Text Review Number Two: “Into the Wild”
Into The Wild, set back in the early 1990’s. Shortly after finishing college in 1991, a young man from an upper-middle class family from Virginia named Christopher Johnson McCandless, hitchhiked his way to Alaska and disappears into the wilderness. McCandless leaves behind his car, his family, and all of civilized society and destroyed anything that was made by or could link him back to his previous life. His body was found several months later by a local moose huntsman. All of the in-between is filled in by Jon Krakauer’s vivid analysis of McCandless’s behavior and actions during his mysterious disappearance.
Krakauer does a great job of portraying McCandless complex personality through meticulous research based on interviews, letters and journal entries. He shows impressive journalistic passion to reveal every deep detail through anyone with a perspective on the story. Krakauer knew that for this book to be a success from an revealing standpoint, he would have to dig deep for the finer details that make this story so riveting.
Jon Krakauer is revered for his writing about the outdoors and is a 10-time New York Times Best Books of the Year winner and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Among Krakauer’s his other books, Into Thin Air, Where Men Win Glory, and Under the Banner of Heaven –just to name a few– Into The Wild is quite possibly his most admired.
I believe Krakauer’s motivation for writing this story and shedding light on what happened to Christopher McCandless after he abandoned his family and identity was his strong personal interest in the story. Being a lover of the outdoors, perhaps Krakauer had once himself fantasized about dropping everything and facing the elements to discover himself. Krakauer’s wonderful research and enthusiasm received pleased appraisal.
This book had me fascinated in the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who left his family and friends, abandoned most of his material possessions, went to the Alaska wilderness and perished there. The writing is so engaging that although it is already clear from the beginning how McCandless’ story would end, I was hooked till the last page. Krakauer only strays when discussing his own high-risk responsibilities and those of unfortunate adventurers similar to McCandless — these parts offer comparison to McCandless’ character but I found myself getting impatient and wanting them to end quickly, to return to the main story itself which is much more compelling. If there is one thing I can take from McCandless story, it is this message: Be bold. Get out there. Do something. But don’t forget those who love you.