75 pages • 2 hours read
Jon KrakauerInto The Wild
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Author’s Note-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Author’s Note Summary
In 1992 a young man named Christopher Johnson McCandless journeyed into the Alaskan wilderness and was found dead four months later. Jon Krakauer wrote an article for Outside magazine about the incident in 1993 but remained interested in the story long after it was published. After spending a year retracing McCandless’s journey, Krakauer wrote Into the Wild.
Krakauer warns the reader that he is not an “impartial biographer” (ii). McCandless’s story is personal for him. Though many people wrote mail to Outside magazine calling McCandless reckless and naive, Krakauer makes it clear that he does not think McCandless was as foolish as many people believe.
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Alaska Interior”
Jim Gallien spots a hitchhiker shortly after leaving Fairbanks and picks him up. The young man says his name is Alex. He’d like a ride to the border of Denali National Park, where he plans on walking into the woods to live alone for a period. After talking for some time, Jim Gallien finds Alex to be friendly but also thinks he is unprepared to live in the wild. He does not seem to have the gear necessary for long-term survival in the harsh terrain.
Alex points on a map to a route outside the coal-mining town of Healy that he intends to hike. It’s called the Stampede Trail. Gallien tries to dissuade him from embarking on his dangerous adventure. He offers to buy Alex some better gear, but Alex declines. When they reach the Stampede Trail, Gallien drives 10 miles in. Alex offers Gallien some loose change and a watch, while Gallien gives Alex some rubber boots and a couple of sandwiches. Standing at the trailhead, Gallien takes a picture of Alex on Alex’s camera, and then Alex walks down the trail. It is April 28, 1992.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Stampede Trail”
The Stampede Trail was created in 1930 by an Alaskan miner named Earl Pilgrim. In the 1960s a construction company left three buses on the trail to house workers, but ultimately only one bus was left behind. In September 1992 three separate groups of people happen upon this bus on the same day.
One group is made up of three hunters, Thomspon, Samel, and Swanson. When they arrive at the bus, they find a couple already there, standing near the bus and looking afraid. There is a bad smell coming from the bus’s interior. An SOS note is taped to the door, pleading for help if anyone arrives. One of the hunters, Samel, looks inside the bus and sees a blue sleeping bag with Chris McCandless’s body inside.
While the parties decide how to evacuate the body, a man with a radio named Killian arrives at the bus. Killian calls the Healy power plant and advises them to call the police, who come the following morning and take McCandless’s remains. An autopsy is performed on the body in Anchorage, and starvation is determined to be the most likely cause of death.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Carthage”
In the fall of 1990 Wayne Westerberg picks up a hitchhiker in Montana named Alex McCandless. Westerberg takes a liking to Alex and invites him to work at his grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota. Alex works hard and doesn’t shy away from difficult or dirty jobs. While reviewing tax forms, Westerberg discovers that Alex’s name is actually Chris, but he doesn’t pry into Alex’s history.
McCandless lives with several others at Westerberg’s home in Carthage. He enjoys it there. Before he leaves, he gives Westerberg an edition of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. After his time in Carthage, McCandless has his mail forwarded to Westerberg’s address and begins telling people he is from South Dakota.
In actuality, Chris McCandless was from Annandale, Virginia. His father, Walt, was an aerospace engineer for NASA. In the spring of 1990 Chris graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a 3.72 grade-point average. Shortly after graduating, he donated a $24,000 bequest to a charity called OXFAM America. From Atlanta, in June, Chris mailed his parents a transcript of his grades and a brief note, but they did not hear from him afterward. By August, his parents were concerned and drove down to Atlanta, where they found his apartment vacant. Chris had left five weeks earlier. To further separate himself from his old life, Chris started calling himself Alexander Supertramp.
Author’s Note-Chapter 3 Analysis
The thesis of the book is stated in the Author’s Note, where Krakauer declares that he will “not be an impartial biographer” (ii). The Outside magazine article about McCandless inspired a passionate outpouring of responses. Many people admired him, but many more found him to be naïve, foolish, arrogant, or suicidal. This dichotomy in the way people responded to McCandless’s story was crucial to shaping the narrative in Into the Wild, as it allowed Krakauer to establish an argument and defend it throughout the book. Krakauer’s argument is that McCandless’s life was worth celebrating, and that his death was a tragedy worth studying, grieving, and reflecting on. Krakauer believes that those who think McCandless was merely suicidal or ignorant are wrong.
As Into the Wild progresses, Krakauer presents more evidence that McCandless was a person worth remembering and celebrating. Following the Author’s Note, the narrative begins from the point of view of Jim Gallien, one of several people who gave McCandless a ride during his journey. Krakauer begins this way for several reasons. For one, it puts the reader in the present, right alongside McCandless as he travels. This helps the reader empathize with McCandless and understand his attraction to the open road. Beginning the narrative from Gallien’s point of view also allows Krakauer to characterize McCandless through the eyes of an unbiased stranger. Gallien had neither seen nor met McCandless before giving him a ride, but he came away from their brief encounter liking McCandless. In this way Gallien provides evidence for Krakauer’s thesis that McCandless was a charismatic person who left positive impressions on people.
Chapter 3 functions in a similar way, providing another snapshot of McCandless through the eyes of Wayne Westerberg, who not only found McCandless likable but also a diligent worker. Westerberg’s testimony bolsters Krakauer’s argument that McCandless was not lazy or incompetent but actually hardworking and capable.
Related Titles
By Jon Krakauer
