Into The Wild Journal 2

Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild isn't a traditional memoir; it’s more of a combination of a biography and memoir that create a thrilling and very philosophical story. Krakauer focuses on the journey of Chris McCandless as he hitchhiked into Alaska living off the land, and eventually starving to death in an abandoned bus. In order to tell McCandless' story Krakauer retraced the young man’s footsteps and talked to the people McCandless met and influenced on his expedition. In order to compensate for the limited knowledge of McCandless' thoughts and feelings Krakauer draws parallels to McCandless and his own experiences as well as the experiences of others who are known to have lived life much like McCandless. Krakauer tells the story of a twenty-year-old named Everett Ruess who was a nature enthusiast much like McCandless and who traveled the country looking for answers and freedom. A lot more is known about Ruess' thoughts because he shared his feelings with others more than McCandless did, and so by comparing the events in Ruess' life to those in McCandless’ Krakauer is able to give deeper insights as to what McCandless may have been thinking and feeling. Krakauer draws on the stories of many other infamous characters well known in the mountaineering community in order to add depth to McCandless' story. The variety of people Krakauer compares to McCandless reveals the many different lessons that can be learned from his life and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions as well.