Gordon Samel and Ken Thompson had insisted the McCandless misidentified the moose, and that it was really a caribou, which led many readers of Krakauer's Outside article to insist that McCandless was ill-prepared and ignorant. On close study of the remains, however, it becomes clear that it is, indeed, a moose. Inside the bus, they find some of McCandless's leftover possessions, as well as a bag of feathers he had stored away, probably to insulate his clothes or make a pillow. There is lots of graffiti in the bus from all those who have stayed in it, but McCandless's etchings are by far the longest. Leaving the bus, Krakauer and his companions make camp, and discuss why so many people seem to hate McCandless so intensely for having died there. Many find his lack of what they consider necessary provisions to be a sign of his profound arrogance. Some have even compared him to Sir John Franklin, a nineteenth century British naval officer. On the first trip he leads through the wilderness of northwestern Canada, eleven men end up dead from starvation, sickness, and murder, and all are only days from starving when they are rescued. Because he survives, he is promoted, but his lack of survival skills and his unwillingness to acquire any meant that when he chooses to go on another Arctic expedition, this time leading 128 men, not one of them is ever heard from again. Although McCandless did lack some knowledge and skills that could have helped him, it oversimplifies matters to blame his arrogance and ignorance for his death, for he does manage to survive for sixteen weeks with only ten pounds of rice and very few tools. He also is well aware how slim a margin of error he has given himself. Krakauer and his companions stay up late into the night discussing McCandless, what made him tick, and so on. They finally go to bed, not sure whether they have come any closer to the truth. McCandless returns to the bus on July 8, and his diary says nothing about how his state of mind is. He continues to be successful hunting, however the small game he catches does not have much in it, and he runs up a caloric deficit, continuing to lose weight. He reads Doctor Zhivago, and makes many notes in the margins, some of which hint that he is getting ready to rejoin the human community, and perhaps stop avoiding intimacy. Before July 30, there is nothing in McCandless's diary to hint that he is in anything but good health, if a little undernourished, but on July 30 he writes that he is extremely weak and having trouble even standing up. There are several theories as to what caused the change. One food that McCandless has been taking advantage of is a kind of wild potato, but by mid-July they might have been becoming too tough to eat, and it's possible he started ingesting the seed pods of the plant instead. In addition, there is a kind of wild pea that looks very similar to the potato, but is poisonous. Krakauer believes that the former was the case, as McCandless had successfully eaten the potato for weeks without mistaking the pea for it, and there is a picture showing him with a bag of seeds—he even writes in his journal that his illness is the fault of the "pot. seed." However, when Krakauer sends samples of the seeds to be tested, no traces of poisons are found. Krakauer later finds an article about a dangerous mold that can grow on such plants in wet climates, and believes that this, in fact, is what killed McCandless.The moldy seeds make the already weak McCandless incapable of climbing back to civilization or hunting, which leads to further weakness. There are three cabins, all stocked with some first aid gear and provisions, within six miles of McCandless's bus, but he doesn't know they exist. It turns out, however, that a vandal had destroyed all three cabins recently anyway, so the provisions inside them would have been ruined, even if McCandless knew of their existence and could have reached them. Over the next days, McCandless manages to shoot small game here and there, and forage for some berries, but the poison in his system makes this food useless. His diary entries become fewer and farther between, and he finally rips a page out of one of his books containing a poem about death, and writes a goodbye message on the back—"I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!" 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. Ten months after learning of Chris's death, Walt and Billie decide to go to see the place where he died. They plan to go overland as Chris did, but the river is still too high, and so with Krakauer they take a helicopter to the bus. Billie says the area reminds her of where she grew up on the Upper Peninsula, and thinks that Chris must have loved it. Walt grudgingly admits that it has a certain beauty. They put a small memorial plaque on the bus, and Billie leaves a first aid kit with a note to whoever finds it to call their parents as soon as possible. Analysis The final 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. There is some evidence, in the notes he made in the books he read, for example, that he was rethinking his stance on forgiveness, and on intimacy, and would maybe have become capable of being close to other people again. Unfortunately, his ignorance about the condition of the Teklanika, his insistence on visiting "uncharted territory," by not brining a map, meant once he was ready, mentally and emotionally, to leave, he physically could not. In this we see another example of the motif of McCandless almost being saved, as had he only known about the basket crossing the Teklanika, he almost certainly would have survived. Although many people looked down on McCandless for his Alaskan trip and the way he died, those who claim he was suicidal don't seem to have much to stand on, based on McCandless's writings and his attempt to leave the wilderness. And while he was ignorant of some things, he did manage to survive for four months, with almost no provisions, in the harsh Alaskan wilderness, so he clearly was at least capable, if not expert. In addition, the mistakes that were held against him as evidence of his arrogance and ignorance were in fact not mistakes that he made. Thus, although McCandless's death forever dooms him to be remembered as having failed to survive in the wilderness, he did come very close to having had a miraculously successful trip. The comparison that some have made to Sir John Franklin is, thus, certainly not fair, although considering it does illuminate some things. The only true parallel is that both Franklin and McCandless did, after surviving a first close call, overestimate their own abilities, although Franklin's overestimation was much more extreme. In addition, Franklin's arrogance and ignorance were not dangerous and ultimately deadly only to himself—he was entrusted with the care of over a hundred men altogether, when he should have been fully aware that he could not even take care of himself in the wilderness. McCandless only had his own safety and health on his hands, and to risk this is certainly much less terrible than to risk the safety of others. Yet, it should not be forgotten, as he seemed to have done himself, that there were many others whose well-being, if not direct safety, was resting on his care for himself. This may be part of why he avoided intimacy, for the more people relied on him, the more he would have to be responsible for himself. In taking the risks he did, while only his own safety was at stake, he was risking the happiness and peace of all of those who loved him. In isolating himself in the wilderness, he was attempting to cut all ties, but from the perspective of anyone who loved him, they were still worrying and thinking about him constantly, and thus not cut off in actuality at all. Thus, no matter how noble his goals and principles, it is impossible to see his actions without them being tinged with the selfishness inherent in them. The closing section of Into the Wild ultimately makes clear that it is impossible to ever truly, fully understand another person. Krakauer spends three years researching McCandless's life and journeys, and he has many parallels in his own life to help him understand, but he still cannot, in the end, say with any certainty what ultimately led McCandless into the wild, and why he didn't survive the foray, but instead died, alone, at twenty-four. He cannot even say with absolutely certainty what killed McCandless. And although he attempts to find some answers by highlighting all the examples of times McCandless almost made a decision that could have saved him, in the end it is only conjecture, since this book is not fiction but fact, and can only have the ending which actually happened.

