Half Way Through Into the Wild

1. Chris McCandless is from “a well –to-do East coast family” and graduated from Emory University with honors in the summer of 1990. He hitchhiked to Alaska and went into the wilderness alone north of Mt. McKinley. ( 1^st page of Author’s Note)


2. Jon Krauer presents three different themes in the “Author’s Note”

1.      The grip wilderness has on the American imagination

2.      The allure high-risk activities  hold for young men of a certain mind

3.      The complicated, highly charged bond that exists between fathers and sons

(2^nd page of “Author’s Note”)  

3.  The quoted material in the beginning of chapter one is to show that Chris actually still has people he cares about greatly. It also shows that Chris does know what this trip might do to him. (page 1)

4. Alex is the name that Chris McCandell changed his name to when he started this journey to Alaska. He says that ‘Alex’ is from South Dakota and is 24 years old. (page 4)

5. McCandless and Gallien meet when McCandless is trying to hitch hike his way to “as far as the edge of Denali National Park”. (page 4)

6. At first Gallien thinks that Alex is stupid and doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. But then after talking to him for a while he realizes that Alex is actually pretty well educated but still he doesn't believe that Alex is ready for the adventure that lies ahead of him.  (page 4-7)

7.Gallien tell McCandless that he shouldn’t really do this but McCandless doesn’t want to give in and he has his mind set on doing this. So, Gallien tries to give him some food, boots and better supplies then the few things McCandless has. ( page 6-7)

8. When Galline offered to buy McCandless some better supplies he is very stubborn and didn't want to have him give him anything. But instead Gallien gave McCandless some boots that were too big and his lunch. (page 7)

9.  Galline decided not to alert the authorities about Mccandless because he thought that after 2 days of being tired and hungry he would just walk out to the highway and give up on this huge adventure he had planned because he found out it was too hard. ( page 7)

10. It is ironic because we know that when Mccandless started getting hungry he didn't walk back to the highway he just kept walking on deeper and deeper into the wild. So, according to Gallien he isn’t a normal person.

11.Krakauer put the quote in the beging of the chapter from Jack London because  Jack London wrote many books about the Alaskan Wilderness. Also, at the sight of Chris McCandless’s death they found a piece of wood that had “Jack London is King” carved into it.  (page 9)

12. It showed just how far McCandless went and how it would've been almost impossible to turn around from where he was at his condition. It aslo showed all of the hard things Chris had to go through to get there.

13.The cause of Chris McCandless’s death was form injury, starvation and weakness. They think it was mostly from starvation though.  (page 14)  

 14. Wayne and Chris got along very well. Chris had actually given a job to Chris and they first met when Wayne pulled over and picked up the hitchhiker that was Chris. (10 -11)

15. A rubber tramp is someone who has a car and a leather tramp in someone who doesn't have a car so they result to having to hitchhike or walk everywhere.  And they describe the culture of Saco Hot Springs.  (17)

16.The author said that because he started to live there and actually liked the family he lived with. Chris also found a job in Westerberg that helped him earn money

17. Westerberg had been caught up with the law so there was no work for McCandless. So, Chris decided to continue his adventure and leave Carthage. (19)

18.We know that is important because it says “he gave Westerberg a treasured 1942 edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Chris obviously cared for Wayne and he gave the book to Wayne before he left.

19. Chris was raised in an upper-middle class home in Annandale, Virginia. Walt, Chris’ father, was an eminent aerospace engineer. Chris’s mothers name is Billie and she was a work partner with Walt. There was eight children in Chris’s extended family and he was especially close with Carine, a younger sister. (20)

20. One clue was that he thought he had a perfectly good car that could go anywhere yet his parents wanted to buy him a new car. He tried to tell them that he didn't want a new car, which is strange for someone to say. He also lived off campus in college with a thin mattress, a table and some milk carts.  (21)

21. Chris McCadless changed his name to Alex Supertramp. This showed that he wanted to make a completely new life for himself. (23)

22.Chris just wants to get away his life, his family and everything. So he went to the desert

  to ‘find himself’ (26)

