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I haven't had much experience in the wild until recently. Growing up, I didn't get the privilege to camp or hike often. Since this year, my family and I were able to take vacations to state and national parks! I got to see a lot of nature aspects I never got to see in person from media and books. It was an experience seeing running streams, breathing the open air of tall trees, basically seeing new environments was refreshing. So far, I have traveled to 4 U.S. states for their parks (Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Utah) and it's amazing to see how different yet beautiful they were from each other.

I hope one day I'll be able to comfortably financially stable to support myself so I can travel, explore and seek more adventure as much as I can. It's so freeing, I can't really explain it..

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Summary: The book Into the Wild is based on a true story of a young man named Christopher McCandless, who is determined (P.6) to live his life the way he wants. He didn't bring the proper gear important to survive the Alaskan weather, has no food except for a 10-pound bag of rice (p.5), his hiking boots are not waterproof, and his rifle is too small for the large game he will have to kill in order to survive. A truck driver stops for him to take McCandless to Denali National Park. McCandless plans on following the Stampede Trail, an often unmarked route in the wilderness north of Mount McKinley. Gallien, concerned (p. 5), tries to dissuade (p.5) from this, but McCandless is undeterred, claiming there isn't anything that he can't deal with on his own.

Analysis: I wish Alex had been more prepared for his adventure at least because Alaska is super cold and the adventure would have been more thrilling.

#soloadventure #1992 #livingminimal

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Summary: This chapter starts of by narrating the challenging, meandering (p. 10) journey to the Fairbanks City Transit System Bus 142 that once belonged to Chris McCandless, down the Stampede Trail. On September 6, 1992 six Alaskans follow that trail (p. 10) and encountered the bus, discovering an SOS note tied to the bus’s antenna that declares that McCandless is sick and needs help. The note also says that he has gone out to forage for berries and will return. One of the men examines the bus' (p. 10) interior to find a sleeping bag with Chris's deceased body inside. The next morning, the Alaska State Troopers visit the vehicle to take Chris' remains and his possessions that included several rolls of films including many self-portraits (p. 14) and a journal that outline his last weeks of life in 113 entries.  Since Chris weighed just 67 pounds at his time of death, the coroner believes the young man died of starvation (p. 14). Since Chris didn't have his driver's license, social security card or any other identifying information, the investigation of who he was begins.

Analysis: I think it's heartbreaking how McCandles spent his last days sick and weak by himself hhhh. It's ironic that he wrote an S.O.S. note that went unread until it was too late.

#didntmakeit #busgobrrrr #diaryentries

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Summary: McCandless meets Wayne Westerberg and works for him for a small amount of time. He leaves when Westerberg gets jailed for pirating cable. McCandless grew up in Virginia with his family (p.18), his mother, father, and younger sister, Carina. After graduating from Emory Uni in 1990, he received a bequest (p.20) from a family friend for $24,000. Instead of using the money to attend law school, as McCandless's parents assumed, McCandless donated it to OXFAM America, a charity (p.20) dedicated to fighting hunger. Of May 1990, McCandless told his parents he was going on a road trip and they never heard of him again until he was found dead. "I'm going to disappear for a while" He goes to emancipate (p. 22) himself and begin a new life as "Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny" (p. 23).

Analysis:

#townofcarthage #rockyfamilyrelationships #masterofhisowndestiny

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Summary: On October 1990, a National Park Service ranger discovers a yellow Datsun in a dry riverbed in Lake Mead National Park. A note reads that it has been abandoned and the car (p.27) is free for the taking. A trace leads the rangers back to a Hertz rental car operation, but no further. As a result, Krakauer writes, the rangers now use the car to make undercover drug investigations. It is later revealed that the yellow Datsun belonged to Chris McCandless’s. McCandless arrived in an area of Lake Mead called Detrital Wash on July 6, 1990, and got caught in a flashflood (p.28) that got his engine wet. He describes the hike McCandless took on foot around Lake Mead and the two months following when McCandless hiked to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He worked on a farm in Northern California. A woman named Jan Burres and her boyfriend, Bob, encounter McCandless next and give him a ride (p.30). In the meantime, McCandless’s parents search for him. They receive a ticket (p.31) for the Datsun from California and hire a private investigator who discovers that Chris McCandless has donated his money to charity. On the West Coast, McCandless catches a ride to Needles, California, and buys a canoe with a new plan to navigate the Colorado River from California to Mexico. As he travels he survives only on rice and fish he has caught. His trip takes him through the desert to a number of national parks. He sends a postcard (p.33) to Wayne Westerberg and complains that the money he earned with Wayne has made tramping too easy. He says he is dedicating himself to a life on the road. In early December he crosses into Mexico, but as December passes into January he encounters several difficulties on the river and decides to abandon the canoe. Krakauer relates that McCandless thinks he is living life to the fullest. "It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God, it's great to be alive!"

Analysis:

#flashflood #abandoningbeloved #thejourneymustcontinue

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Summary: Chris works for a while in Las Vegas, then travels to Oregon before heading west once more, to Bullhead City, Arizona. McCandless lives in Bullhead City for two months, working at a McDonald's (ironic for a man that hates capitalism) and opening a savings account.

Analysis:

#slabcity #capitalisthaterworkingforcapitalism #ihatesocks

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Summary: The author recieves a letter from a man named Ronald A. Franz, who asks for a copy of a 1993 magazine article about Christopher McCandless’s death. Krakauer learns from Franz that he and McCandless met while camping at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park near the Salton Sea. McCandless shows Franz the hot springs where he camps in exchange for a ride and the two become friends. Franz lost his wife and child in a drunk driver accident (p.50) while he was overseas, and he takes to McCandless as if the younger man were his own son., buying McCandless food and listening to his stories as well as his theories (p.51) about life and society. He tries to convince McCandless to get a job, but McCandless explains to Franz that he has a plan and begins lecturing Franz about how sedentary Franz’s life is. On one of their last drives, Franz asks McCandless if he can adopt (p.55) him as his grandson, but McCandless pushes off the conversation after his return from Alaska. Franz received a letter from McCandless in early April, which he quotes in its entirety. In the letter, McCandless urges Franz to pack up his belongings and embark on a traveler’s life, that Ron should abandon the monotonous (p. 57) life he knows and live a helter skelter, nomadic (p. 57) existence on the road. Krakauer relates then that Franz followed McCandless’s advice. He bought a camper and moved to McCandless’s old campsite in the Salton Sea, where he lived until he heard news of McCandless’s death from a pair of hitchhikers while in town to retrieve his mail.

Analysis: This one made me cry as we were reading it hjfdfkjsk it's heartbreaking how attached Ron got to Chris but Chris didn't feel the same way. It's sad to see how Chris makes such deep connections with people he meets in a short amount of time but pushes them away if they get too close.

#poorron #emotionallydistant #heartbreaking

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Summary: Roughly two months after McCandless's body is discovered, the narrator meets with Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota to discuss McCandless's last tenure at the Westerburg grain elevator. According to Westerberg, "Alex definitely wasn't what you'd call mechanically minded." (62) Others note that McCandless lacked common sense like being unable to use a microwave (63) oven properly, for instance. McCandless had planned to stay from March through April to raise funds for new gear for his trip to Alaska. The narrator also speaks with Gail Bora, Westerberg's girlfriend, who describes McCandless's seriousness and affection for his sister Carine, as well as his disagreements with his parents (64). Westerberg’s mother also tells the narrator that she felt a particular affection for McCandless even though she only met him once. The narrator describes McCandless's feelings that his parents were oppressive, secretive, and irrational. He also mentions McCandless has never had a girlfriend and may have remained celibate during puberty and afterwards. The passages (66) in Leo Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata", a story about the renunciation of sex, it analyzes at length the character of McCandless, concluding that he was attracted to nature because of a desire for human contact too strong to be satisfied by other people. On his last night with Westerberg and Borah, McCandless entertains a bar full of Carthage locals by playing the piano and drank Jack Daniels with the couple. The next morning, McCandless’s friends see him off, and Borah notices he's crying (68) as he bids farewell to her. At the end of April 1992, Burres, her boyfriend, Westerberg, and Borah receive postcards bidding them goodbye forever and explaining that McCandless is never returning from the wild.