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.

Christopher McCandless

Chris McCandless is the subject of Into the Wild. 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

Whose stories are told in chapters 8 & 9? How are they similar/different from Chris?

Chapter 8-9 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. The first person Krakauer considers for comparison is Gene Rosellini, referred to by locals as the Mayor of Hippie Cove. Rosellini was a good student and athlete, but left his comfortable home in Seattle to see "if it was possible to be independent of modern technology." Rosellini concluded that his attempt to live off the land was a failure after thirty years and then committed suicide. Another adventurer Krakauer considers is John Mallon Waterman. Waterman was raised in the same Washington D.C. metro area as McCandless. As a child Waterman's father took him climbing frequently. He was very talented and developed a reputation for his skill. Waterman was described by his contemporaries as a strange character. Although Waterman had significant success as a climber, he began to unravel mentally. After spending some time in a psychiatric facility, Waterman completed what literally turned out to be a suicide mission—climbing Mt. Denali with little gear. Carl McCunn was an absent-minded man from Texas who moved to Fairbanks in the 1970s. McCunn had himself flown out to a lake near the Coleen River to take photographs but forgot to arrange to be picked up at the end of the summer. McCunn died in the wilderness. In chapter 9, Krakauer turns his attention to Everett Ruess. Ruess was born in 1934 and shared McCandless's restless spirit. Ruess adopted a pseudonym during his travels—Nemo, meaning "no one" in Latin and also the name of the main character in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was believed that Ruess fell to his death at Davis Gulch; however, Krakauer explores alternative theories of his death. Everett's brother believes he was murdered; Everett's biographer believes he drowned. Notes In this section Krakauer attempts to further develop Chris McCandless by examining other men who were "similar" to him. The catch is that their similarities include their desire to be unique, to shun what others find normal. It does not seem to be Krakauer's intention to claim that Chris was just like these men who also had restless spirits but, instead, to show that Chris was not wholly unusual. In examining the lives of men about whom more is known, we might speculate about Chris McCandless. Krakauer will explain later how Chris differed from others, but here he shows that all these men were rather "quirky" and that other men who pursue great risks have had difficult relationships with their fathers—much like Chris. This theme of father-son tension nicely segue ways into the next section, which will elaborate on Chris's strained relationship with his own father.

Carine McCandless

Chris's sister 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.

Wayne Westerberg

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.

What keeps Chris from being able to hike back towards civilization?

He manages to climb around this, but when he reaches the Teklanika River, he finds what was easily crossed in April is now a rushing torrent which would surely drown him, so he turns back, hoping if he waits it out it will again become crossable.

Bullhead City

He works at a McDonalds there and opens a savings account but he quit his job bc he didn't like working with "plastic people"

This person describes why he is trying to climb Devil's Thumb. What was he hoping to achieve or gain?

