Into The Wild Ap Questions

Michael Soto

9/15/2015

Period 4

Into the Wild AP questions

1. After reading chapter 1 of Into the Wild, I have the impression that while he seems friendly, he possess a number of negative qualities. Chris seems to be very stubborn, and most of all overconfident. While Chris seems excited to go to Alaska, but is dangerously unprepared, and seems to overplay his experience, while refusing any help. “Im absolutely positive,” he assured Gallien, “I won’t run into anything I can’t deal with on my own” Page 6 Chapter 1. This example perfectly shows his arrogance. By saying this Chris shows how he believes he can take anything on, and is ready for the wilderness, he thinks he is invincible, and is incredibly confident in his survival skills. “Gallien

offered to drive Alex all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go.” “No thanks anyway, Alex replied, I’ll be fine with what I’ve got” Page 6 Chapter 1. This part of the book displays Chris’s stubbornness and refusal to take any help.
2. What Chris meant when he had proclaimed this is that he wants to leave his current state of life and start fresh on this “Epic Journey”. On Page 22 Chapter 3 the story says, “Driving west to Atlanta, he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience.” “To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny.” In this quote it is explained, Chris wanted to abandon his old way of life to head west and start over, even changing his name.” I agree with his motivation for leaving as shown in this quote, Chris just wants to start over, and be free. Chris wants to live a life that he chooses, not his parents, hence why he even decided on renaming himself to what he wants his name to be, not his parents.
3. An experience that Chris has that may have helped him find this “meaning” Is when he had encountered the flash flood. After the flood the battery on his Datsun had died out. Chris left behind his Datsun car and buried his possessions. After this he burned all the money he had with him. “McCandless was exhilarated: he saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed unnecessary baggage. . . He buried his Winchester deer-hunting rifle and a few other possessions that he might one day recover. . . One hundred twenty-three dollars in legal tender was promptly reduced to ash and smoke.” Page 29 Chapter 5 Chris’s interpretation of the “meaning” were that you do not need money or material things to live life.
4. Chris had considered “Plastic people” as people who were primarily consumerist, the people who are superficial and only lived to make money.” McCandless explained to Burres that he’d grown tired of Bullhead, tired of people punching a clock, tired of the “plastic people” he worked with, and decided to get the hell out of town. “Page 43 Chapter5. I agree with Chris’s assessment in that in modern times, life seems to revolve around earning money and buying materials. Two things that Chris considers plastic are; socks “He always wore shoes without socks- just plain couldn’t stand to wear socks.” Page 40 Chapter 5, and soap “They started asking him if he needed some soap or anything. That made him mad-you could tell. But he never showed it outright.” Page 41 Chapter 4
5. Ronald Franz and Chris McCandless had shared a strong bond despite knowing each other for a short time, Both Ronald and Chris benefitted from this brief relationship. Franz had someone to be close to, as he had been lonely for so long, that he grew close to Chris for intimacy. “One can only speculate about why Franz became so attached to McCandless so quickly, but the affection he felt was genuine, intense, and unalloyed. Franz had been living in solitary existence for many years.” Page 55 Chapter 6. Meanwhile Chris learned how to craft items using leather from Franz. “An accomplished leatherworker, Franz taught Alex the secrets of his craft; for his first project McCandless produced a tooled leather belt.”
6.

Chris believes that if he too the ticket from Wayne that would be a shortcut, an easy way out. Chris believes that the voyage is just as important as the destination. One example of this is on Page 67 Chapter 7 “Once Alex made his mind up about something, there was no changing it.” This quote shows Chris’s stubbornness and how he is determined to get to Alaska as he intended, the long way. Another quote showing that he lives to his own words, and wouldn’t take a shortcut is on Page 68 Chapter 7, when Chris sent a postcard to Wayne saying “April 18 Arrived in Whitefish this morning on a freight train. I am making good time. Today I will jump the border and turn north for Alaska. Give my regards to everyone.” TAKE CARE ,

