Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - Southwest High School

Into the Wild by Jon KrakauerSummer Reading Study GuideNOTE: Pay attention to maps. A knowledge of geography is crucial to yourunderstanding of this book. Frontpiece map of North America Map of Alaska, page 2 Area around Stampede Trail, page 8 Southwest United States, page 22 Navajo Indian Reservation, page 86Being able to answer the questions in this guide will prepare you to be successful on thetest on this book.“Author’s Note”When Jon Krakauer first wrote about Chris McCandless, it was for an article published ina magazine.1. What was the name of the magazine?2. When was the original article published?3. What about McCandless’ story “haunted” Krakauer?4. Krakauer states that he “won’t claim to be an impartial biographer.” What doeshe mean?5. What warning does Krakauer give to the reader?6. What Russian writer was McCandless “captivated by”?7. What did he admire and emulate about this writer?8. What was the response to the publication of this article? Be specific.CHAPTER ONE: “The Alaska Interior”1. With what specific incident does Chapter One begin?2. Who is Jim Gallien?3. Where specifically does Gallien drop Alex off?4. What does Alex insist on giving to Gallien?5. What three specific things does Gallien give to Alex?6. What is the date of this occurrence?Note: At this point in his life, Chris McCandless is going by the name AlexSupertramp.CHAPTER TWO: “The Stampede Trail”1. What author did Alex think was “King”?2. When was the Stampede Trail blazed?3. How did a junked bus end up about half way up the trail?4. Who “typically pays a visit to the old bus”?5. What did these “visitors” find when they arrived at the bus in September 1992?

6. Where was McCandless’ body taken?7. What did the autopsy reveal? What was the most probable cause of death?8. Why couldn’t authorities identify the body?CHAPTER THREE: “Carthage”1. Where is Carthage? How big is it?2. Who is Wayne Westerberg?3. When and how did he first meet Alex (Chris McCandless)?4. According to Westerberg, what kind of worker was Alex?5. How did Westerberg discover Alex’s real name?6. What did McCandless give to Westerberg when he left Carthage?7. Where was McCandless raised?8. What did his father do for a living?9. What university did Chris attend? Where is it? What kind of student was he?10. Chris had $24,000 when he graduated. What did he do with it?11. Chris’s parents wanted to give him a new car as a graduation present. Why didn’the want it? What kind of car did he already have?12. What was the “last anyone in Chris’s family would ever hear from him?”13. What did Chris McCandless do to “symbolize the complete severance from hisprevious life?” Be specific.CHAPTER FOUR: “Detrital Wash”1. What is “Detrital Wash”? (It might be a good idea to define these words in orderto understand what it is.)2. Where is it?3. What did park rangers find there?4. Why did McCandless abandon his car?5. What did he bury? What did he burn? Why?6. How do we know that McCandless did these things?7. For two months, McCandless hitchhiked around the West. How far north did hego?8. On August 10, Mccandless was ticketed for hitchhiking near Willow Creek,California. What was the effect of this ticket on his family? What did they do?9. What did McCandless buy in Topock, Arizona? What did he plan to do with it?Was he able to accomplish his goal?10. McCandless eventually left the “stubby metal boat” in Mexico. “He had not seenor talked to another soul in thirty-six days.” What had he “subsisted on” duringthis time? What did this experience convince him of?11. When did McCandless return to Detrital Wash? How long had he been gone?Where did he go next?

CHAPTER FIVE: “Bullhead City”1. Why is not “a great deal known” about where McCandless traveled “afterdeparting Las Vegas in May 1991?”2. Where is Bullhead City? How long did McCandless stay there? Where did hework while he was there?3. What is “the Slabs”? Where is it? Who did McCandless stay with when he wasthere? What did he do to help these people out?4. What did McCandless do one afternoon at the Niland swap meet that “drew quitea crowd”?5. How did Jan Burres find out that McCandless was from the Washington, D.C.area?6. Burres states that she wasn’t concerned about McCandless’ safety in Alaska (oranywhere else). Why?CHAPTER SIX: “Anza-Borrego”1. On January 4, 1993, Krakauer received “an unusual letter.” Who was it from andwhat was it about?2. How did McCandless meet Ron Franz? Where specifically did this occur?3. What had caused Franz to start drinking too much?4. What had Franz done to “salve his loneliness”?5. What craft did Franz teach Alex?6. What “astonishing” artifact did McCandless make? Why was it astonishing?7. In February and March of 1992 McCandless left Salton City in California andwent to two cities to try to earn money to outfit him for his Alaska trip. Whatwere these two cities? How successful was he in finding work?8. In addition to hitchhiking, how did McCandless travel during this time period?9. After returning to Southern California to retrieve his possessions, McCandlessdecided to go back to South Dakota to work. Franz drove him part way. Whatspecial request did Franz ask of McCandless during that trip? What didMcCandless reply?10. In early April, Franz received a long letter from McCandless. What specificadvice did McCandless give to Franz? How did Franz respond to this advice? Bespecific.11. How did Franz find out about McCandless’ death?12. Specifically, how did Franz react to the death of McCandless?CHAPTER SEVEN: “Carthage”This chapter consists of a description of the four weeks that McCandless spent inCarthage prior to leaving for his Alaska adventure. During this time, he worked forWayne Westerberg and got to know some of Westerberg’s friends and family, all ofwhom liked him. Based on his interviews with these people, the author attempts toprovide more insight into McCandless’ character and personality.