Krakauer, like McCandless, was a willful, self-absorbed, passionate, and moody child who had problems with male authority figures. He becomes obsessed with climbing in his late teens, and spends all of his time fantasizing about, planning and undertaking dangerous climbs. At twenty-three, he plans on an especially dangerous climb in Alaska, the Devils Thumb, and determines that he will go it alone. He is dimly aware that he might be getting in over his head, but that is part of the point, and only encourages his zeal. He quits his carpentry job in Colorado, and drives off to Alaska. To get to the Thumb required either a jet or a boat, so he abandons his car and gets passage on a workboat. Krakauer arrives in Petersburg, the nearest town, and meets a woman named Kai, who invites him home for dinner and gives him a place to sleep. He starts on his journey to the peak the next day, totally alone. The first two days go well, and everything feels more melodramatic and extreme because of his solitude. On the third day, just as he approaches the most dangerous and intimidating part yet, a snow storm breaks, and he loses all visibility. He twice almost falls into crevasses, and it takes him the entire day to make it through the dangerous icefall. Soon after, he reaches the place where a pilot is supposed to drop his food to him, but the unending snow means the conditions are too poor, so he just has to keep waiting as his supplies dwindle. The plane finally comes, and though he is still mentally unprepared after the stress of waiting, the perfect weather the next day leads Krakauer to start the actual climb. He gets into a rhythm and makes significant progress, but all of a sudden he gets to a point where the ice that is supporting him has severely thinned out, and is impassable. He has no choice but to go back down. The weather turns bad, and Krakauer is confined to the tent for three days. He quickly runs out of things to do, and so he smokes some marijuana he'd been planning to save to use as a kind of victory cigar. He throws the match into a bag of trash, which lights, and before he can put the fire out the inner wall of his tent is damaged, and the temperature inside is now thirty degrees colder. Even more than that, though, he is bothered by the fact that it is his father's tent, which had been loaned to him reluctantly. Krakauer's relationship with his father, a fiercely competitive man who expects Jon to become a doctor, is very strained. Krakauer believes that only perfection will please his father, and he does his best to live up to these expectations, but when family secrets are revealed and he realizes his father himself is not perfect, his anger and resentment become extreme, and it is only decades later that he can accept his father as human. Lewis eventually develops post-polio syndrome, an extremely painful condition, and in an attempt to halt his decline, starts self-medicating. His misuse of the drugs ends up addling his mind, to the point where he has to be institutionalized, and no remnants of sanity are left. When the weather clears, Krakauer decides to try to climb the Thumb again. This time he only makes it a hundred feet up before the weather forces him to stop, and his decent is terrifying and almost fatal. When he finally makes it back to his camp, he realizes that he is not going to be able to succeed, and he has to give up on climbing the north face of the Thumb. There is still an easier route, which he originally thought was beneath him, but which he now realizes is the only path he'll be able to succeed on, and so he tries that way. When he wakes up the next morning, it is clear that the weather is not going to hold for very long, so he climbs as fast as he can with almost no gear, intending to go up and back before the storm hits. He reaches the summit after a quick and dangerous climb, takes a few pictures, and heads back down. He makes it back, and not too much later is back in Colorado, working the same construction job that he'd been at before he left. Analysis It is only in these sections that Krakauer truly becomes a character in Into the Wild, more than just narrator, investigator and interviewer. In his story of climbing the Devils Thumb, he illuminates a lot of parallels between himself and McCandless, and we see how he probably can understand McCandless's motivations deeply, without having ever met him, because of their similarities in life circumstances and personalities. This does raise the question, however, of if he can really tell this story impartially, or might he be imposing his own story onto McCandless's, which, with his death, can never be completely known. This draws attention to the problem of biography generally, that someone has to write it, and by choosing what to put in and what to leave out, how to frame the story, and how to tell it, the biographer has significant control over how the public will perceive the subject of the biography. In this case especially, where much is not known and the key figure is deceased, there is more room for the biographer to assert his own perspective. Yet Krakauer does it explicitly—he admits that he may be impartial, that he feels a connection to McCandless, and he makes explicit where he is making assumptions or drawing conclusions that cannot be proven. This switch to Krakauer's story, taking Krakauer from journalist, author and narrator to subject and temporary protagonist, highlights again the issue of point-of-view and perspective. Not only does this section emphasize Krakauer's impartiality and personal perspective, but it also highlights the fact that, unlike Krakauer, McCandless will never be able to tell his own story. We must rely on Krakauer's perspective of everything that happened to McCandless because we will never have McCandless's, and this again emphasizes the tragedy of his death. The inclusion of Krakauer's own story in Into the Wild does seem to complicate McCandless's story, and allows us to see, if not into McCandless's mind, at least into the mind of someone who had similar passions, demons, and ambitions. Krakauer's loneliness in his time on Devils Thumb seems significant, as McCandless chose to go into the Alaskan wilderness alone, and while he generally seemed to bask in his independence and solitude, Krakauer's admission that as much as he thought he could do without people, he was really lonely, makes it seem likely that McCandless probably had moments of deep loneliness as well. Krakauer's story also makes it clear that McCandless was almost surely not suicidal. Although he admits, in his last postcard to Westerberg, that he is aware that he might never make it out of the wilderness alive, he believes in his ability to survive, and he is too young to truly be able to imagine death, especially because he has managed to survive all of his other dangerous adventures. Krakauer does not give up on his ascent even after multiple near-death encounters, for he has put so much stake on succeeding that to give up is unimaginable, and it seems likely that for a similar reason, no matter the advice he got, McCandless cannot imagine changing or giving up on his Alaska plan. Krakauer does eventually give up on his first ascent plan, going up an easier way instead, and this amounts to a discovery that is difficult for both he and McCandless to accept—there are some things that, no matter your will or determination, are impossible. The same is not true of McCandless's adventure—he did survive for many, many weeks with minimal supplies in dangerous conditions, and he very conceivably could have made it out alive. But his way of thinking, that he can do anything as long as he truly has the determination to do it, and is willing to suffer while doing it, is not, in the end, correct.

Why did Jan feel it necessary to help Chris anyway she could?

Jan was estranged from his son, who was about the same age as Chris. He immediately formed an attachment. "I have a son about the same age Alex was, and we've been estranged for a few years now. So I said to Bob, 'Man, we got to take this kid with us. You need to school him about some things.' Alex took a ride from us up to Orick Beach, where we were staying, and camped with us for a week. He was a really good kid. We thought the world of him. When he left, we never expected to hear from him again, but he made a point of staying in touch.

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.

Jim Gallien

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.

How does he feel about killing this animal and attempting to harvest it for food?