ALEX
7. One quality that both the father Walt McCandless, and his son Chris McCandless shared was their high intellect. “Colleagues refer to him as brilliant” Page 105 Chapter 11 and in description of Walt’s youth “A bright child, and driven he won an academic scholarship to Colorado State University in nearby Fort Collins.” Page 105 Chapter 11. Meanwhile in a description of Chris’s youth he had experienced something similar “In the 3rd grade, after receiving a high score on a standardized achievement test, Chris was placed in an accelerated program for gifted students.” Page 106 Chapter 11. Another quality these two both possess is that they both take initiative. They both seem to pull the strings, and take charge. “Walt is accustomed to calling the shots” Page 105 Chapter 11. As with Chris he showed that he took charge when he was young and his teacher proclaimed “Chris marches to a different drummer.” Page 107 Chapter 11.
8. One instance of Chris’s youth that showed his adult behavior was that he was an introvert, and enjoyed being alone, yet despite this he was still charismatic and friendly with people. “Even when we were little”. Says Carine, who was born three years after Chris, “He was very to himself. He wasn’t antisocial-he always had friends and everybody liked him. . . . He could be alone without being lonely.” Page 107 Chapter 11. Another example was when he was in Colorado when hiking he came across a dangerous route. “I had it, OK,” Walt explains, “But Chris wanted to keep going to the top” Page 109 Chapter 11. In this quote the behavior of Chris’s stubbornness is displayed as well as his inability to know when to stop.
9.

The McCandless family all loved and cared about Chris deeply. The McCandless family was constantly distressed over Chris and the choices he made I life, as they knew they could not change his mind on any decision no matter how much they resented said decision. As shown in the book, “And then he left on his trip. . . We had our hearts in our mouths the whole time he was gone, but there was no way to stop him.” Page 118 Chapter 12. These quotes showed the constant worry they had over Chris fully knowing they could not change him. Chris’s feeling about his family weren’t as strong in return. Chris was more distant from his parents, Chris eventually grew a distaste for his parents when he discovered that his father never told him about his previous marriage. “He seemed mad at us more often, but he wouldn’t tell us what was on his mind and spent more time by himself.” Page 121 Chapter 12. Thoreau’s quote is similar to Chris’s viewpoint as Thoreau’s quote talks about lack of truth, which is why Chris is upset with Walt, lack of truth from his previous

marriage.
10. The Author Jon Krakauer has experiences similar to Chris and finds him easier to relate too. Like Chris Krakauer had ventured to the Alaskan bush at a young age, only one year younger then Chris when he went to Alaska. But instead of attempting to live in the wild and start a new life like Chris, he ventured to Alaska to climb a wall called the “Thumb” a wall that had never been climbed before. He similar to Chris had traveled there alone, and even knowing it was dangerous, he decided to climb the wall. “I was dimly aware that I might be getting in over my head.” Page 135 Chapter 14. The author Jon had shared the same bullheadedness that the late Chris had. The author Jon sharing a similar experience with adds to the story as we now know why Krakauer was so interested in writing this story, and how he can relate to Chris.
11. Chris was convinced on heading back to civilization after two months of living in the wild. One reason Chris was set on returning to civilization is that he sated his need to be in solitary, and was prepared to forgive his parents. “He seemed to separate himself from his parents. Maybe he was prepared to forgive their imperfections,” Page 168 Chapter 16 Another reason Chris had decided in was time to return was when he was in the wild he learned the meaning to happiness, after reading one of his novels. “He [Tolstoy] was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others. . .” Page 169 Chapter 16
12. One example where Chris demonstrated his desire to go onto reckless pursuits was on Page 179 Chapter 17 when in reference to Chris’s favorite song “Two years he walks the earth. . . .Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. . .” Another example where Chris exhibits this behavior is on Page 180 Chapter 17 “By design McCandless came into this country with insufficient provisions” this quote truly display how reckless Chris was on his adventure. McCandless would have most likely seen eye-to-eye with the author Jon Krakauer, seeing as how throughout this book Krakauer writes showing that Chris was drawn to reckless things. Last of all, I compare McCandless viewpoint with Andy Horowitz. Andy’s view was how, “In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map.” Andy had the viewpoint that Chris was born in the wrong time period.
13. I am on the viewpoint where I disagree with the author. The Author Krakauer may believe that Chris’s life was full of meaning but I do not. Throughout the story we read Chris’s experiences on his great journey. Referring back to Chapter 16 Page 168,” I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun.” In this passage that Chris wrote it explicitly states that in his time in the wild life he learned meaning in his own life. Again referring back to chapter 16 Page 169 “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others. . .” Here in this quote Chris finds true meaning and purpose in himself knowing what he must now do in life. Chris learned meaning on his expedition into the wild.
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15. I most definitely believe that it is Chris’s own fault that he died. Chris was alone when he was in the wild, his inability to survive in the Alaskan bush lead to his demise. There can be no one else to even place the blame on for his death. Nature is not to be blamed as Chris was the one who voyaged into the wild, but could not survive. Even with the potato seeds, he bought in South Dakota he neglected to plant them. “McCandless never got around to planting the garden . . . grown hungry enough to eat the potato seeds, which poisoned him.” Page 190 Chapter 18.