Analysis: It's pretty heartwarming and impressive how much impact one person can leave in a short time. I find McCandless's character interesting, that he can be intelligent, hardworking, and resilient, yet lack some common sense.

#asexual #divorcingparents #forevergoodbye

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Summary: Jon Krakauer uses this chapter to show his readers that other men have come to their demise (p. 70) on Alaskan adventures to help deepen his and the audience's understanding of Christopher McCandless. The first man he talks about is Gene Rossellini, who lives similar to a prehistoric existence, testing himself to see if a modern-day man can live in the same way as the cavemen did it back in the day. He fails to succeed and in his final note, he wrote, "I learned that it is not possible for human beings as we know to live off the land" (p. 75) before stabbing himself through the heart after recognizing his failure (p. 75).
The second person is John Waterman, an experienced mountain climber, and alpinist (p. 79). There are several similarities between McCandless and Waterman; both are intelligent, have familial issues, and were raised in the Washington suburbs. Waterman has suffered many psychiatric breakdowns at different points in his life and died while attempting to summit Denali, one of the most difficult peaks in the world. The last person the narrator talks about is Carl McCunn, someone that lacks common sense and assumes someone will rescue him out if he ends up in trouble. He sets a plan to travel to a forest in the middle of nowhere but fails to arrange a return departure (p. 81) to civilization. The summer transitions to fall and McCunn is left alone starving and freezing. Eventually, a plane (p. 82) flies overhead and Carl accidentally signals the wrong help signs so he doesn't get rescued. As Carl dies a slow and agonizing death, he journals in his final diary (p. 81) entry he explains committed suicide to end the pain and misery. The narrator draws similarities (p. 84) between McCandless and Carl McCunn and then differentiates McCandless from these three men.

Analysis: This chapter offers context and perspective on McCandless's situation from the previous outrages in the beginning. It shows that McCandless's adventure thrill wasn't the only one done and highlights the differences between the other three men.

#noonesurvivesalaskalikethat #seekingadventure #builtdifferent

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Summary: The chapter begins by describing a Southwestern canyon called Davis Gulch, a watershed in the midst of the desert. Davis Gulch contains petroglyphs left behind by the Anasazi people, as well as a carving left in 1993 by a young man named Everett Ruess, who, like Christopher McCandless, disappeared into the wild. The author then relates Ruess’s life and adventures that brought him to Davis Gulch, where he left a final inscription of his name before vanishing. Ruess was born in 1914 to a middle-class family that lived primarily in Southern California. After a short term in college, he apprenticed himself to the photographer Edward Weston, built friendships with California artists, and then set out to live as a tramp. He renamed himself, choosing the name “Nemo,” or “nobody,” and sought to remove himself from society in favor of living a nomadic existence as his dream (p. 96). Krakauer links Ruess’s lack of concern for personal safety (p. 92) to McCandless’s. Krakauer then uses Ruess’s letters to track him from a Mormon settlement in California into Davis Gulch. Apparently, Ruess was expected in Marble Canyon, Arizona, and went incommunicado (p. 93), leading his parents to organize a search party in March 1935. Ruess is never found. The prevailing assumption remains that he died while climbing in the canyon or drowned in his reckless innocence (p. 97), and some speculate that he was murdered by Native Americans. Krakauer interviews a man named Ken Sleight, who describes Ruess and McCandless as both liking people too much to give them up entirely but disliking them enough never to be able to live in society. Krakauer says he believes that both Ruess and McCandless were like the papar (p.91), a group of ancient monks who sailed from Ireland toward Iceland in the fourth century without knowing whether they’d ever find land.

