In 1992, a young man wandered into the Alaskan wilderness to live for four months off the land. He'd dared such adventures before, but never anything on this scale. It was to be his final grand adventure.
Four months later his body was found.
I teach Into Thin Air by Jon Krakaeur every year to my ELA 30-2 students. Most of them enjoy it. We have great conversations about the crazy connection man has with nature, and that juxtaposition of trying to overcome it while also surrendering to it.
This theme is again explored in Krakaeur's Into The Wild.
Well, this and other themes, of course. But that's still far too teachery for summer time, so let's ignore thematic analysis and stick to the review.
This nonfiction book is still quite easy to read. Every chapter opens with a quotation, about the wild, or daring, or some piece that the protagonist, Chrisstopher McCandless, reported to find inspirational or motivational.
The book takes turns in exploring stories of young men who shove off society, as well as looking at McCandless' life prior to and during his adventure. It does jump around, but it is also easy to follow and read and understand.
The author even intersperses his own personal connections into the text, namely his experieces climbing. He identifies with some aspects of what McCandless seems to be after. Indeed, there is something... interesting about the ideals that McCandless embraces. This concept of inner strength and connection with nature.
But there is also something decidedly... entitled about it. Perhaps that isn't fair, but it also isn't inaccurate.
Anyway, Krakaeur explores what makes an upper-middle-class young man shove off from his family and all his friends and go off into the wilderness as a test to himself. It is idealistic, yes. McCandless had a problem with consumerism, with the strictures and confines of societal expectations.
He also apparently had a problem with his father, though that seems more rooted in the problems he had with his own self and the life he found so unsatisfactory.
Before you think I'm terribly against McCandless and everything he stood for, I'm not.
When someone is unhappy in his or her life, I have a problem with continuing along in unhappiness, content to be miserable and just complain.
At least McCandless attempted to dare great things.
Was he shortsighted? Sure. But that was also part of the point. He was smaller than the wild, smaller than nature and the great things he tried. He held his own for a while, and then succumbed to his smallness.
Had he not abandoned his family as he did, had he not looked down on his life, I'd have more sympathy for him. Had he been honest with his unhappiness with the people who loved him so well, before leaving, before burning his money and wandering off into the wild, then yes, I would think higher of him. But in his great searching for something great, for himself, he ran away.
Running away was not brave or strong or any of the things he wanted to be. He wasn't truly independent if he was merely escaping. He had those moments, of course, and had he been honest with his family, I would be more moved by what he did, by what he attempted. But daring without honesty is not integrity.
He was partway there.
He dared, at least.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is one of those books everyone probably should read, not as a cautionary tale, not as an inspirational tale, but rather, as a story of one young man, and others like him.
What makes some people do things that others perceive as crazy? This book offers some explanations, but no answers, because there really is no one answer.
So there you have it, a rambling review of my thoughts of Into The Wild. And while I may not have been inspired to throw off society and go live in the Alaskan wilderness by reading this book, it did speak to me, and for that, it gets my recommendations.
What do you think of the idea of people who abandon society to live on their own in the wild, or who challenge themselves physically and mentally on their own in nature? Would you ever be tempted to leave it all and walk into the wild?
I'd love to read your comments, below, on this book or the subject (or any other, really!) and don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter, that comes out the first Tuesday every month.