A Summary and Analysis of the Book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

This is a book by the author Jon Krakauer, talking of Chris McCandless. After graduation, Chris McCandless leaves his wealthy family to explore the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992. On his way to the wild, he gets rid of all his possessions and sets off for the desert. Chris McCandless, who calls himself Alex, encounters various people who discourage him of the dangerous adventure he wants to embark on.

However, he stands out as most adamant character and beliefs in himself. He is termed as lost, and his parents spend sleepless nights looking for him. The story gets to a sad end when his dead body is found four months later, September, the same year he had left home. His death draws the attention of Jon Krakauer, the author of this book, wants to discover the mysterious death of McCandless.

When McCandless turned up dead in Alaska and the perplexing circumstances of his demise were reported in the news media, many people concluded that the boy must have been mentally disturbed. The article about McCandless in Outside generated a large volume of mail, and not a few of the letters heaped opprobrium on McCandless—and on me, as well, the author of the story, for glorifying what some thought was a foolish, pointless death". Jon interviews his relatives, friends, and many others who could give him a hint as he carries out his research to determine his death (Krakauer, Jon, and Philip Franklin p.12-78).

Order custom essay A Summary and Analysis of the Book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

The storyline revolves around a series of activities by various characters. These give an outline of the events of that time. The paper gives an analysis of the major events of the time as evident in the Into the Wild. Among the major events that the paper gives a keen look on is the aspect of adventure, free nature of life and truth among other events. The paper gives an analysis of these events with actual citations from the books, giving a comparison between the writer's opinion and the similarities in actual events.

According to Krakauer (p. 45-128), the most common event was an adventure. Into The Wild is composed of a major theme of adventure. Christopher chooses a free life after graduating from Emory University in Atlanta. He reveals his parents that he has a plan of spending the summer out on a ride. After donating his entire life savings of $24,000 to charity, he emails his last transcript to his parents and sets for a journey to Nevada for recreation and adventure. His old Datsun drives him as far as Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The bad weather and flash flood make its car engine to fail. However, this does not stop Christopher from his mission. He has a great passion for touring Nevada and beyond.

After the car breaks down, Christopher abandons it, parks the little things he needs for the journey in a bag pack and sets on foot. He travels to Cascade Mountain across the Lava beds of Columbia River. His spirit of recreation and adventure won him a ticket for hiking in Willow Creek- California. "We're still getting a lot of mileage out of that old car even now," After loading his few remaining possessions into a backpack, McCandless set out on July 10 to hike around Lake Mead. This, his journal acknowledges, turned out to be a "tremendous mistake... In extreme July temperatures becomes delirious." Suffering from heat stroke, he managed to flag down some passing boaters, who gave him a lift to Callville Bay, a marina near the west end of the lake, where he stuck out his thumb and took to the road. (Krakauer, P.20).

After a log walk, McCandless reaches Colorado River. He takes a south walk through the desert to Topock. After reaching Arizona, McCandless buys a second-hand canoe which he will use to take down Colorado River. His mission is to reach the Pacific Ocean through the Gulf of California, which is over 400 miles stretch from Arizona. He sneaks into Mexico through dam's floodgates but gets a map from the locals to direct him. `` On December 2, he reached the Morelos Dam and the Mexican border.

Worried that he would be denied entry because he was carrying no identification, he sneaked into Mexico by paddling through the dam's open floodgates and shooting the spillway below. “Alex looks quickly around for signs of trouble," his journal records. "But his entry of Mexico is either unnoticed or ignored. Alexander is jubilant!” ( Krakauer, P.20). McCandless is driven by the adventure to risk his life in bad weather in the campsite at a plateau. He 'celebrates' his Christmas hiding from the bad weather in the cave. This is the adventure that gives McCandless confidence that he can survive in Mexico.

After surviving from been drowned in the storm, McCandless sets a journey back to the North. After working in Las Vegas for a while, the spirit of adventure draws him back to the wild. The whole of his life after graduation seems wild, for adventure and fun. A lot is hidden within his driving spirit. After a long jungle and surviving on the bush meet, McCandless starves to death in Alaska along river Sushana, where his body is discovered later (McCandless p.97-132).

Apart from adventure, nature walk, and hiking, another common event of the time is hunting. Through his journey in the wild, McCandless meets with bear hunters who help him to get the direction. The discovery of his body is also by hunters. This depicts hunting as a common culture of the time, where most people were engaged in the activity, much of it been for fun and recreation. Another critical event of the story is the discovery of the truth. Into the wild is a journey that leads McCandless to the discovery of the truth about his father. When out in his adventure journey, McCandless discovers that his father had an affair with his Ex- wife while still dating McCandless's mother.

This is a hurting discovery that makes McCandless value truth than anything else in life. This is much agitating and could be one of the reasons that set McCandless out for the walk to the wild which leads to his death (Linson, Art, Sean Penn, William Pohlad, Emile Hirsch, Marcia G. Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Brian Dierker, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Eric Gautier, Jay Cassidy, Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder, and Jon Krakauer p. 11-45). "Into The Wild" by Jon Krakauer is a story that brings blending of tradition and modernity. It sets the aspect of education, civilization, and tradition. McCandless, a university graduate who should be out working in an office goes to the wild to survive on hunting and bushmeat.

When McCandless is living with Ron, he learned on how to work on leather. This shows the art. Leatherwork was much common. McCandless makes a leather belt which tells his story of the wild. After this, he sets back to the wild. His home is an old abandoned bus that is a shelter for hunters. He lives there for sixteen weeks, but during this entire period, he meets no one. In July, McCandless gets into trouble. He becomes ill, and when he senses death, he writes a farewell message. Free life seems to be the lifestyle of that time. The aspect of adventure, leisure, and passion for wild nature drives McCandless, a university graduate into the traditional wild life of hunting and gathering (Krakauer p. 78-89).

Other events of that time are much more similar to the current events within the society. The aspect of travel for leisure was much common at that society. It seems that people had a passion for the wild, to go in the bush recreation activities such as hiking, camping, and discovery of new places. Hunting was also an event of the time, and most of the bush travelers survived on hunting for food. The story depicts a society that is blended with modernization and tradition.

The aspect of education, use of modern means of transport such as cars and buses shows that the society was not far much behind civilization. However, this is combined with traditional events such as hunting and use of old means of transports canoes. The inhabited forests through which McCandless goes out for hiking and camping shows an area that is isolated and away from urban life, and could be, this isolation was a contributing factor to the death of McCandless.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer