Into the Wild Review

Title of the Book: Into the Wild
Author: Jon Krakauer
Number of Pages: 203
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Review:

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer will either leave you eager to run away into the wild to try something spontaneous, or dead set on simply staying inside with a good book to spark your imagination. The story opens up with a man named Jim Gallien picking up hitchhiker Alex (later revealed as Christopher McCandless) on his journey to Anchorage, Alaska. After leaving his family and friends behind without any notice at all, Christopher McCandless starts out on an expedition into the wilderness to live an adventurous life of exploration and solitude, but only survives four months in the wild before his body was discovered. Krakauer reaches out to several individuals who encountered McCandless on his journey, and follows the events that led up to his sudden death that left the people who knew him shocked.

While the story of Christopher McCandless is quite intriguing itself, Krakauer’s perspective and profound analysis of McCandless’ situation is also fascinating. Krakauer urges the reader to look at McCandless’ decisions of becoming a “tramp” through his eyes because there is something truly enthralling about nature. As someone who spends five days a week in the mountains, I can definitely support that idea. Some people thrive off of their environment, but it’s still important to consider personal safety in order to prevent an ending like McCandless’. Another thing I found quite interesting about the story was how many different and opposing views I got on McCandless because of how many people Krakauer reached out to. It really does encourage the reader to form his/her own opinion.

In the novel, Krakauer uses very sophisticated vocabulary and jargon, though it is still fairly easy to follow along with. He also expresses his opinion in a very respectful manner, one that results in more willingness from the reader to listen and consider. His writing skills made for many memorable moments within the story, including several of the conversations McCandless had with people he got involved with and memories that they had of him. One example would be when McCandless finally surrounded himself with others by getting a job at McDonalds, and one of the big details a lot of the workers there remembered about him was simply that he hated wearing socks.

I would recommend this book to future seniors for this unit because it’s a unique and captivating story. This novel would also be enjoyed by anyone who’s drawn to the wilderness and nature, or even anyone who enjoys stories that uncover some sort of mystery. Into the Wild brings awareness to the dangers of living recklessly like McCandless in such harsh environments, but also honors him and all that he was trying to accomplish for himself. Though I’m not someone who typically gets into nonfiction books, Into the Wild was a compelling read.