English 101 Discussion Guide #3—Into the Wild ______

(pages—103-end) Name

If you are responding to this discussion guide as part of a small group, write the names of the other group members here.

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1. “At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute—life or truth or beauty—of being ruled by it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly that you had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good.”

This passage is from the novel Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, used by Krakauer as the epigraph to begin Chapter Eleven. Chris had written “need for a purpose” above the passage. How useful is to commit yourself to “something absolute” in living your life? Is it useful enough to just pick something, some belief, even if you have no particular reason—no hard evidence--for picking it over some other belief? Why?

2. At the bottom of page 107, we learn that there was friction between Chris’s parents. In what way might that have been a contributing factor to Chris’s personal development? On the next page we learn about Chris’s grandfather. How does he figure into Chris’s life? Referring to Chris’s discovery about his father’s first marriage and the slow, complicated divorce that followed, Krakauer writes, “Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents …” (122). To what extent is Chris’s father to blame for the way Chris turned out? To what extent are any of our parents to blame for our weaknesses and failings? At what point do we stop blaming them?

3. Review the account of Chris as a distance runner on page 112. What does this add to the picture of Chris’s personality that we haven’t seen before?

4. What further insight into Chris’s character can be gained from the information regarding his interest in prostitutes and homeless people described on page 113? Is it simply altruism, or is there something more to it? What usually motivates people to take an interest in those who are lost or otherwise leading unfortunate lives?

5. We learn at the end of Chapter Eleven that, as a child, Chris had a pronounced entrepreneurial streak. How does that factor into his later disregard for money?

6. Wouldn’t you have expected that Chris would be a Democrat? But he was a Republican. Why?

7. In Chapter Fourteen, we learn that the author, Jon Krakauer, once shared some of Chris’s inclinations, and that he had once undertaken a solo Alaska adventure of his own. Why, in a book about Chris McCandless, does the author tell us so much about himself? In what way does the author’s background affect how he tells Chris’s story? In what way does knowing about the author’s background affect how we view his account of Chris?

8. In describing his attempt to climb the Devils Thumb, Krakauer writes, “Because I was alone, however, even the mundane seemed charged with meaning. The ice looked colder and more mysterious, the sky a cleaner shade of blue. The unnamed peaks towering over the glacier were bigger and comelier and infinitely more menacing than they would have been were I in the company of another person. And my emotions were similarly amplified: The highs were higher; the periods of despair were deeper and darker.” Why would being alone amplify emotions? Is this a state of mind worth seeking? What benefits might come from it?

9. “It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it” (155). Comment on this.

10. The second epigraph beginning Chapter Sixteen refers to the “Romantic” individual. What does “Romantic” mean when used this way? (Look it up.) Are you a Romantic? How do you know?

11. Chris apparently decides it’s time to leave the bus and return to civilization, but discovers that the swollen river prevents him from leaving. The wilderness he sought has trapped him. He writes in his journal, “Disaster …. Rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared” (170). How do you feel about him at this point? Why?

12. On page 182, Krakauer asserts that some young men are naturally drawn to risky behavior, and this is why “it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war.” Is Chris’s obsession with living on the edge similar to the attitude that leads young men to go to war? What’s the difference?

13. On page 189 we learn that Chris had written “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” in his copy of Doctor Zhivago. Does this indicate that Chris had a change of heart just before he died? Is he right?

14. Was this book worth reading? Why or why not?

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