Welcome To The Office of New Student Experience
2008-2009
Book
"Into the
Wild"
by Jon Krakauer
"Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a bestselling
non-fiction book about the adventures of Christopher
McCandless. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word
article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the
January 1993 issue of Outside. Krakauer intersperses
McCandless's story with a discussion of the wilderness
experiences of people such as John Muir and John Menlove
Edwards, as well as some of his own adventures. Krakauer
first went to Alaska in 1974 and has returned there twenty
times since. He spent three years carrying out the
background research work for this biography.
The book has been adapted into a movie of the same name
directed by Sean Penn with Emile Hirsch starring as
McCandless. The film's U.S. release date was September 21,
2007."
Discussion Questions
- What motivated Jon Krakauer to reconstruct the final
days of Chris McCandless so meticulously? What was
Krakauer hoping to learn about McCandless, about
himself, or about American society?
- Is Chris McCandless "admirable?" Why or why not?
- Pay attention to the various settings of the book.
Where does Chris McCandless live at various points in
his life? How does he decide where to go and how long to
stay? How does each new location affect him?
- What philosophy seems to guide Chris McCandless? Does
this philosophy change as he grows closer to death?
- Explore the role that family and friends played in
Chris McCandless' life.
- Some people believe Chris McCandless was mentally
unstable, though Jon Krakauer rejects that assessment. What
do you think based on the evidence Krakauer presents in the
book?
Click
here for a printable version (Word format)
Enter the Essay and Art Contest
Attention incoming students to
Salisbury University! Here’s your chance to win a $300 gift
certificate to the Salisbury University Book Store. You can
use the gift certificate for anything the book store sells,
including all those expensive textbooks you’ll have to buy.
All you have to do is submit the winning essay or the
winning art project related to the New Student Reader, Into
the Wild.
See Also:
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