McCandless has a few weeks of great hunting, and then manages to kill a moose. He believes it is morally necessary to use every part of the moose and not waste any of it, so he spends the next few days desperately trying to preserve all of the hundreds of pounds of meat. Alaskan hunters know that air drying is the best way to preserve meat there, but McCandless relies on advice he received from hunters in South Dakota, who recommended smoking the meat. He ends up having to leave almost all of it to the wolves, and he deeply regrets having wasted the moose's life. He comes to accept the loss, and based on a list he makes of things to do before he departed, it seems clear that he is preparing to return to civilization, and perhaps even join society. A photo he takes of himself at around this time, after shaving for the first time in the wilderness, shows him looking healthy, but already alarmingly gaunt. He packs up all of his gear and starts his hike back to the road that brought him here, but he comes across a three-acre lake covering the trail, where before there was only ice and small ponds. He manages to climb around this, but when he reaches the Teklanika River, he finds what was easily crossed in April is now a rushing torrent which would surely drown him, so he turns back, hoping if he waits it out it will again become crossable. Analysis Throughout McCandless's years on the road, when people meet him, they usually assume at first that he is uneducated and is an itinerant worker by necessity, not by choice. One of the ways in which McCandless is different from someone who lives that way by necessity is the ambition he exhibits, even in a rootless, anti-materialist life. This is evidenced when, although he has no deadline, no need to get to Alaska by a certain time, he becomes extremely impatient when delayed on the Alaska Highway, as though he has an important deadline to meet. As we also saw when he tried to canoe to the Gulf of California, even when trying to accomplish something decided on a whim, he is incredibly persistent, and will not easily give up. Although he may not have ambitions to climb the ladder of capitalist American society, he certainly is ambitious. This parallels with Krakauer's story in the previous section, for he realized that his own mountain climbing ambition, though not at all what his father wanted for him, was still ambition, and was as extreme as his father's ambition, just in a different incarnation. This once again highlights the importance of perspective, for what is a valuable and ambitious goal for one person seems foolhardy and useless to another. McCandless getting picked up by Gaylord Stuckey for the whole ride to Fairbanks is another example of someone going the extra mile for him. Stuckey agrees to drive him even though, with his work, it is expressly forbidden, and he could lose his job if he is caught. Yet, like so many others, he is charmed by McCandless, and so he agrees to give him a ride. This on the one hand emphasizes that there was something deeply special about McCandless, yet it also emphasizes that although McCandless was so insistent on independence, he very often relied on others, on the kindness of strangers, and almost everyone he came across did far more than the bare minimum to help him—like Jim Gallien, who gave him not only a ride, but also his lunch and his boots. As Gallien drives McCandless to his drop off point, McCandless gets very excited, and his journal entries and photographs show that when he gets to the bus which will become his final home, he is ecstatic to be alone in the wilderness. The day to day effort of trying to find food and stay alive quickly sets in, however, and the reality of living this extreme way takes away from the romance of it. His notebook is almost exclusively about what he ate every day, for the effort to stay alive is so all consuming that there is little time for contemplating the serenity, for philosophizing on the wilderness. The difference between this, and for example, the writing of Jack London which he loves so much, shows that there is much more room for romance in literature than in reality. There is also a certain irony in this difference, especially as Jack London himself barely spent any time in the wild. McCandless does seem to undergo some changes, though, beyond the physical losing weight. He is devastated when he kills a moose and then has to essentially waste all of it because he can't preserve it successfully, yet he fairly quickly realizes that he has to let this disappointment go, which is a new and more mature reaction from the intensely passionate man. Similarly, his original plan is to spend the time in the wilderness on the move, perhaps hiking almost five hundred miles, but when after a week or two of trying to move every day, he realizes this is much more difficult and slow going than he expected, he heads back to the bus, and doesn't seem nearly as upset with having to give up or change his plans as he would've been in the past, for example, with his Mexico trip. Although these are fairly small examples, they hint at McCandless becoming a more dynamic character, capable of learning, growing and changing.

Annandale

McCandless is actually from Annandale, Virginia, a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., where he grew up living with his father, Walt, an aerospace engineer, mother Billie, and younger sister Carine. In May 1990 (we have again flashed back further in the past), Chris graduates from Emory. His parents believe that he is planning on law school. The day after, which happens to be Mother's Day, Chris gives Billie a gift and sentimental card, which is extremely touching because for the past two years he has refused to give or accept gifts on principle. Not too long before that, for example, Chris became very angry when they offered to buy him a new car as a graduation gift, or to help him pay for law school. After graduation Chris tells them that he is intending to spend the summer traveling, and then a few weeks later he writes them a note with his final transcript, which will be the last communication he ever offers to his family. When they go to stop by his apartment in August—he doesn't have a phone—they find that he moved out at the end of June without telling them. Five weeks earlier he had packed up all of his belongings and driven off in his beloved old Datsun, changing his name to Alex Supertramp to symbolically complete cutting himself off from his past. Analysis In Into the Wild, it quickly becomes very clear that Chris McCandless's story elicits strong reactions from people. In Krakauer's opening note, he explains that the original story he wrote for Outside magazine prompted more letters of response from readers than any other article ever in the magazine. Many of these reactions are strongly negative, but it is also clear that Krakauer, and almost everyone who met Chris, find something very admirable in him and in his story, or at least parts of it. This opening note also makes clear what the book's primary focus will be—not suspense or adventure, as Krakauer has already told us the ending, but instead the investigation of what drove McCandless, who he was, and how his life came to end so tragically. In these opening chapters, Krakauer shows us many people who get along well with McCandless, and who have strongly positive things to say about him, even if they only spent a few hours driving him somewhere. Often, these people doubt him at first, assuming, based on his looks, hygiene, or Alaskan plans that he is foolish, uneducated, or some equivalent, but he is able to change people's minds about him very quickly. Thus, according to Krakauer's characterization, although McCandless certainly is flawed, and makes some mistakes that end in his death, the common belief that he is naïve and arrogant is shown to be, if not completely wrong, at least an unfair oversimplification. McCandless has a few key characteristics that often change people's minds about him quickly. He is obviously intelligent and well-educated, and his passion for and intensity regarding his lifestyle and his forthcoming Alaska trip make it clear that he is not just following a whim. He is also incredibly hard-working, and even when he is not the most skilled, he proves himself a valuable employee to whoever hires him, willing to do any task, no matter how unpleasant or menial. His insistence on living by his beliefs and morals makes him stand out even more. McCandless is, however, also very stubborn, as it quickly becomes clear in these opening chapters. Although he always pushes himself to work very hard and do the best job he can, he does not respond well to any criticism, or to any exhibition of authority at all. His stubbornness leads him to refuse any help from Jim Gallien, who goes so far as to offer to drive him far out of his way to buy him better equipment for his Alaskan trip. It also leads him to ignore any advice he gets, even from those with much more experience, if it would mean he would have to alter his Alaskan plans at all. This stubbornness is closely related to what seems to be McCandless's most devastating flaw: his selfishness. He is passionately insistent on his own ability to take care of himself, on his right to freedom, from government law, from the responsibilities of intimacy, from the bounds of safety. This, though not selfish at heart, translates into selfishness as McCandless hurts those who love him most in his quest for total freedom. Though he is admirably trying to live as best he can by his own beliefs and morals, he doesn't pause to reflect on how his actions are painful to those around him, and this ultimately leads to his death. The fact that the reader knows this will be the end from the beginning creates many moments of dramatic irony. The most profound example in this section is when Jim Gallien offers McCandless different kinds of help, and McCandless insists that he will be fine. The reader of course knows that this will absolutely not be the case. This moment is also an early example of one of the book's motifs—that of moments where Krakauer shows a decision or twist of fate that leads McCandless to his death, moments could have easily gone the other way instead. Another example in this section is Wayne Westerberg's prison sentence, without which Krakauer implies McCandless may very well have stayed happily and safely in Carthage.

