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Chapter 13, “Virginia Beach,” p. 127-131
* At the McCandless Virginia Beach home, there is regret that they did not allow Chris to take Carine's dog, Buck, with him.
* Carine is married and long ago reconciled with her parents.
* When word came about Chris, it was Carine and her husband who flew to Alaska to claim Chris's ashes.
* Krakauer suggests that Chris's actions were understandable but not justifiable: “Such bereavement, witnessed at close range, makes even the most eloquent apologia (defense) for high-risk activities ring fatuous (meaningless) and hollow.”
Chapter 14, The Stikine Ice Cap, p. 133-144
* Here is where Krakauer interjects his own experience when at the age of twenty-three, he decides to scale a mountain called the Devils Thumb alone.
* Unable to afford plane fare to village of Petersberg, accessible only by boat or plane, Krakauer abandons his vehicle and goes on a boat as a temporary member of the crew.
* The beauty of the snowy terrain and clear sky is intensified for him, and the towering mountains seem more menacing than they would if he had company.
* Krakauer's joy dissipates when he comes to an impassable section of the northern wall of the mountain and has to descend.
Chapter 15, The Stikine Ice Cap, p. 145-156
* After the failure, Krakauer lost his desire to climb the Thumb, but the prospect of returning in defeat spurs him onward.
* Krakauer describes his father as volatile and brash with deep insecurities which prevented him from ever admitting fault.
* When family secrets came to light revealing his father's weaknesses, Jon could not accept his father's hypocrisy, and he was unable to forgive his father his human weaknesses.
* In spite of many odds, including the stormy weather, Jon reaches the summit of Devil's Thumb.
* His reality sank in from the reactions of others to his feat and he began to change his ideas.
Into the Wild Reading Assignment #8: Chapter 16, “The Alaska Interior”
1. perambulation:
2: ruminate:
3. After Chris was stranded, who took him to Fairbanks?Why was it a risky move? What eventually convinced him to pick up Chris and take him the whole way?
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4. Describe the Teklanika River when Chris crosses it: ______
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What does Krakauer say will happen to the river in two months? What causes this to happen?
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5. Discuss Chris’s “Declaration of Independence” (163) and how it provides a climax to “Alex’s” journey.
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6. List 3 things Chris does over the next six weeks. What (that he did not realize) slows him down?
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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?
Short term / Long term8. Explain the hunting disaster and what happened: what did he kill? Why was it a disaster?
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9. Chris marks a passage from what book that shows he may have been ready to return to civilization? List 2 quotes from this passage that support the idea that he may have been ready to leave the wilderness.
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10. Why isn’t Chris able to leave the wild? ______
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How does he feel by the end of ch. 16? Include a quotation to support your answer: ______
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BONUS:
What is an allusion? (look it up)
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What does “crossing his Rubicon” mean? What is it an allusion to?
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