Into the Wild essential questions:

1. What is the American Dream and what is the American Nightmare and how does Chris McCandless fall into either one? Are they mutually exclusive in his case?

How do students’ conceptions of success and failure in any way affect their opinion of him the book and of Chris?

2. From what source do students derive their values and beliefs and how do they help to create the judgments that they have of Chris?

3. What is the allure of the American wilderness and how does it specifically affect Chris? Do students share in any of this draw?

4. How do students define consciousness; do they consider Chris conscious?

5. How do the ideas of those authors used in the allusions at the beginning of most chapters serve to explain Chris and his curious decisions?

6. How does the rather elliptical organizational style of Into the Wild help to express the different shades of Chris’/Krakauer’s story?

7. In what ways have students changed as a result of taking risks?

8. How is reading a work of nonfiction different from reading a work of fiction?

Writing Prompts and Discussion Questions for Into the Wild :

· What experiences have you had being in the wilderness?

· Is there really any wilderness left in America?

· How long have you ever spent without human contact?

· How long have you gone without enjoying the conveniences of civilization?

· Do you consider McCandless heroic? In what sense?

· How would you characterize his trip to Alaska? An escape? A search? A quest?

· Why should we care about Chris McCandless and his fate?

· Why do we seem to have such a fascination with disaster? With ill-fate explorations?

· How do you assess McCandless' impact on others (family and friends)?

· What is the importance of the father-son relationship in this story?

· What is Krakauer's role in McCandless' story? Why does he include his own personal experiences?

· How does McCandless treat the world around him (other people, material possessions, land, nature)?

· What books would you take with you "into the wild"?

· McCandless takes on an alternative identity in his travels. What alternative identity would you assume?

· Re-write the last the paragraph of the story (before the epilogue) to reflect your own conclusions about McCandless.