Where does Chris live when he's with Jan and Bob?

McCandless stays with Jan and Bob at "the Slabs," the remnants of a demolished Navy air base that has become home to a community of drifters. There he helps Jan and Bob sell used books at the local flea market. McCandless proves himself a charismatic salesman and tries to convince every denizen of the Slabs to read Jack London's Call of the Wild. Additionally, he exercises every morning to prepare himself for the rigors of the Alaskan wilderness and discusses survival tactics with Bob, a "self-styled survivalist."

Jan Burres

Middle-aged rubber tramp who travels West selling knick-knacks at flea markets. She meets McCandless when she picks him up hitchhiking. They becomes close and Chris stays in written contact with her, until going to the Alaskan wilderness.

On PDF page 127, Roman Dial speaks some wise and revealing words about Chris. What does he say?

Roman Dial An Alaskan companion who accompanies Krakauer to McCandless's bus, Roman grew up in and felt stifled by the same suburbs as McCandless, and makes Alaska his home immediately after graduating high school at sixteen. He teaches at Alaska Pacific University and is known throughout Alaska for many brave back-country feats.

Who does Chris gradually become close to in Chapter 6?

Ronald Franz McCandless sets up camp along the badlands abutting the Salton Sea, not far from a gathering of aging hippies, itinerant and indigent families, nudists, and snowbirds set up in an area they call Oh-My-God Hot Springs. While hitchhiking into town for food and water, he meets Ronald Franz, a retired army veteran who once had a drinking problem. Franz tries to convince McCandless to leave the encampment, which he believes is a bad influence, but the young man replies, "You don't need to worry about me. I have a college education. I'm not destitute. I'm living like this by choice." After a few weeks, Franz drives McCandless to San Diego, where he lives on the streets before leaving for Seattle, jumping trains to get from place to place. Franz next hears from his friend "Alex" via a collect call; McCandless is back in California. Franz buys him a meal at a local steak house, and McCandless stays with him for a day, after which the older man drives him to Grand Junction, Colorado. Franz tells McCandless that he wants to adopt him. (His own son died years earlier in a car accident.) McCandless evades this request, telling Franz that they'll discuss it when he returns from Alaska. From his next stop, in South Dakota, McCandless writes Franz a long letter in which he details his time on the road and suggests that 80-year-old Franz change his sedentary ways. "The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure," McCandless writes. "Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life . . . Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon." Remarkably, Franz heeds the advice of the 24-year-old McCandless and stays at his abandoned campsite for eight months, waiting for the young man's return. Eventually, a hitchhiker he tells about "Alex" says, "I hate to tell you this, mister, but your friend is dead. Froze to death up on the tundra. Just read about it . . . " Franz denounces God for letting his friend die. He withdraws his church membership and resumes drinking. Analysis The theme of this chapter is the astonishing ability of Christopher McCandless to win friends and influence people. Not only did he befriend the octogenarian Ronald Franz, but he convinced the old man to change his ways fundamentally at a time in life when most people have settled down for good. It is important to understand that McCandless fled society not because he couldn't get along with others, but because he chose to be alone. The fact that McCandless achieved this effect by means of a letter speaks to the power of the written word. Remember that he was inspired to head "into the wild" by books he read (Tolstoy's, Jack London's, and others) — and that it is a magazine article which informs the hitchhiker Franz picks up at chapter's end that McCandless has died, thus inspiring the old man to give up on life.

Where does Chris work in Chapter 5? Why did he stop working there?