1. What does the author say about McCandless’ “common sense”? How does hesupport this interpretation?2. Who is Gail Borath? What did both she and Westerberg believe was “gnawingat” McCandless? Be specific.3. There is little evidence that McCandless had any significant relationships withwomen. How does Krakauer explain this?4. What did McCandless do at the party the night before he left Carthage thateverybody there was “blown away by”?5. What caused Gail Borath to have a “bad feeling” that they wouldn’t see Alexagain?6. What is the last sentence of the postcard that McCandless sent to Westerberg fromFairbanks, Alaska?7. Who else received a similar postcard?CHAPTER EIGHT: “Alaska”1. Krakauer begins this chapter by listing some of the negative responses he receivedon his article about McCandless’ death. “Much of the negative mail was sent byAlaskans.” What was the cause of this negativity? Why were these people socritical of McCandless?2. The remainder of this chapter is about three “marginal characters” who “marchedoff into the Alaska wilds” and who have become “lodged firmly in the state’scollective memory.” What are the names of these three men? What ultimatelyhappened to each of them?3. Krakauer writes about these men both to draw parallels between them andMcCandless and also to show that McCandless was different from them.Specifically, how was McCandless not like these men?CHAPTER NINE: “Davis Gulch”Krakauer devotes this chapter to a comparison between McCandless and twenty-yearoldEverett Ruess who disappeared in the wilds of Utah canyon country in 1934. Bothwere well-educated and independent-minded young men who were drawn to thewilderness for the freedom it provided and for the transcendental experiences that thebeauty of nature can provide.In addition, Krakauer reveals “uncanny parallels between Ruess and ChrisMcCandless.” These include: Their heedlessness about personal safety Their lack of concern about physical discomfort Their adopting new names for themselves.1. What new name did Ruess adopt? What inspired his choice?2. What name did Chris McCandless adopt?3. What ultimately happened to Ruess is a bit of a mystery. What are twopossibilities?

4. At the end of this chapter, the author writes about Irish monks who “sailed androwed” across “treacherous stretches of ocean” in the fifth and sixth centuriesA.D. to a treeless and rocky island off the coast of Iceland. What is the purposeof this passage? (It involves why the monks did this and the qualities theydisplayed by doing it.)CHAPTER TEN: “Fairbanks”1. Why was it difficult to identify McCandless’ when his body was discovered?2. How did Jim Gallien find out about McCandless’ death?3. How did Wayne Westerberg find out?4. How did Westerberg convince the state troopers in Alaska that he really did knowMcCandless?5. Which member of the McCandless family first found out about Chris’s death?How was this person related to Chris?CHAPTER ELEVEN: “Chesapeake Beach”This chapter provides background information on McCandless’ family—his parents,his sister, his grandfather—and on the characteristics and abilities that Chris displayed asa child and a teenager.1. Both McCandless’ parents came from blue-collar backgrounds. How did theymanage to become so financially successful?2. Chris was a high achiever academically, but he received an F in high schoolphysics. Why? What does this incident reveal about his character?3. Both Chris and his sister Carine inherited their father’s musical aptitude. Whatinstruments did Chris play?4. Why did Chris quit playing the French horn?5. Chris was a naturally talented athlete, but he didn’t find his “athletic calling” untilhe discovered running. What aspects of running appealed to him?6. Chris was concerned about social justice. What two issues were of particularconcern to him?7. What did Chris tell his parents about his desire to go to college?8. What was ironic about Chris’s belief that “wealth was shameful, corrupting, andinherently evil”?9. How did Chris earn the money to buy a car? What kind of car did he buy?CHAPTER TWELVE: “Annandale”1. Chris took a road trip by himself the summer after he graduated from high school.How long was he gone? Where did he go? How had he changed physically bythe time he returned home?2. The first two years of Chris’s college experience were very successful. He alsoworked hard during the summers and his relationship with his parents seemedgood, but he had a “smoldering anger’ toward his parents that “began to leak tothe surface” near the end of that time. This anger was based on a discovery that

