Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
In the Prologue, Krakauer states his objectives:
--to understand the grip wilderness has on the American imagination
--to understand the allure of high risk activities
--to understand the bond between fathers and sons
He goes on to say that his initial article in Outside generated the most mail of any article in the history of the magazine. He withholds his convictions about McCandless. What is the effect?
In the Author's note Krakauer offers readers a dichotomy: either McCandless is a wacko and narcissist or he is to be admired for his courage and noble ideas. The first writing objective could be defined by the following:
State you own perspective and then anticipate objections. Anticipate the arguments of others and utilize and formulate counter-arguments. Prepare a rebuttal for different perspectives.
Divide research responsibilities among the following areas as well as other areas you deem important to a successful argument.
We want to better understand:
--American Mythology: What is the myth of the West and of wilderness? How does it affect McCandless? Consider the values of roughed individualism and the consequences of such thinking. These forces are part of the culture we live in and often shape our attitudes and options.
--consider gender and ethnicity. How might this quest into the wild be different for women or people of color?
--American Wilderness and the history of American identity. How have Americans used the "Wild" to continually forge their identity? Read a brief part of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis. Jackson is a famous historian who looked at the importance of the frontier in shaping American identity at the turn of the last century.
--Narrative Painters: The Paintings of Thomas Cole
American painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) uses religious iconography to portray the tension between the idyllic garden of myth and the unpredictable and hostile wilderness.
Heroic Cycle: The Departure ; The Return
Thomas Cole was concerned about the future of America and his The Course of Empire gives us a narrative version of the human journey from creation and apocalypse. His first painting in the series shows us the "Savage State." Our course continues through different stages of the empire (of civilization) by first taming the savage state, thus creating a "Pastoral State." This is metaphorically synonymous to the conversion of Enkidu in Chapter One of The Epic of Gilgamesh. As humans become more fully urbanized, we have Cole's interpretation of the epitome of human culture: "Consummation of the Empire." Obviously Cole implies the "course" of the Roman Empire or any other empire (such as the British Empire at the height of Imperialism) as the epitome of this kind of consummation. I would include Uruk at the end of The Epic of Gilgamesh as well. It is what happens next that suggests that corruption or calamity, inevitably it seems, occurs in all civilizations. We eventually achieve "Destruction" and finally "Desolation." The implication is that humans bring this on themselves and indeed may deserve to die--an idea we see in Genesis. In the best case scenario, out of this desolation comes some promise of a new life or New World Order. In this case, Cole does not offer such a promise--desolation means a world without humans. But the story is similar to the mythos of Genesis, at its best and perhaps paradoxically its most frightening levels of cognition.
--The literature McCandless read: Thoreau, Tolstoy, Jack London, others. What is the effect? Locate specific passages in the writing.
--Romanticism and realism: What is the difference? Are we always able to tell?
--Counterculture idealism: if there is a way of life that denounces conformity in America, how would you define it? Examples?
--Alaskan wisdom: what is it?
--The essence of youth: What are young people looking for?
--Post-adolescent fog: incomprehensible worlds
--Skewed family relations
--Krakauer's personal narrative (Chapters 14 and 15) Autobiography is different than Biography. Krakauer frames his own quest to climb Devil's Thumb with the story of McCandless. Why? What purpose does this narrative structure serve?
--Your personal narratives: any stories in your own life that shape your attitudes and perspectives about Krakauer's text?
--Everett Ruess: How is he different than McCandless? Who is Everett Ruess? See if you can find out.
Chapter ONE:
-Describe how Krakauer characterizes the Alaskan bush.
Jim Gallien gives us what he perceives as a common scenario about people coming to Alaska. What is it?
McCandless seems to have little gear. Why is Gallien concerned?
Chapter TWO: the epigraph is by Jack London. What is London's view of the wild?
How did the Stampede Trail come to exist?
What is the vintage International harvester from the 1940s?
In this chapter we get the brief story of the discovery of the body. What happens and what problems are the result of this discovery?
Chapter THREE:
The epigraph is by Tolstoy and Wallace Stegner. What is the point? Do you agree?
Is Wayne Westerberg a real name? How might it be a allegorical name like MR. Gore in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass? How might Westerberg be a "type"?
What does Wayne Westerberg think of Alex? What are McCandless' qualities? (18)
"Listen to Pierre." What does this phrase mean?
What do we learn about Chris McCandless' family and upbringing? His time in college? Why would he call college a absurd and onerous duty? (22)
Chris cuts himself off from his family. What do you think of his treatment of his family?