Analysis: This is the second consecutive chapter in which the author attempts to give insight into McCandless's character by comparing and contrasting it to one of the men that also were similar to him. In doing so, Krakauer further convinces the reader that although McCandless was unique, the impulses that drove him were not unprecedented nor were these impulses an exclusively American phenomenon. The drive toward solitude crosses continents and millennia, as the example of the Irish monks demonstrates.

#nemo #soloexpedition #outcastsofsociety

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The investigation on who Chris McCandless is goes underway

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Summary: A hiker in Alaska, a man estimated to be in his late 20s or 30s, is found dead of starvation in September 1992. The story is covered in the Anchorage Daily News as a newspaper article (p. 99) and picked up by the New York Times. Jim Gallien, the last person to see McCandless alive, thinks the dead hiker is McCandless, as does Wayne Westerberg. Once Wayne heard the radio broadcast, he calls the troopers to offer up Alex's real name and social security number (p. 101), pushing their search to Annandale, Virginia.  Using the old school phone book, they call Sam McCandless, Chris' older stepbrother, who lives there, and fax over a photograph (p. 101) of the dead hiker. Christopher McCandless's oldest half-brother, Sam, is questioned by the Fairbanks, Alaska, police, who shows him a photo of a gaunt man with a beard and long hair — the opposite of the shorn, clean-shaven sibling that Sam remembers. As the chapter ends, he prepares to tell his father and stepmother the heartbreaking news.

Analysis: By flashing forward to McCandless's death, Krakauer intensifies the drama of his story. He reminds us that McCandless's adventure ends tragically. In addition, the author emphasizes the young man's connections to those whose lives he touched: friends Gallien and Westerberg, as well as MCandless's relatives.

#investigation #phonebooks #mysteryman

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Summary: Jon Krakauer interviews Walt McCandless at home after his son's body is recovered from the abandoned bus. Walt wonders how "...a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain (p.104)." Krakauer reflects on the dynamics that might have caused a break between father and son. Why did Chris disappear and stay out of touch with his parents for two entire years? Like his son, Walt McCandless was an intense individual, often mercurial and at times brooding (p.105). His parents worked hard and weren't readily available to Chris and his younger sister Carine, both who were gifted (p.106). Additionally, with both parents working together on a consulting venture, the atmosphere around the house was often tense. But the family traveled frequently together, buying a trailer and taking it to the road. Carine recalls, "There was always a little wanderlust (p. 108) in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it."  Chris inherited his parents' ability to hustle and grew up working odd jobs and making money. After high school, he was offered a job working in Annandale, but he declined, instead, he went driving on his first summer adventure (p. 116) across the country before leaving for Emory University in Atlanta.

Analysis: While money puts a strain on Chris’ family, the lack of it also makes him closer with his sister Carine. Because money is a divisive and binding element in Chris’ family it complicates and tangles his family ties.

#mommyanddaddyissues #mccandlesschildhood #escape

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Summary: Krakauer tells the reader that McCandless took a road trip the summer before his freshman year of college. He promised to call his parents every three days, but soon stopped phoning them altogether. When he returned home, McCandless was almost unrecognizable — underweight 30 pounds lighter, and with long, unruly hair. He had lost his way in the Mojave Desert and nearly died of dehydration. At Emory, he weirds people out such as keeping a machete in his dorm room, his cynical (p. 120), and his monomania (p. 120). McCandless received near-perfect grades during his first year of college. He wrote for the school newspaper and considered attending law school. But the summer after his second year at Emory, McCandless's personality appeared to have grown markedly different. The author traces McCandless's "smoldering anger" (p. 121) to the fact that during his earlier drive out west, McCandless had revisited his childhood home in El Segundo, California, and discovered that his father had lived a double life for several years. Chris had been born to his mother, Billie, while father Walt was still married to his first wife, Marcia. And two years after Chris was born, Walt McCandless fathered another child with Marcia. Discovering this duplicity infuriated McCandless. "But he did not confront his parents with what he knew," Krakauer writes. "He chose instead to make a secret of his dark knowledge and express his rage (p. 121) obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal." After his junior year, McCandless took another road trip, this time driving all the way to Alaska. Back at Emory for his senior year, he began to withdraw (p. 123) from both friends and family. After his graduation, he ceased altogether to communicate with his parents and the sister with whom he had been close.

