Into the Wild Study Guide

Into the Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild is a non-fictional account of the wilderness survival and eventual death of Christopher McCandless, a teenager who left home to experience nature's grandeur. The survival of McCandless's journals and the accounts of those he met with on his travels paint a vivid picture of a determined young man wrestling with personal demons through travel. McCandless dies alone in the Alaskan wilderness at the conclusion of the novel.

McCandless makes his way back into the United States, but is caught on the way by immigration, who take his handgun away. This takes place on January 18 and for the next six weeks, he travels the immediate southwest. For a short while he gets an ID and job in L.A., but soon decides against society again and leaves for the Grand Canyon. He writes that he feels much better since leaving back in July. When he finally returns to where he left his car, he finds it gone but is able to retrieve the few things he buried, including his rifle.

He travels to Las Vegas and takes a job in a restaurant, once again burying his things outside the city. For a few weeks he again lives on the street with the homeless until he once again hits the road on May 10, full of joy for the life he is leading.

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