Into the Wild Novel Study

Assignment Overview

·  Insert this handout into the front of your Into the Wild journal.

·  Students will read all chapters and epilogue from Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (except Chapters 14 & 15). DUE DATES:

o  Read through p. 60 by Friday, 11/4

o  Read through p. 132, by Friday, 11/11

o  Read pages 157-207 by Friday, 11/18

·  Students will sign up (alone or with a partner) to provide a summary of a chapter to the class. This should be a 1-2 slide PowerPoint presentation (approximately 3 minutes).

·  Students will maintain a journal and annotate as they read. The student’s journal and novel will be graded twice randomly during the course of the assignment.

o  Each journal entry will contain the following:

§  A chapter summary (your own or those presented in class).

§  Vocabulary words with definitions for terms unfamiliar to the student

§  The student’s response to guiding questions provided by the teacher. Responses should be in complete sentences. No sentence should begin with a pronoun unless the student has already introduced the antecedent).

o  Novels will be graded for the following:

§  Circling of unfamiliar words (these will be defined in your journal)

§  Highlighting of key themes

·  GREEN – the appeal of the wilderness to the American imagination.

·  YELLOW – the allure of high risk activities for young adults

·  PINK – the relationship between fathers and sons

·  Upon finishing the novel, students will participate in small group discussions for which they will receive a grade based on their knowledge of the book and participation in the discussion.

·  Students will have an in-class timed essay at the completion of the novel study. The topics for the essay will be provided to the students in advance and students may choose their preferred writing topic.

·  Students will also take a final unit test on the novel.

Sections & Response Questions

·  Author’s Notes

  1. What motives might have Chris McCandless had for his behavior?
  2. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages in choosing to invent a new life for oneself?
  3. Is the author unbiased? Explain.
  4. Based on Krakauer’s description of McCandless, what is your impression of McCandless? Provide specific words used by the author and cite the page number.
  5. Share a time when you tried to do something outside of your comfort zone. Where were you? How did you feel? How did you keep going when you wanted to give up or did you give up? What did you learn about yourself through this experience?

·  Chapter 1

“Alaska had long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing” (Krakauer, 4). What do you think ‘unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier’ means? What is the LastFrontier? Why might it be called the Last Frontier? What does this passage make you predict/foreshadow for the rest of the book? How do this quote and its word choice characterize McCandless, even though McCandless isn’t directly mentioned here?

·  Chapter 2

a.  Each chapter begins with an epigraph (a quotation that is relevant to the chapter). How is this chapter’s epigraph relevant to this chapter?

b.  If you were to give yourself a new name, what would it be? Why did you pick that name? What would you want to be different about your life or outlook on it when you have this new name?

·  Chapter 3

a.  How would characterize Chris’s relations with other people: his parents, his sister, Westerberg?

b.  What did his friends make of his secretive life?

·  Chapter 4 (after also reading “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau). Krakauer writes, “McCandless could endeavor to explain that he answered to statutes of a higher order – that as a latter-day adherent of Henry David Thoreau, he took as gospel the essay ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’…” (28).

a.  What does it mean to be a “latter-day adherent of Henry David Thoreau”?

b.  So far, what actions has Chris taken that agree with Transcendentalist ideals? Use direct quotes from chapter 4 to support your claim.

·  Chapter 5

Read the following poem “Of Man of the Future” by Jack London.

Of man of the future! Who is able to describe him?

Perhaps he breaks our globe into fragments

In a time of warlike games

Perhaps he hurls death through the firmament.

Man of the future! He is able to aim at the stars

And to travel in space among the planets.

Choose a quote from chapter 5 that illustrates McCandless as “Man of the future.” Write an explanation as to why you chose that excerpt. In your explanation, use 2-3 adjectives that describe McCandless at this point in the novel.

·  Chapter 6

Re-read Thoreau’s essay “On Civil Disobedience” and “Self-Reliance” Then re-read Chris’s letter to Franz (p. 56-57). Choose two quotes from this chapter that highlight an idea from either essay by Thoreau. Explain why you chose these two quotes as examples.

·  Chapter 7

  1. Working with a partner, choose two characters to review. Each student in the partner pair should review one character while the other student reviews the 2nd character. Share your review with your partner and make sure to take notes on each.
  2. After sharing your character reviews with your partner, compare and contrast the depictions of Chris as presented by two different characters. What is similar about how the two characters view him? What is different? What role do you think Krakauer plays in sharing the viewpoints of different characters?

·  Chapter 8 & 9

  1. Create an outline to help organize the names of the individuals Krakauer introduces in these chapters.
  2. What can we infer about these types of adventure seekers or Alaskan voyagers in history? What qualities do they have in common?

·  Chapter 10 & 11

How does your reading about Chris’s family life at this point in the novel change your perception of him? How would your perspective of him been if this chapter had been first in the book? Now that you have a better idea of his journey from childhood to adulthood, what do you think were some driving influences that inspired Chris to go into the wild?

·  Chapter 12 & 13

Write a fictional dialogue between Chris and any of the other characters presented in Chapters 12 & 13. The dialogue should illustrate the ways in which you perceive Chris to speak or behave based on your reading thus far. You may want to write about a specific action, a memory he may have, or an emotional response to something or someone.

SKIP CHAPTERS 14 & 15

·  Chapter 16

  1. Read Carnie’s Letter. Why is Carnie upset with her parents? What role did she play in advancing a false image of her family and her in the novel, Into the Wild? What new information surprised you about the McCandless family story?
  2. After reading this letter, describe your previous understanding of why Chris ‘went into the wild’ and how it may be different now that you’ve learned more from Carnie’s point of view.

·  Chapter 17 & 18

Assess the statement, “Happiness is only real when shared.” What does this say about Chris’s transition throughout the novel? How does it speak to his journey? What do you think influenced him to say this? What does Krakauer suggest this might mean for Chris and most importantly, what does it mean to you?

·  Epilogue

Consider the statement Billie McCandless makes about her: “I don’t know that you ever get over this kind of loss. The fact that Chris is gone is a sharp hurt I feel every day.” In your opinion, where does one’s responsibility for one’s own happiness end and responsibility for others begin? Give examples from the text and/or from your own life to explain your thinking.