Summary His camera ruined after he buries it in the desert, McCandless stops taking photographs and writing in his journal. As a result, his whereabouts during this time are vague. He works for a while in Las Vegas, then travels to Oregon before heading west once more, to Bullhead City, Arizona. McCandless lives in Bullhead City for two months, working at a McDonald's and even opening a savings account. He lives as a drifter on the edge of town until an old man offers him the use of a trailer that he is overseeing while its occupants are away. McCandless writes to Jan Burres and Bob, who are not far away, in California's Imperial Valley. They plan on visiting him, but before they can, he turns up at their campsite. He tells them he quit his job because he was tired of the "plastic people" he worked with. McCandless stays with Jan and Bob at "the Slabs," the remnants of a demolished Navy air base that has become home to a community of drifters. There he helps Jan and Bob sell used books at the local flea market. McCandless proves himself a charismatic salesman and tries to convince every denizen of the Slabs to read Jack London's Call of the Wild. Additionally, he exercises every morning to prepare himself for the rigors of the Alaskan wilderness and discusses survival tactics with Bob, a "self-styled survivalist." Analysis In this chapter, a theme introduced when McCandless presented a copy of War and Peace to Wayne Westerberg reappears: the young man's abiding love of literature. Since childhood, he was obsessed with the novels and stories of Jack London, who condemned capitalism and glorified nature. According to Krakauer, however, McCandless forgot he was reading fiction and "conveniently overlooked the fact that London himself had spent just a single winter in the North and that he'd died by his own hand on his California estate at the age of forty, a fatuous drunk, obese and pathetic." Krakauer characterizes his protagonist more deeply by means of contrast with those who surround him: Note that even at the Slabs, where snowbirds, rubber tramps, and other antiestablishment types congregated, McCandless was an anomaly: an individual who wanted life to be not easier (as most of the habitués of the Slabs presumably do) but more difficult. Thus he prepares at the Slabs for a life in the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Notice as well the extent to which author Krakauer relies on documents left behind by McCandless to tell the young man's story. During this part of his journey, he ceases regularly keeping a journal, and Into the Wild becomes sketchier, more reliant on authorial inference.

Why are these chapters included in the book? (what is Krakauer trying to prove about Chris?)

That Chris is not that unique- there are other people like Chris in history

Carthage into the wild

The action now moves to the small town of Carthage, South Dakota. Two months after the discovery of McCandless's corpse, a grain-elevator owner and combine crew manager named Wayne Westerberg reminisces about the "odd young man" he knew as Alex. Westerberg picked up McCandless, who was hitchhiking, in Montana in the fall of 1990. McCandless was intense, talkative — and hungry. The boy's initial plan was to go to Saco Hot Springs, a place he had heard about from some "rubber tramps" (people who wander about via car or truck — versus "leather tramps," who wander on foot). It was raining hard when Westerberg was going to drop off McCandless, however, so he offered McCandless his nearby trailer to bunk in. McCandless stayed for three days, at the end of which Westerberg told McCandless to look him up in Carthage if he ever needed a job. A few weeks later, McCandless showed up in Carthage and eagerly worked at a variety of physically challenging jobs at Westerberg's grain elevator. McCandless lived in his large house with a rotating cast of Westerberg's employees and friends. When Westerberg was jailed for pirating satellite television service, however, the work dried up and McCandless was on his own again. Before leaving Carthage, McCandless gave Westerberg a 1942 edition of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, signing it "from Alexander." Westerberg had discovered earlier from tax forms that "Alex's" real name was Christopher and sensed that " . . . something wasn't right between him and his family . . . " In fact, McCandless had grown up in Annandale, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.), with his younger sister, Carine; their aerospace engineer father; and their mother, who worked with their father in various business ventures. McCandless also had six half-brothers and half-sisters from his father's first marriage. In 1990 he graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a degree in history and anthropology. He had received a bequest from a family friend, but instead of using the money that remained (about $24,000) to attend law school, as McCandless's parents assumed he would, he donated it to OXFAM America, a charity dedicated to fighting hunger. At his graduation ceremony in May 1990, McCandless told his parents he was going to take a road trip during the summer, saying, "I think I'm going to disappear for a while." By the time his parents realized that they had no way of contacting him, some three months later, their son had disappeared — and unbeknownst to them, he had chosen a new name: Alexander Supertramp. Analysis This chapter begins to explore the character of Christopher McCandless in depth. Far from being a stereotypical slacker, he was hard-working, according to Wayne Westerberg. The fact that he had read the long and difficult War and Peace indicates that McCandless was intelligent and studious. (Indeed, we learn as well in this chapter that he was a success at selective Emory University.) Most indicative of all with respect to McCandless's character are the things he renounced: $24,000 and his very name. In doing so, he seems to have been rejecting his family and what he saw as their materialistic values. This information doesn't fully explain why Christopher McCandless would forge alone into the Alaskan wilderness, but it begins to address the motivation for this bizarre act. The fact that McCandless never told his parents what he planned to do could indicate a lack of resolve on his part, or even cowardice. It also shows that the young man thoughtful enough to present Wayne Westerberg with an inscribed copy of one of his favorite books was callous enough regarding his parents' feelings to leave them in the dark regarding their son's whereabouts. Considering that he eventually would die of starvation, McCandless's gift of $24,000 to OXFAM, an organization dedicated to fighting hunger, is an example of irony.

What large animal does Chris successfully hunt and kill in Chapter 16?

a moose

Jon Krakauer

author of Into the Wild; has somewhat similar lives to McCandless; both has issues with fatherly relationships

What thing ultimately ends up killing Chris? (be more specific than just saying "starvation")

not being able to get food

What did the autopsy reveal about Chris's death?

starvation

Why does Chris change his name?

Alex Supertramp Of course Chris changed his name to Alex Supertramp. But the greater question is Why? Why did Chris change his name and why did he choose what he chose? Okay lets begin Alex is the only part I don't completely understand but my guessing it that Alex was who he always wanted to be. Im sure Chris never liked who he was and how he was treated but maybe just maybe being Alex for a little while was the longest escape he could find. Now Supertramp, Chris loved tramping he always found it interesting. He wanted to be a "Tramp"which explains the last half. Chris wanted to be the best tramper out there which explains the "SUPER" half of his name. Anyway, the name 'Alexander Supertramp' was taken by Chris as his 'wild persona'. "Alexander' came from the Tzar Alexander, the Russian opposition leader of Bonaparte in the Napoleonic Wars. It was from the great classic novel, War and Peace. Chris loved this book, and 'borrowed' the name of the King. The 'Supertramp' came from the other novel loved by Chris, The Autobiography of a Supertramp.

