Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

INTO THE WILD

Author : Jon Krakauer

Pages : 224

Published : 1996

Synopsis

A young man leaves his middle class existence in pursuit of freedom from relationships and obligation. Giving up his home, family, all possessions but the few he carried on his back, and donating all his savings to charity, Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) embarks on a journey throughout America. His eventual aim is to travel into Alaska, into the wild, to spend time with nature, with 'real' existence, away from the trappings of the modern world.

In the 20 months leading up to his Great Alaskan Adventure, his travels lead him on a path of self-discovery, to examine and appreciate the world around him and to reflect on and heal from his troubled childhood and parents' sordid and abusive relationship.

When he reaches Alaska, he finds he is insufficiently prepared and despite making it through the winter he prepares to return home in spring, only to find the frozen stream he crossed in the snow has become an impassable, raging torrent, and that he is trapped. With no means of sustaining himself adequately, he eventually starves to death in his so-sought-after isolation.

Throughout his epic journey the people he meets both influence and are influenced by the person he is and bring him to the final and tragic realization that "Happiness is only real when shared".


Ok good people, this time and maybe about the next few weeks i want to do some review about a book i described above. Yes the title book is Into The Wild. Check this out⤋⤋

Chapter 1

The Alaska Interior

Jim Gallien, an electrician, was driving from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Anchorage when he spotted a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker, Chris McCandless, introduced himself as Alex but would not give his last name and misleadingly claimed he was from South Dakota. He explained he was headed for Denali National Park, where he planned to "live off the land," and insisted Gallien take his watch, comb, and money.

Gallien was concerned that McCandless was not prepared with the proper clothing, gear, and food to survive any length of time in the unforgiving Alaskan interior. Although he refused Gallien's offer to buy him the equipment he needed, McCandless did accept the man's lunch and an extra pair of rubber work boots Gallien offered him. As he stood at the edge of the Stampede Trail where he planned to begin his journey, he handed Gallien his camera and asked him to take his picture. Gallien considered alerting state troopers about "Alex" but assumed the young man would become hungry and "just walk out to the highway." As he said, "That's what any normal person would do."

Chapter 2

The Stampede Trail

The narrator relates the history of an abandoned school bus located on a remote section of the Stampede Trail in Denali National Park. Once in service in Fairbanks, the bus was bought and converted to workers’ housing, then left behind as shelter for hunters and campers after the construction project was abandoned due to lack of funds. Such is its condition when three different groups of hunters and hikers visit it in 1992. Three moose hunters cross the difficult Teklanika River in their trucks in September of that year and encounter two other people who have already discovered the bus. The other two have decided not to go inside it because a frighteningly bad smell is emanating from it. There is an S.O.S. note tied to the bus’s antenna that declares that its occupant, Christopher J. McCandless, is sick and needs help. The note also says that he has gone out to forage for berries and will return.

Inside the bus, the hunters find a rifle, paperback books, clothing, a backpack, and other supplies. In the back, on a bunk, is a dead body that is so shrunken and small one of the moose hunters at first has trouble determining that it is a person. The reader knows the body to be Christopher McCandless. The police, however, have not yet been able to identify it. The hunters arrange for the body to be transported to Anchorage. State troopers arrive in a helicopter the next morning. Additional searches of the bus reveal several rolls of film and McCandless’s diary, which contains 113 entries and is written in a guide to edible plants. An autopsy undertaken at the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Alaska cannot determine the exact reason the deceased was no longer able to leave his bed to find food. The cause of death is established as starvation. The identity of the body still remains unknown.

Chapter 3

Carthage

In a tiny South Dakota town called Carthage, Wayne Westerberg describes Chris McCandless to Jon Krakauer, who the reader knows has come to interview him about McCandless. Krakauer relates that Westerberg, then overseeing a barley harvest in Montana, picked up McCandless while he was hitchhiking. Westerberg remembers him as restless and handsome, with a sensitive face and a lean physique. He mentions that women would likely have found him attractive, but also describes his face as alternating between animated and slack. Alex was engaging and friendly. Westerberg decided to let him sleep in his trailer overnight when it started to rain. McCandless stayed for three days. Westerberg then told McCandless to come to South Dakota for a job whenever he needed. McCandless arrived a few weeks later, and Westerberg gave him a place to stay and a job on one of his grain elevators. McCandless worked hard enough that Westerberg was impressed. He also learned that McCandless was intelligent and liked to read. In addition, Westerberg recalls finding out from a tax form that McCandless, who had introduced himself as Alex, was named Christopher. Westerberg decided not to ask questions, however. McCandless apparently enjoyed living with Westerberg, cooking for and going drinking with the other people in the house.

After only a few weeks, Westerberg must leave to serve a short sentence following a felony conviction for pirating television signals, which makes it impossible for McCandless to stay in Carthage. McCandless inscribes a copy of War and Peace to Westerberg before leaving, advising him to “listen to Pierre,” an altruist and rebel in the novel. From this point forward, McCandless tells people he is from South Dakota. Krakauer relates that McCandless actually grew up in Annandale, Virginia in an upper middle-class household. His father, Walt McCandless, was an aerospace engineer; Chris’s mother, Billie, was his business partner. Chris attended Emory University in Georgia, where he edited the student newspaper and refused Phi Beta Kappa Honors on principle. After graduation, he refused his parents’ offer to pay for law school as well as their offer to buy him a car using the $24,000 remaining in his college fund. Instead, Krakauer writes, McCandless decided to donate all of the money to the charity OXFAM.

The narrator then describes Christopher McCandless’s graduation ceremony in mid-May 1990. The next day is Mother’s Day, and McCandless gives his mother presents for the first time in years. Billie McCandless is surprised, especially since Christopher has just lectured her and her husband for their offer to buy him a new car. He later writes to his sister, Carine McCandless, that he is disgusted by the idea. During graduation weekend, he tells his parents, “I think I’m going to disappear for a while.” He later writes to them, and encloses his graduation photos. In August of 1990, McCandless’s parents received a bundle of forwarded mail for Christopher. It consisted of their letters to their son. It had been held in Atlanta at Christopher’s instruction, apparently so they wouldn’t know that he had left town. They drive down to visit him in Atlanta. His apartment is empty. He has already packed up his things and begun his journey. Krakauer relates that McCandless was now calling himself “Alexander Supertramp.”

Okay, i think enough for today. I'll give another summaries on the next day. See you!!