Into the Wild Summary

Into the Wild begins with a discovery of McCandlesses body inside an abandoned bus in Alaska. People try to retrace where he went during the 2 years while he was missing. They found out that he had spent a lot of time in Carthage, South Dakota with a man named Wayne Westerberg. He survived for approximately 112 days in the Alaskain wilderness while keeping a journal of what he did and where he went. In July, McCandless tried to leave the coast but he kept on running into the route blocked by a melted river. On July 30, people found that he wrote a journal entry saying "Extremely weak. Fault of pot seed." They tried to figure out what that meant and they came up with that he was eating the roots of Hedysarum alpinum. They think that he kept trying to eat the seeds, but the seeds contained poisonous ingredients. When McCandless died he had mostly lived on eating a diet or rice, lean meat, and wild plants. When he dies they found out that he had less than 10% of body fat when he died. At the end people think that he died because of starvation because they estimated he had weighed about 67 at the time he died.

Jon Krakauer

Born in 1954, Jon grew up in Corvallis, Oregon where his father introduced him into mountaineering when he was 8 years old. When he graduated from Hampshire College in 1976 he divided his time between Colorodo, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. Jon then worked as a carpenter and a commercial salmon fisherman, spending most of his free time in the mountains. In 1977 he traveled alone to the remote Stikine Icecap in Southeast Alaska, and went 3 weeks without seeing anyone else on that mountain.Next thing he new he climbed on a new route called the Devils Thumb, and in 1992he climbed the West face of Cerro Torre in the Patagonian Andes. In May 1996 Jon reached the top of Mt. Everest he took the lives of four of the five teammates who climbed the summit with him, during a bad storm.

California

One place where i haven't gone yet but i would really like to go is California. California is the most populous state in the US and is third largest in area. If i were to go I would fly by plane because I love looking out the window as i pass through the states. When I get there i would want to go to the Sierra Nevada first. The Sierra Nevada includes the highest peak in the contiguous fourty eight states, Mount Whitney. I have heard so many good things about the Sierra Nevada especially its beautifulness. I would also love to go skiing there because it has a lot of snow on them and it is a very good place to practice skiing and to get better at it. The second place i would want to go in California is the Santa Cruz Amusment park! I love going on roller coasters and this one seems like a lot of fun! The last place i would want to go in California is the Sanfransisco Bay Area. I think it would be so much fun if my family rented a boat and took it for a ride around the Sanfransico Bay Area. If I were to go to California i would expect a very big hotel that I would stay at that has a huge pool and places to hang out within it. Also there would have to be fun places around the hotel for me and my family to go. The weather in California has a Mediteranean climate, which is cool rainy winters, and dry, hot summers. California is very hot in the summer so I would bring my bathing suit to go in a pool to cool down and bring lots of shorts and tank tops! I would also bring my camera  because it is so pretty in California I would want to take lots of pictures! California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world. It has 19 major professional sports leauge franchises, which is far more than any other state. I think that California would be a wonderful place for me and my family to go on for a family vacation.

Getting to know Chris McCandless though Direct and Indirect Characterization

Direct Characterization is the writer makes direct statements about a character's personality and tells what the character is like.
Indirect Characterizaton is the writer reveals information about a character and his personality through that character's thoughts, words, and actions, along with how other characters respond to that character, including what they think and say about him.

Direct Characterization

1. Five feet seven or eight, with a wiry build. (Page 4)
2. Claimed to be 24 years old and from South Dakota. (page 4)
3. Gallien was a union electrition. (Page 4)
4. Ken Thompson was an owner of an Anchorage auto-body shop. (Page 11)

5. Gordon Samel, Kens employee, was a construction worker. (Page 11)
6. The river was 75 fet across and real swift. (Page 11)
7. My rig is jacked up 82 Dodge four by four with 38 inch rubber on it. (Page 11)
8. Gordon has an 8 thousand pound winch on the front of his rig. (Page 11)
9. Samuel, a man of strong opinions. (Page 13)
10. Killian, a coal miner who moonlights as an emergency medical technician for the Healy Volunteer Fire Deparment. (Page 13)









Indirect Characterization
1. The remains were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died, but the coroner could find no sign of massive internal injuries or broken bones. (Page 13)
2. No subcutaneous fat remained on his body, and his muscles withered. (Page 14)
3. McCandless's signature had been penned at the bottom of the SOS note. (Page 14)
4. He wasnt carrying any identification. (Page 14)
5. It's been 2 months since the body of Chris turned up in Alaska. (Page 15)
6. He used to tell a lot of stories. (Page 16)
7. He could talk for hours. (Page 16)
8. He used to sit at the end of the bar. (Page 16)
9. A lot of folks used ot be attached to Alex. (Page 16)
10. He was smallish with the hard, stringy physique of an itinerant laborer. (Page 16)



Chris seemed like he was social and likeable person by all the people in town. When he left all the people in the area missed him and his stories. He was a hardworker and did what they asked him to do.

Designs I would put on my belt.