Walt McCandless

Chris McCandless' father; prominent aerospace engineer at NASA; raised family in Ananndale, VA; has an affair with ex-wife (Marcia) during current marriage (Billie)

How did Chris get from Liard River to Alaska?

Chris visited the Liard River by Hot Springs at the threshold of the Yukon Territory. He was spending two days at the Liard River, and he met a truck driver, Gaylord Stuckey. Chris made friends with Gaylord Stuckey. Before Chris went to the university, Stuckey bought a bag of rice for Chris and drop him at the university. He spent two days and three nights at the university. He was studying plants because he needed to know which was okay to eat food or not. Before he went into the wild, he bought a gun at the store. He crossed the lake and found the bus. This bus was abandoned in there and there was a bad smell. He settled to live in the bus and started to write a dairy. He was using a gun to find food. Gaylord Stuckey Gaylord Stuckey is a sixty-three year old man who meets Mccandleuss in the Laird River Hotsprings, and, taking a liking to him, drives him the rest of the way to Fairbanks. Gaylord Stuckey - Gaylord Stuckey meets McCandless along the Alaskan Highway, where he asks for a ride. Stuckey initially refused McCandless a ride because it was against his company's policy. However, after talking for a while, Stuckey became convinced that McCandless was not a typical transient and drove him all the way to Fairbanks. Stuckey bought McCandless a bag of rice at the grocery store and then left him at the University of Alaska campus, where McCandless wanted to learn about berries.

Ron Franz

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. Franz was so affected by his encounter with Chris that he wished for him to become his adopted grandson. Ronald is an eighty year old widower, whose son and wife passed away forty years earlier while away in Japan for the military, leaving him an empty man. Because of his grief, Franz becomes a kind soul trying to find meaning in life, adopting Okinawan orphans and sending two of them to medical school. When he meets Chris, he immediately feels the desire to offer his advice. In the end, Franz becomes a foil for Chris which shows him that if he does not change his ways he will grow old and lonely. McCandless convinces Franz that he is lonely himself and has him sell all of his worldly possessions and join him on the road. Franz agrees, hoping to keep McCandless as his friend and not be lonely again. When he finds out that McCandless dies, he starts to drink and renounces any belief in God that he had at the time. In the end, Franz is alone, on the road and hoping for death.

-Chris's family history

In Chapter 11, the author visits with Chris's parents, Walt and Billie. Walt and Billie have since moved to the Maryland shore. Walt has had a very successful career, working as a private consultant for organizations such as NASA. Krakauer recounts Walt's life, including his first marriage to a woman named Marcia, with whom he had five children. He left his wife for his secretary, Billie. Billie and Walt moved to Virginia, where Walt worked for NASA. However, soon after, Walt quit and he and Billie began a private consulting firm. Chris had been fearless as a child and a high achiever. He was also a talented musician and athlete. As a high school student, Chris wandered around Washington D.C and talked with homeless people; he would buy them meals and try to help them improve their lives. Sometimes, Chris would bring homeless people to his parents' house and hide them in the family's Airstream trailer. Chris did not want to go to college but his parents persuaded him. Chris was embarrassed by his parents' money. Yet he was a complicated character—while Chris believed money was inherently evil, he was always an entrepreneur. As a child he sold vegetables throughout the neighborhood; at age twelve, he began a neighborhood copy business; in high school he worked as a salesman for a local building contractor. In Chapter 12 Walt and Billie recall Chris's high school graduation. They threw him a party and he gave a moving speech. The next day, he set off to travel. He returned home two days before he was due at Emory University, scruffy and thirty pounds lighter. His family was alarmed to learn that during his travels, he had gotten lost in the Mojave Desert and almost died from dehydration. Chris did very well during his first year of college and even considered law school. However, things seemed to change the summer between sophomore and junior years. Friends described him as distant and cold. Chris was angry with his parents because of a secret he had learned from family in California—when Walt left Marcia for Billie, their romance did not end. In fact, Walt even had another child with Marcia after Chris was born. Chris began to ridicule the rich kids at Emory. Although Chris despised conspicuous consumption, he was not politically liberal. At Emory, he even co-founded a College Republicans Club. During his final year at Emory, Chris rarely contacted his parents. After graduation, Chris donated all of his savings and headed west. Two years later, he was found dead in Alaska.

Ken Sleight's quote on the bottom of 96 is also important. Be familiar with what he is saying here.

In Chapter Nine, page 96, Ken Sleight, who is considered somewhat of an expert on the subject of Everett Ruess and his adventures in the wilderness, compares Ruess and Christopher McCandless: "Everett was strange," Sleight concedes. "Kind of different. But him and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That's what was great about them. They tried. Not many do." One of the reasons this quote may be considered important is that it may cause the reader to consider the actions of McCandless in a more "pure" light, as opposed to being centered on selfishness or inconsideration; the reader may more easily forgive McCandless for his lack of preparation. It does not seem to be Krakauer's intention to claim that Chris was just like these men who also had restless spirits but, instead, to show that Chris was not wholly unusual. In examining the lives of men about whom more is known, we might speculate about Chris McCandless.

Where does Chris decide to go after he impulsively buys a canoe?