Analysis: Yikes, Walt really had 8 children with two different wives in secret what a scumbag. ://

#mccandlessscandal #twofamiliesdoublelife #poorchris

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Summary: In this chapter, Krakauer interviews Carine McCandless, Chris's younger sister whom he was close (p. 129) to. She talks about their shared love of Buckley, the family shepherd dog (p. 128), who Chris wanted to take with him on his trip. She believes that Chris would've been more careful and would've taken fewer (p. 128) risks had he just taken Buck with him. Ten months after her receiving the news of her brother's death, Carine can't get through a day without crying about the loss (p. 132) of Chris. Carine and her husband were notified of Chris's death shortly after his body was discovered in the Sushana River bus. They traveled to Alaska to bring home Chris's ashes, in Carine's knapsack. Chris's mother, Billie, is in shock over her son's death " ...weeping as only a mother who has outlived a child can weep (p. 132), betraying a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure."

Analysis: Though Carine’s values oppose Chris’, their bond remains strong, which suggests that the differences between Chris and his family were not entirely irreconcilable, as Chris so ardently believed. As Chris’ family continued to mourn his death, Carine and Billie lose weight suddenly, while Walt overeats, gaining several pounds. The McCandless’s weight fluctuations parallel Chris’ own experiences with hunger, bringing the family closer to Chris than ever before.

#siblinglove #buckthesheepdog #lossoflovedone

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Summary: Based on his own experiences in Alaska, author Jon Krakauer arrives at the conclusion that McCandless's death wasn't suicide, but rather an accident (p. 134). His conclusion is based on the evidence provided by McCandless's journals and as well as the author's personal experience. The majority of this chapter is devoted to Krakauer's reminiscences about his own youthful obsession (p. 135) with mountain climbing. At 23, for reasons not dissimilar to those that drove McCandless to head into the wilderness, Krakauer decided to climb a rock formation called the Devils Thumb, on Alaska's Stikine Ice Cap. During his first two days of climbing, along a glacier at the base of the rock formation, Krakauer makes genuine progress. On his third day, however, high winds, stinging sheets of snow, and reduced visibility cause a series of dangerous mishaps. After almost falling into a glacial crevasse (p. 140), Krakauer sets up camp on a plateau. Krakauer has arranged ahead of time for supplies to be air-dropped to him so that he can continue his climb. But the pilot engaged to deliver the supplies misreads the altitude, almost entirely missing Krakauer's encampment. Krakauer continues to climb up the glacier. He can now see 3,700 feet below him. "The sour taste of panic (p. 143) rose in my throat," he recalls. "My eyesight blurred, I began to hyperventilate, my calves started to shake . . . Awkwardly, stiff with fear, I started working my way back down. The climb was over. The only place to go was down (p. 144)."

Analysis: Krakauer highlights the risk and danger of the journey he went through. Death lurks around every corner and any step could be his last. Krakauer is making the point that he survived and Chris did not, but that these different endings don’t actually say anything about their relative merits—it was just luck.