On my belt i would have a field hockey stick because I love to play field hockey and i have been playing it since I was young. Second, i would put a plane because I have gone to many states on vacation and I am going to go on more in the future. Third, I would put a family becasue me and my family are very close and have a special connection together. Fourth, I would put a nice house because I plan to get a lot of money from my job and live in a nice house. Fifth, I would put a doctor because whe I grow up I want to be a radiologist in my future. Sixth, I would put a picture of me and my husband and children I am going to have. They are going to be a very important part in my life in the future. Seventh, I would draw a picture of me and my friends. My friends are a big part in my life because if I didn't have them I would have to stay at home and do noting and they also give me great advice and i feel like i can talk to them about anything. Lastly, I would put a drawing of God. God is our savior and I am a very religious person. I try to go to church every Sunday and participate in activities that invole our church. These are the eight thing that I would put on my belt.




Me and my friends jumping in the pool!

First impression

My first impression of McCandless is that he was was unprepared to go into the wild all by himslef with barely nothing in his backpack. He burnt all his money, and threw away any valuables that he had. I also thought he was very smart and outgoing because he would talk to anyone that he saw that looked friendly. McCandless went to college and got his diploma. He obviously didnt like his parents but deep inside, he knew that they loved him.

Wild Editorial

The Climb of a Hero


Christopher McCandless once said, "I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong." This quote is one of the most eye-catching quotes in the book for me because you need to feel strong and to make the right decisions if you get peer pressured. Chris was a very brave and strong person to go into the wild by himself and survive for 100 days with only a backpack not even full of stuff. All he needed was to be himself and live a life where he wanted to be happy and not get anyone else involved. It really doesn’t matter if you are strong in general, but it means so much more to be a strong and objective person. Chris McCandless discovers what the wild is like in the story, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. He was able to understand what he was meant to do and what his lifelong dream was. Chris was new to outdoor traveling, and because of that, it cost him in the end.

When I read this book, Into the Wild, I really thought that Chris would have died in the first couple of weeks. The thing that really shocked me was that he met so many people on his way that helped him out such as; Jim Gallien, Jan and Bob Burres, Gaylord Stuckey, etc. Because of his charming personality people got to know him better and care for him more. They always suggested that they give him more supplies for him to survive, but Chris denied all the suggestions. When Gaylord Stuckey says, “As I chatted more with McCandless, through the sulfurous mist, though, I began to reconsider taking him to his destination,” (Page 158) you can tell that all Chris wanted was to get to know people and just to have a talk with him. All the people that Chris chatted with said he has a very good personality and wondered why he was going out into the wild by himself.

McCandless was a very brave person to go all the way to Alaska without any money or barely anything to survive. No matter what happened, he would always have in the back of his mind that he had parents who loved him, and cared for him. He didn’t really realize how much they really wanted to see him more than they did because of their relationship together. His parents worked hard for years to give him all the opportunities he was suggested but all Chris did was deny them all and all he was worried about was after college going into the wild, where he always had wanted to go. If he had thought more about bringing a map and other things he probably would have survived a lot more days than he did. He rushed into something without good planning, and died because of it. But since he was brave enough to go in the freezing cold and actually find a place to stay and how to live a long time I will give him credit for that. “I burnt all my money and I only have a small backpack,” (Page 29) is very brave of him because most people would not have done that.

When Chris writes, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and May God bless all,” (Page 199) he was ready to die. The past week before he wrote that he had been in excruciating pain because of starvation. When Chris wrote that quote on a piece of paper he also took a picture of himself, standing near the bus under the Alaska sky. In one hand he held his final note toward the camera and the other rose in a brave, beatific farewell. You can tell that Chris was ready to die because he had reached his goal of living in the wild for 100 days and he wrote in the letter, “I have had a happy life.” Also when he took the picture he was smiling and at peace, you could tell in his eyes. If I had reached my goal of living that many days in the wild I would have had the same attitude as Chris did.

People say that “entering the wilderness purposefully ill-prepared, and surviving a near death experience does not make you a better human, it makes you damn lucky,” do not see the good side. This is something that Chris had wanted to do because of his relationship with his family and to get away from everything that was bothering him. I bet no one would do what Chris did because they would be too scared. If you really think about what he did, he was a very brave and bold person. Chris was not very prepared, but it’s just like if you want to go upstairs into your room after a fight with your parents, you don’t want to talk to them, see them, or even hear their voices. But this is something that had been going on in his life all his life. His family had been hiding their marriage situation their whole life and if I were in that situation because my parents didn’t tell me something I would be very mad too. All the people that say that he was a “nut” for doing that, just think about it again and if you were in his position.

Chris’s lifelong dream was to go into the wild and understood what he was meant to do, but because of that, it cost him his life. McCandless is a hero to me and to a lot of other people because of what he did and how much he walked to reach his dream. I think that everyone reading this should rethink what they think Chris is, because what he did was his dream and I think that if you have a dream you should follow it. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. says, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” That quote relates so much to Chris’s situation. If you have a dream, you should not let anyone judge you by your actions of what you do to try and reach your dream.