Into the Wild Reading Assignment #5: Chapters 16-17

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Into the Wild Reading Assignment #5: Chapters 16-17

1. How did McCandless get to Alaska?

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2. Who brought McCandless there and why was it a risky move? What eventually convinced him to bring him?

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3. What supplies did McCandless pick up in Anchorage before he set out on the final leg of his journey?

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4. What is an allusion? (look it up)

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5. What does “crossing his Rubicon” mean? What is it an allusion to?

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6. Discuss McCandless’ “Declaration of Independence” on p. 163 (“The Alaska Interior”) and how does it provide a climax to “Alex’s” journey.

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7. In the last week of May, after moving his few possessions into the bus, McCandless wrote a list of housekeeping chores down. What are they?

8. Explain the hunting disaster and what happened: what did he kill? Why was it a disaster?

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Into the WildReading Assignment #6: Chapters 18 and Epilogue

1. The epigraph in “The Stampede Trail” is critical. Make direct connections from the epigraph to the chapter.

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2. Summarize the tragic circumstances that are discussed in “The Stampede Trail” (Chapter 18).

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3. How does the Doctor Zhivago quote that opens the chapter foreshadow McCandless’ actions and writings later in the chapter? Cite two specific examples using quotations from the text.

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4. Do you believe McCandless is to blame for his own death? Explain your answer using two specific details from the chapter. Use quotations to support your response.

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Into the Wild: Post-Reading Questions

1. What is Chris McCandless’ view of college? Why does he feel the way he does? How is it similar to or different from the view you currently hold of college?

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2. What part do class tensions (money and inequality) play in McCandless’ decisions? Why did he give up his inheritance? Why did he give it to Oxfam? If you had money and decided to give it away, what organization or individuals might you give it to? Why?

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3. What do you make of McCandless’s farewell note? What does it convey about how his thinking may or may not have changed since he went into the woods?

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4. Is there anything in your life you have ever felt so passionately about that you have been willing to undertake great hardships to pursue it? If so, explain it. If not, what would it take for you to feel passionate enough to undertake such hardships?

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6. The way a book is written as much as the story itself may be what engages and holds readers. If you found the book compelling, what about Krakauer’s writing made it so? If the book did not captivate you, what about the writing was unappealing?

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Books Mentioned in Into the Wild
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. 1903.
London, Jack. White Fang. 1906.
Muir, John. The Mountains of California. 1898.
Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich. Doctor Zhivago. 1958.
Shepard, Paul. Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature. 1967.
Stegner, Wallace. The American West as Living Space. 1987.
Storr, Anthony. Solitude: A Return to the Self. 1988.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or Life in the Woods. 1854.
Tolstoy, Leo Graf. War and Peace. 1862-69.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1884.