#pushingthelimits #climbingobsession #achievingdreams

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Summary: Krakauer remains in his tent for several days due to foul weather and he gets so restless after a few days that he smokes his only marijuana cigarette, which makes him hungry. He lights his stove to make oatmeal and accidentally sets his tent on fire. He stands in dismay, then admits to the reader that he borrowed the tent from his father. He recalls his father’s complicated (147) personality and their fraught relationship. Krakauer’s father forced him and his siblings to excel, in hopes that they would attend Harvard Medical School. Instead, the narrator became a climber and a carpenter, rejecting his father’s philosophy (p. 148). In his later years, Krakauer’s relationship with his father only worsened. His father experienced dementia and the return of polio symptoms from his youth. He became addicted to medications and after a suicide attempt (p. 149) at which Krakauer was present, his father was consigned to a psychiatric hospital. On the Stikine Ice Pack, Krakauer determines that he will try to climb the Devils Thumb again. He tells the reader that his father’s insistence on achievement left a lingering mark on him. He attempts to summit again, but a storm forces him to descend. He spirals down into self-pity and fears for his life. The wind shifts, allowing him to find his base camp again. Krakauer’s return to his base camp allows him to devise a new plan. Leaving most of his gear behind, he climbs up the northeast face of the Devil's Thumb and achieves the summit. He takes photographs and then descends. After a ride back to town, he visits a bar, where he drinks alone. Back in Boulder, he resumes his ordinary routine. Krakauer then surmises that it was only chance that he survived his trip to Alaska and Christopher McCandless did not. He writes that McCandless must not have had a death wish and that to the young death is only an abstraction. Instead, young adventurers are drawn by the powerful mystery of forbidden (p. 156) danger and the unknown.

Analysis: Like Chris, Krakauer diverges from his fathers’ expectations to define his own measure of success. The relentless snowfall teaches Krakauer that his willpower is no match for the powers of nature and that he must adapt to conditions in order to survive and accomplish his goals, anticipating a lesson that McCandless will learn in Alaska.

#imadeit #devilsthumbsummit #mysteryoftheunknown

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Summary: Chris pauses in his odyssey (p. 157) to visit the Liard River Hot Springs at the threshold of the Yukon Territory. But after taking time to soak in the steaming waters, he can't find another ride. He spends two days at the Liard River before making friends with Gaylord Stuckey, a truck driver who reluctantly gives "Alex" a ride. They converse for the few days the drive takes — discussing McCandless's family, his father's bigamy, and his own desire to live off the land. On April 25, Stuckey buys a bag of rice for McCandless and then drives him to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where McCandless wants to look up books on edible plants at the library. Knowing the local seasons better than McCandless, Stuckey points out "Alex, you're too early. There's still two foot, three foot of snow on the ground. There's nothing growing yet." but McCandless ignores this advice. McCandless spends two days and three nights around Fairbanks, mostly at the university and finds a field guide to the area's edible plants, writes postcards to Wayne Westerberg and Jan Burres, and buys a used gun (a semiautomatic, .22-caliber Remington). he has located in the classifieds. McCandless hitches the ride with Jim Gallien that will bring him there. Tramping through the bush, McCandless soon discovers the abandoned bus (P. 163) along the Sushana River and celebrates the discovery by writing in his journal "Magic Bus Day." At first, he has some difficulty killing small game. After about a month, though, McCandless is routinely shooting small game (p. 164). On June 9, 1992, McCandless kills a moose (P. 166), and he is so proud of this feat that he takes a photo of the carcass. He spends days trying to cure its meat so he can consume every part of the moose. But he preserves the meat incorrectly, with the result that it becomes infested with vermin and therefore inedible. McCandless must leave the moose carcass for the wolves, which leaves him feeling deeply guilty. McCandless lists the preparations necessary for leaving the bus, bringing his "final and greatest adventure" to a close. He has made some fatal errors, however. Halfway back to the road, he discovers a three-acre lake in his way. When he first crossed the same area in April, the series of beaver ponds leading up to the Teklanika River had been frozen over and were easy enough to traverse; now, in July, these same beaver ponds have melted. Moreover, the river itself, knee-deep at winter's end, has become a raging torrent — and McCandless is a weak swimmer (p. 170). He returns to the bus, chastened, and writes in his journal, "Disaster. . . . Rained in. River look (sic) impossible. Lonely, scared."

