Summary Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

In 1992, an article was written in Outside magazine about a young man that was found having starved to death in a bus in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. After the search for his identity proved fruitful, it was released that the young man’s name was Christopher J. McCandless. Several people wrote to the magazine claiming to have met him at some point in his grand adventure to Alaska, all of them describing how Chris had impacted and inspired them. Through extensive fieldwork and investigation, author Jon Krakauer was able to piece together Chris’s trail over the course of a couple years; most of which was found in the many journals he kept. These journals and personal experiences showed that Chris was a naive, conceded, ill-prepared

He let so many people get close to him knowing he was only going to leave. It wasn’t just strangers that he met along the way, Chris also encountered his very own family. He held all their mail without answering, then left them without a trace for them to worry sick about where he may be and if he is or is not safe. No matter how much you disagree with your parents it is in no way acceptable to run away with no notice of when or if you’ll ever return. Not only did he withhold his whereabouts from his parents, Chris refused to tell his younger sister, Carine, either. He didn’t want his parents finding out where he was through Carine so he didn’t respond to any of them. His mother, Billie McCandless, recalls, “It made [his father and me] very, very worried,”(22). It wasn’t fair of him to do to them. Several of the friends Chris met on the road tried to get him to call home and tell his parents that he’s alive and well. He refused every time. It would remind one of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and denying their parents attention. This proves Chris’s lack of maturity to take responsibility for his actions, including the acquiring proper equipment and admitting when he should have just called home. He was, in no way, mature enough to make it out in the wild

More than a few times was his strangeness brought up in conversation. He often got lost in thought and was thought to be somewhat emotional. Charlie, a man who allowed Chris to live in his trailer for about a month, wonders,“[Chris] didn’t like to be around too many people, though. Temperamental. [...] He’d get moody, wouldn’t like to be bothered. Seemed like a kid who was looking for something, looking for something, just didn’t know what it was”(42). This quote is similar to the way the rock climbing movement began in the 50’s (based on a documentary on the increased interest in rock climbing). Teens of the time were not happy with the way everything seemed so perfect, so plastic. They felt they were looking for something, but never knew what until they started simply climbing rocks. The higher they got, the more of a thrill it was. This is sort of a metaphor referencing Chris. The farther he got from home and his old life, the closer he was to finding that something. However, this is like teaching a child that too much of a good thing can be just as bad. In the end, the “too much” was the Alaskan wilderness that overtook him. His one great dream ended up being the main factor in his ultimate demise. Had he learned when enough was enough of his grand adventure, Chris could have