AP English 11 Honors

AP English 11 Honors

September 2004

Into the Wild Week #1

Style Journal: We will be doing a style journal during this novel. Students should be analyzing at least one key paragraph per chapter. Look at sentence structure, vocabulary, diction, figurative language and other style analysis concepts. This journal is worth 100 points and will be further discussed at a later date.

Study Questions: All study questions should be typed (double-spaced) unless you have a good reason for them not to be. Please use MLA format when answering these questions. Support from the text is always good.

Chapters 1-3:

1) How does Krakauer set up the story? What concepts (or ideas) do we pick up about McCandless’s character?

2) Discuss how the excerpt from London’s White Fang connects to the “Stampede Trail” chapter.

3) Pick one of the excerpts from “Carthage” and discuss its connection to the rest of the chapter. Use support from the text.

4) Pick a particular passage from your style journal and discuss it here, or evaluate one of the speakers in the first three chapters and how Krakauer uses their dialogue to help describe their character.

Chapters 4-9

5) Discuss what Shepard is trying to say based on the excerpt “Man in the Landscape” in “Detrital Wash”. Do not use the remaining text to answer this question.

6) What is revealed about McCandless’s character in “Detrital Wash” and can we find a potential tragic flaw out of this chapter?

7) Discuss Jan Burress’s character in “Bullhead City”

8) Why is McCandless so enamored with Thoreau (Based on the excerpt from “Anza-Borrego”)?

9) What is the irony in McCandless’s letter to Ron in “Anza-Borrego”?

10) How might McCandless be viewed as strange, according to Krakauer in “Carthage” (Chapter 7)?

11) Discuss the excerpt from Edward Hoagland in “Alaska” and how it connects to the overall chapter.

12) Why does McCandless include the stories of other people who go on a life journey (“Alaska”, “Davis Gulch”)

13) Analyze the parallels Krakauer introduces in “Davis Gulch”. How do they strengthen Krakauer’s subtle argument that McCandless is in his right mind his entire journey?