Analysis: Chris’ decision to return is not enough. The Teklanika’s waters present a dangerous challenge to Chris, but having been chastened and humbled by nature he makes a prudent move, instead of a risky one, by deciding not to try to cross. Ironically, this smart decision is actually a fateful one as it leads to Chris’ demise. McCandless does not know (he refused to obtain a map of the area) that the river is passable only one mile upstream. If he have gotten a map, Chris would have been still alive today. :(

#plantresearch #moosefail #stranded

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Summary: The author revisits the Teklanika River a year later after Christopher McCandless decided not to cross it. Krakauer, however, is well-equipped to ford the river (p. 173). Accompanied by three experienced outdoorsmen, the author is in possession of a detailed map (p. 173), which reveals that a half-mile downstream from where McCandless tried to cross, there is a gauging station built by the U.S. Geological Survey. The station can't be seen from the Stampede Trail, but after hiking through thick bush, Krakauer and his friends reach it and locate a steel cable (p. 174). The cable stretches between a 15-foot tower on one side of the river and an outcrop on the opposite shore. Krakauer and his friends cross the river, and after a long trek, they come upon the Sushana River bus. The author inventories its contents: a bag of bird feathers, perhaps meant for insulating McCandless's clothes/pillow; a kerosene lamp; Ronald Franz' machete sheath; books; a stove fashioned out of an old oil drum; jeans padded with silver duct tape; hiking boots; toenail clippers; a nylon tent spread across a gaping hole in the bus's window. Krakauer and his companions ruminate about McCandless's demise — was he merely a "loopy young man who read too many books and lacked even a modicum of common sense (p. 184)?" Small in stature, did McCandless feel he had to prove his manhood by means of extreme physical challenges? Ultimately Krakauer seems to believe that McCandless wasn't consumed by existential despair, but driven by meaning and purpose (p. 184). He distrusted the value of things that came easily. "He demanded much of himself," the author writes, " — more, in the end, than he could deliver."

Analysis: While the river was a roadblock for Chris, Krakauer crosses it with relative ease, ironically pointing to Chris’ ignorance of his surroundings. Had Chris not insisted on complete isolation and even avoiding good maps, he could have left when he wanted to hhh.

#bepreparedwithamap #steelride #abandoneditems

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Summary: On July 8, 1992, McCandless returns to the bus. He resumes hunting small game and gathering edible berries and wild potatoes, but he is burning more calories than he consumes. He reads Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and finishes Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, writing "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED." — a striking sentiment from someone so relentlessly compelled toward solitude. On July 30, McCandless makes an ominous entry in his journal: "EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY (p.198)." Krakauer points out that until this journal entry, nothing suggests that McCandless is in danger of starving to death. Though hungry, he is otherwise in good health. Less than one month later, he will be dead. Wayne Westerberg suggests that McCandless ate some potato seeds he bought in South Dakota; as potato seeds (p.192) can become toxic once they have sprouted. But he would have needed to eat many pounds of these seeds, and he doesn't seem to have done so. There is, however, a wild potato that McCandless may have foraged for — and confused with the similar-looking, and toxic, wild sweet pea (p.194). The author imagines a hungry McCandless mistaking one plant for the other and becoming incapacitated. Already worn down by a subsistence diet, his body wasn't able to stave off the emetic effects of the plant, which ultimately killed him. As time goes on, however, Krakauer begins to doubt this hypothesis. Some four years after McCandless's death, Krakauer finally discovers that a toxic mold can grow on legumes. On August 5, McCandless notes in his journal that he has spent 100 days (p.195) in the wild. Then he writes "BUT IN WEAKEST CONDITION OF LIFE. DEATH LOOMS AS SERIOUS THREAT." Again the author points out McCandless's folly in not having a topographical map: only six miles south of the bus was a Park Service cabin, equipped with first-aid supplies, bedding, and emergency food — a three-hour walk away. Krakauer, however, notes that even the existence of this cabin would not have saved McCandless, since the cabin had been recently vandalized, and anything edible within had been exposed to wild animals and the weather. McCandless writes his final journal entry on August 12. Knowing that the end is near, Chris takes a selfie-and on a piece of paper, he holds it says, "I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE (p.199) AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL."