Chapter FOUR: Detrital Wash
The epigraph is by Paul Shepard. What is Shepard's point?
National Park Service Ranger Bud Walsh finds McCandless' car in the desert. What becomes of the car?
On page 27, Krakauer writes that McCandless arrived at Lake Mead "riding an Emersonian high." What does this mean?
Why did McCandless abandon his prized Datsun?
McCandless followed Thoreau with the reverence of gospel. What is McCandless' attitude toward authority. Do you share any of this same Thoreau-like attitude? How do your biases and prejudices shape your relationship to Krakauer's story.
Why does McCandless burn his money?
What does Jan Burres say about McCandless?
What event will later convince McCandless that he can survive in the Alaskan wilderness?
In his journal, McCandless often refers to himself in the third person. Is this significant?
Chapter FIVE:
What is Bullhead City like? What are the Slabs and what kind of people live there? Krakauer's portrayal of these people is also the portrayal of a kind of nomadic subculture. Imagine why this kind of life might be appealing. Or at least on the surface of things how might this group appear to McCandless?
McCandless holds down a job at McDonald's on the main drag. Does this surprise you? He even goes as far as to open a saving account.
The employees at McDonald's don't really get to know Chris at all. What detail about his situation was McCandless hiding from the people he worked with?
How hard do you think it would be to live out in the desert and hold a job at McDonald's?
What are plastic people? (43)
In this chapter, Krakauer describes Chris McCandless' fascination with books. What does Krakauer point out about McCandless and the authors he reads?
How does Jan Burres react to Chris' plan to go on a "great Alaskan odyssey."
Chapter SIX:
In this chapter we meet Ron Frantz. What is he like? Describe the relationship between Franz and McCandless.
What do we learn about McCandless and human intimacy? Or are we really hearing about Krakauer?
What does Franz do when he learns that McCandless had died in Alaska? Krakauer conjures up something deeply interesting here about McCandless, describing the young man as a fugitive from human intimacy, that in the end, is painful to most of us left behind or abandoned by the restless and nomadic. What kind of questions do we need to raise here not so much about McCandless, but about Krarauer's own psyche?
Chapter Seven: Carthage
Of course the name of this South Dakota town is borrowed from the Roman epic the Aeneid. Carthage was the great city in Northern Africa that was a kind of urban trap for the hero Aeneas and the city's appeal and immenities almost prevented him from continuing his quest to fulfill his destiny. Krakauer is being very clever here.
McCandless arrives in Carthage to work for Westerberg and build a grubstake for his Alaskan Odyssey. Among other things we get a glimpse of gaps in McCandlass's thinking, a slight sense of having no common sense. Yet Krarauer focuses on Chris's apparent sexual innocence and cultural attitudes toward chastity. Krakauer writes: "We Americans are titillated by sex, obsessed by it, horrified by it. When an apparently healthy person, especially a healthy young man, elects to forego the enticements of the flesh, ti shocks us, and we leer. Suspicions are aroused " (66). True or false? Explain.
Krakauer's rhetoric here is compelling. It seems obvious that he admires McCandless or at least what McCandless represents as metaphor not only in Krarauer's mind but in the culture of the ascetic and the advenrurer, which Krakauer later exalts in Chapter Nine with the example of that courage of the Irish monks forever seeking to reach for a pure life beyond the pale of civilization--the papar that paddle small crafts to Iceland and Greenland. In the author's note his says his convictions about McCandless will be know soon enough and indeed they are coming into full focus.
McCandless walks into the wild.
Chapter Eight:
Krarauer gives us a series of failed survivor stories, a kind of encyclopedia of Aalskan bush casualty stereotypes and the resulting hostility and criticism of Alaskans themselves toward these moronic 2oth Century versions of Jack London's protagonist in "To Build a Fire." Yet according to Krakauer, McCandless doesn't conform to this Alaskan stereotype. Why? What, according to Krakauer, makes McCandless different?
Chapter Nine:
The story of Everett Ruess. Ruess remains a kind of mythic figure, representing mystery and romance in the natural world. Why has history treated Ruess in a kind of favorable way? Here Krakauer asks us to consider Ruess and McCandless, together, in a larger context (96). What does Krarauer mean exactly? What is he asking us to do? And is it a valid way to approach the narrative of Chris McCandless?
Chapter 10:
Moves narrative forward. "Your child is dead."
Chapter Eleven:
Krakauer gives us details of McCandless' life as he is growing up. The information suggests that one's character is determined early on--almost as a kind of fate. Why is Krakauer giving us this information? What in your opinion, are Chris McCandless' strengths and weaknesses?