Chris had made during his road trip two years earlier. Specifically, what was thisdiscovery?3. After his junior year of college, Chris took another road trip. Where did he gothis time? What effect did it have on him?4. During his senior year of college, Chris lived in a “bare, spartan room” with amattress on the floor and became emotionally distant from both his family andfriends. He graduated in the spring of 1990 and left almost immediately on yetanother road trip. How long was it before his family heard from him?CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “Virginia Beach”This chapter is primarily about Chris’s sister Carine who at the time this book waswritten was twenty-two and married and running her own business with her husband.1. How is Carine like her parents?2. How did Carine find out about her brother’s death?3. Carine flew to Alaska to bring Chris’s remains home. How did she transport hisremains?4. Why did Carine eat “every scrap of food” on the flight home?CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “The Stikine Ice Cap”This chapter (and the one following it) consists of a digression in which the authordescribes himself as a young man and compares himself to Chris McCandless.Specifically, he describes his attempt to climb a mountain when he was 23.1. What is the name of this mountain and where is it located?2. What is the name of the town nearest to this mountain?3. What did the author have to do to get from the town to the mountain?4. What was the primary danger of skiing across the snow covered ice fields at thefoot of the mountain?5. How did the author prepare for this danger?6. Krakauer planned on spending three to four weeks on this mountain; however, hecould not carry in enough food for that amount of time. What arrangement did hemake to get food? What was the problem with this plan?7. What forced the author to give up on his first attempt to climb the mountain?CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “The Stikine Ice Cap”1. After smoking some marijuana, the author attempts to make some oatmeal in histent. This leads to a near disaster. What happened? What troubled the authormost about this experience?2. What was Krakauer’s father’s blueprint for his son’s life?3. How did Krakauer veer from that plan?4. Krakauer’s father’s own life plan ended in a “nightmarish” way. What happened?5. How does the author attempt to salvage his expedition to climb this mountain? Ishe successful?

6. At the end of this chapter, the author explains his purpose for telling this storyabout his doing an extremely dangerous and foolish thing. What is this purpose?(Hint: It has to do with what people would have said about him if he had notreturned.)CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “The Alaska Interior”1. Who is Gaylord Stuckey and how did he meet Chris McCandless?2. What did McCandless want to “study up on” before he set out for the wilderness?3. What did Stuckey beg and plead with McCandless to do?4. What did McCandless buy at the University of Alaska bookstore?5. When he set off on the Stampede Trail, what food did McCandless have withhim?6. What was the heaviest item in McCandless’ backpack?7. What difficulties did McCandless have during his first week in the wilderness?(He was staying in the bus by this time.)8. When the snow melted what did McCandless gather and eat?9. Once McCandless became more successful at hunting, what animals did he killand eat?10. What caused McCandless to change his original plan to walk 500 miles totidewater?11. Why does McCandless say that shooting the moose was one of the “greatesttragedies of my life”?12. How long had McCandless been living in the wild when he decided to return tocivilization?13. McCandless was walking out of the wilderness on July 5. What prevented himfrom getting out?CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “The Stampede Trail”1. This chapter describes a visit by the author and others to the site whereMcCandless died. The author states that he has something that enables him tocross the raging river that McCandless did not have. What is it?2. Two of the hunters who discovered McCandless’ body believed that the largeanimal he shot was not a moose. What did they think it was? What did it reallyturn out to be?3. In an attempt to explain why McCandless did what he did, Krakauer compareshim to Sir John Franklin, John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau. Ultimately,however, he states that McCandless is unlike these men and that he does not fitany stereotype. He attributes what happened to Chris to “the passion and longingsof youth.” He quotes the father of Everett Ruess who said, “The older persondoes not realize the soul-flights of the adolescent.” Do you agree? Were themistakes that Chris made simply attributable to his age?CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “The Stampede Trail”

1. This chapter covers the time from July 8 when Chris arrived back at the bus andAugust 18, the probable date of his death. Although Chris did not write a lotduring this time, he did leave some clues about what may have happened to him.Krakauer uses these clues to attempt to prove that Chris’s death can be attributedat least partially to a cause other than simple starvation. What is Krakauer’stheory?2. What frame of mind was Chris in when he died? How do we know this?“Epilogue”1. The Epilogue recounts the visit that Chris’s parents made to the bus ten monthsafter Chris died. Chris’s mother Billie says the surroundings are pretty and states,“it looks just like the Upper Peninsula! Chris must have loved it here.” To whatis she referring?2. What does Billie put under the bed at the rear of the bus? What does the notesay?3. What is Walt’s reaction to this visit to the bus?4. Billie says, “”You can’t fix it.” What is she referring to?Final Question: What do the titles of the chapters (One through Eighteen) have incommon?