Analysis: Krakauer examines the mistakes and reversals that colored McCandless’s final days in detail, providing a final series of implicit answers to his investigation of McCandless’s fate. It was so heart-wrenching to read how Chris spent his last days all alone in agonizing pain from starvation. :( I'm happy that he was able to follow his heart to live the adventures by his own rules.

#finalgoodbye #heartbreaking #fulfilleddreams

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Summary: Almost a year later after Chris's death, Billie and Walt McCandless fly to the Magic Bus by helicopter. They head inside the abandoned bus where Christopher McCandless died and Billie enters first and reviews her son’s belongings. She smells a pair of jeans (p.202) he left behind and tells her husband that they still smell like her son. She also recognizes silverware (p.202) he took from their house in Virginia. They leave behind a plaque memorializing McCandless’s death and leave a suitcase of supplies, including Christopher’s childhood bible, a first-aid kit, a note (p. 202) urging runaways to contact their families. Both Billie McCandless and Walt McCandless admit they are glad (p. 203) they came and were able to gain closure. Billie specifies that she might have found Christopher’s decision to live in the wild admirable (p.203) if he had not died. Krakauer and Walt and Billie McCandless get back into the helicopter. After takeoff, the bus dwindles in the distance and then vanishes from sight.

Analysis: Christopher McCandless's parents, Walt and Billie, were most affected by his death. The book’s characterization of McCandless’s parents receives a final complication and extension: Billie, who has been portrayed as loving but overcome by grief, now appears as vulnerable but strong. Walt McCandless’s terseness and frustration with his son are converted into grudging respect, even tenderness, and the desire that his memory is known to other people. The way the helicopter flys away from the bus at the end bares a calm farewell.

#closure #legacyliveson #ripchris

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Summary: In Chapter 18, Krakauer hypothesized three possible explanations for what caused Chris' starvation, even when he killed enough game to keep him alive for 113 days (¶ 1). After 23 long years of extensive research, he finally came to a conclusion. In Chris's journal, he wrote, "EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT. SEEDS". With the help of a writer named Ronald Hamilton, Krakauer originally thought the culprit was beta-ODAP (¶ 6), a lethal compound that causes muscle weakening and paralysis (¶ 7) in people who are starving.  After countless research into science journals and sending Eskimo potato plants samples off to the lab, Krakauer finally got his answer: it was a different toxic compound called L-canavanine (¶ 9). The plant becomes toxic after a certain time of the year to ward off predators, and Chris, unfortunately, happened to eat the plant after it had become toxic after mid-summer.

Analysis: I agree with Krakauer when he said, "What he did was not easy. He lived for 113 days off the land in a place where there's not a lot of game...And he did really well. If he hadn't been weakened by these seeds, I'm confident he would have survived." Chris did his best on surviving with his condition but it's still sometimes said to think how Chris could have been alive today if he haven't eaten them. :(

Article: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/01/403535274/into-the-wild-author-tries-science-to-solve-toxic-seed-mystery

#mysterysolved #toxicplants #research

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Traveling is nice. It's always exciting to travel to new places. I've lived in Orange County, CA my whole life and it honestly gets super boring seeing the same places and things every day. I would love to travel more in the future solo or with friends and see more of what the world has to offer. There are so many things I want to do, try new foods, see unique natural environments, meet new people, all of those things. Maybe I'll plan to study abroad. :)

#longingforadventure #newplacesnewpossibilities #travel

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THE GOOD:

I admire Chris for

THE BAD:

the chapter when Ron Franz offered to adopt Chris but he refused . After hearing Ron's backstory about losing