In Oregon, a pair of rubber tramps spots McCandless picking berries by the side of the road, and he ends up camping with them for a week or so before continuing North up the coast. When McCandless gets a ticket for hitchhiking, he gives the officer his parents' address in Annandale, and so they soon after receive the ticket, which they give to a private investigator, Peter Kalitka, for him to use as a starting off point to find Chris. He follows many leads, but nothing comes up until he discovers that Chris donated his entire life savings to OXFAM, a charity that fights hunger. After leaving Westerberg's place in South Dakota, McCandless heads south. In Arizona he buys a canoe on impulse, deciding to row down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California. He makes his way south, sending a postcard to Westerberg on the way, and sneaks through the border with Mexico. Once there, though, the river splits up into lots of small and confusing canals, and he has trouble finding his way. Eventually he comes upon some duck hunters who speak English, who tell him there is no waterway to the sea, but who offer to tow his canoe to the ocean for him. Upon reaching his destination, he slows down his pace and takes his time camping and paddling along the coast. On January 11, 1991, he is almost carried out to sea in a bad storm, and after managing to survive decides to abandon the canoe and return back north. He is caught by immigration authorities trying to slip back through the border without identification, but manages to convince them to let him go, although they keep his gun. He spends the next six weeks moving around the Southwest, and at one point goes to LA to get a job and an ID, but finds he can't handle society, and leaves again immediately. Not too long after he gets a job in an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas, living on the streets, but he only lasts for a few months before he hits the road again. After leaving Las Vegas, McCandless stops keeping a journal for the next year, nor does he have a working camera at this time, so little is known about how he spends the year. He spends July and August on the Oregon coast, then goes south again and east into the desert, ending up in Bullhead City, Arizona in early October. Although the town is essentially a collection of strip malls, McCandless takes a strong liking to it and settles there for a few months, probably longer than anywhere between leaving Atlanta and ending up in Alaska. In Bullhead City he works at McDonald's, and even goes so far as to open a savings account, and uses his real name and social security number for the job, uncharacteristically. His coworkers don't get to know him very well, although they remember him as dependable, but off in his own world. Lori Zarza, the second assistant manager, is delegated to tell him that he needs to have somewhat better hygiene, and not long after this he quits. During this time McCandless tries to hide from his coworkers the fact that he was homeless, camping outside of town and living in a semi-deserted mobile home shown to him by Charlie, who McCandless meets in a restroom, and finds to be rather crazy. Charlie remembers McCandless as a nice guy, but a little strange and intense, and remembers him always talking about Alaska. He leaves Bullhead City and goes to visit Jan Burress and Bob at the Niland Slabs. While there, McCandless helps Jan man her table at the flea market, helping organize and sell books, and especially pushing Jack London. He also talks continually about the trip to Alaska he is planning, asking Bob for survival advice and doing calisthenics to try and get himself in shape. When he says he has to move on, Jan tries to give him some money and some long underwear, but he refuses to take anything. Analysis This section makes McCandless's intense distaste for society abundantly clear. In these chapters, he comes close to rejoining society a few times, going to Los Angeles with the intention of getting a new ID and possibly a job, working in Las Vegas, staying in Bullhead City longer than he has stayed anywhere else, and even working for a McDonald's using his real name and social security number. Yet each time, he finds himself quickly moving on again, unable or unwilling to reintegrate himself. His use of his social security number for the McDonald's job highlights the fact that Peter Kalitka, his parents' private investigator, as a character symbolizes the motif of moments that McCandless is almost saved. Kalitka finds clues, but he never finds the most important ones, ones that could actually lead he and Billie and Walt to Chris, and to potentially saving him. In Los Angeles, he is barely able to venture into the city before he becomes too disgusted by the idea of rejoining society. He only lasts for a few weeks in Vegas, and though he stays in Bullhead City for an unusually long period of time, it is not really a city but a collection of strip malls, and he is there on the margins, camping out and squatting. He can't integrate into the culture at the McDonald's where he works because he is unwilling to improve his hygiene when asked, and thus his foray into "society" is ultimately short-lived. This distaste for society seems closely related to his distaste for authority. Although he expounds on the hypocrisy of materialism, the cruelty of letting people starve while others do well, it never seems to actually be these issues that push him out of society again, but instead it is someone telling him what to do, or trying to impose their rules on him or control him in any way, that leads to his departure. Even from those he likes and respects, he often resents any advice or attempts to curtail his desires, as when he starts to talk about the Alaska trip. This stubbornness about accepting help is all the more emphasized because of the dramatic irony inherent in McCandless's insistence that he will be fine, that he can take care of himself, as in the first section with Jim Gallien, and in this section with Jan Burres. In this section we also start to see clearly just how rare McCandless's passion is, and how deeply influenced by literature. Tolstoy and Jack London are two of his favorite authors, whom he pushes on whoever he thinks has the right mindset for them, and whose philosophies and morals he tries to live by. He doesn't seem to think or care about, however, the fact that neither of these two figures truly lived the lives they espoused, and London especially was never much of an outdoorsman at all. This both emphasizes McCandless's ability to ignore that which would negatively affect his theories, but also how passionate he truly was, for he did not just want to share these beliefs, but to, unusually, truly live by them. This also highlights the importance of perspective to this story. McCandless is able to ignore the worst things about his favorite authors, because he finds their ideals and philosophies so enticing, but this act of ignoring means his perspective is limited. The awareness of perspective is essential in a book about someone living on the margins of society, in a way that many people think reflects a mental illness. In this section, the idea of differing perspective is symbolized in Charlie, who McCandless refers to as crazy, but who himself calls McCandless strange. This insistence on following things through, on living the way you think is best, can also be seen in McCandless's Mexico trip. He decides, completely on a whim when he comes upon a used canoe, that he will canoe down the Colorado River, through Mexico to the Gulf of California. When this becomes much more difficult than expected—in Mexico, the Colorado branches into many small canals, and it turns out none of them leads to the Gulf—he becomes very disillusioned, but refuses to give up, because even though the original plan was one he made on a whim, once he has started something, he can't give up.