23. Jan Burres met Chris when they saw him scavenging for berries on the side of the road. Chris also stayed with Jan in the Slabs for a while before he felt like je needed to continue his journey.(30)

24.   Chris bought a canoe from a second hand store to try to paddle it down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California, but ended up getting frustrated and left the canoe “on a hummock of dune grass south east of El Golfo de Santa Clara.”(32-36)

25. He is almost as if he is writing a story about someone else. It is very detailed and has ‘he and his’ in it. (34-35)

26. He realizes that he is far from what he used to be when he first set out for his adventure. He also realizes that since he hasn't been around people very much he now feels awkward around other people.

  (37)

27. Chris lived a life that was very boring, yet semi-permanent, in Bullhead City. He told people his name was actually Chris McCandless not Alex Supertramp, and he actually went as far creating a savings account in the local bank. He also had a steady job at McDonalds, where he went to Chris. (39-40)

28.Many of the people that lived at the Slab were roamers, like Chris. All of the people at the Slab all really took a liking to Chris. When he left after a couple of months many people missed him. (43)

29.She said that he was extremely likable and very good worker. He made many friends at the Slab. (45)

30.She thought that since he figured out how to do everything and survive this long that he should be able to figure out how to survive in Alaska too. (46) 

32. Anza-Borrego is a Desert state park. (48)

33. While he was overseas on New Year’s Eve, his wife and son were both killed by a drunk driver. (50)

34. Franz became very attached to Chris and he really wanted him to stop all of this moving around, settle down, find a job, and get education. (51)

35. He says that throughout McCandless’ adventure he tries to not become too attached to people. Yes he become friends with people, but he tries to not be too close to them, to make it easier for both of them when he leaves. (55)

36. He says that throughout McCandless’ adventure he tries to not become too attached to people. Yes he become friends with people, but he tries to not be too close to them, to make it easier for both of them when he leaves. (55)

37. McCandless strongly suggested that Franz should move out of his apartment, buy a camper and go see the world. Since Franz thought do highly of McCandless he listen to him and did exactly what he told him. (56-58)

38. He learned from two hitchhikers that he picked up. They told him that Chris had been dead for a while. As soon as he found out he completely stopped believing in God and started drinking again. When his son and wife died he became a huge church person and he completely stopped drinking, so this change was a very drastic one for him. (60)

39.He was annoyed because he had been working too many eighteen-hour-days and because his business was very shorthanded so they had to work extra hard. (62)

40. The author said that since both the son (Chris) and father (Walt) were high strung and stubborn it was obvious why they didn't get along very well. Also, Chris has more of an independent nature and his father always felt the need to control him, which Chris did not like. But, Chris had a very strong relationship with his younger sister, Carine. They were very close and he talked about her a lot. (64)

41. Gene was a lot like Chris. He was an excellent student, had money, was a great athlete, he had everything going for him, but then out of nowhere he decided to go try and live off the land and ends up dying. This story of Gene Rossellini is extremely similar to Chris McCandless’ story (73-75)

42. It was to show that this, again, was very much like Chris’ story. It also said in the beginning that John did not get very much recognition for this travels and his adventures he had. (75-80)

43. It shows once again that McCunn and McCandless’ story are very similar. And it shows that Chris McCandless was not the only person to try to live in the wild in Alaska. (80-84)

44. Everett really loved the beauty of nature. That is the reason why he went out on the wild in the first place. The first time he went hitchhiking and trekking was in the summer of 1930 and since then he was hooked. By the end of the summer he returned home, but not for long. A short while after He returned home he went back into the wild, he started to despise the entire world and thought that any other way of living besides the way he was living, was stupid and pointless. Everett basically disappeared and no one has seen him since. (90-92)

45. Sleight said “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again. And that’s what Everett was doing.”  He is saying that Everett is very much like McCandless because they both don’t necessarily like to be alone for too long, so whenever the get lonely they find someone to live with for a while and then before they become to attached to them they leave again. Chris has done this with many people: Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg are just two examples. (96)