AP Language and Composition s2

Into the Wild Study Guide 1

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer study guide

Character Identification

1. Jan Burress

2. Chris/Alex

3. Walt

4. Billie

****************************************************************************************************** 5. Jon Krakauer

6. Carine

7. Ron Franz

8. Jim Gallien

9. Wayne Westerberg

10. “The desert sky is encircling, majestic, terrible.” The underlined portion is an example of

11. The tone of McCandless’s journal was often

12. “The Slabs” was:

13. Something that surprised Wayne Westerberg on McCandless’s final night in Carthage was

14. Krakauer gives examples of other adventurers whose lives paralleled that of Chris McCandless. Carl McCunn, a 35-year-old amateur photographer died:

15. Wayne Westerberg was able to help the Alaska State Troopers identify Chris McCandless

16. Billie thought it was ironic that McCandless believed that “wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil” because

17. The title of the book, Into the Wild, comes from

18. “The siren song of the void puts you on edge” is an example of

19. When Krakauer attempted to climb Devil’s Thumb, what stopped him from climbing the north wall?

20. When McCandless crossed the Teklanika River, the author writes, “he was crossing his Rubicon.” What does this phrase mean?

21. McCandless was determined “to become lost in the wild.” What was ironic, then, about his sojourn at the bus? Into the Wild Study Guide 2

22. What happened when McCandless attempted to return to civilization from the Stampede Trail?

23. The author compares McCandless’s “sin of arrogance” with that of which author?

24. Most of McCandless’s journal entries written during the time he lived in the wild are about

25. What does Billie McCandless leave at the bus?

26. To what charity did Chris donate his school fund? Why is this ironic?

27. What does Ron Franz do as a result of Chris’ advice to him?

28. What sort of relationship does Chris’ have with his father?

29. What particular talent does McCandless display while with the Burress family at the swap meet and again at a bar with Westerberg and crew?

30. What happens to McCandless’ yellow Datsun?

31. Ron Franz taught McCandless

32. What did McCandless do when he worked for Wayne Westerberg

33. Jon Krakauer suggests that McCandless considered Westerberg a friend; this conclusion is based, in part, on the fact that:

34. The journal McCandless kept in Mexico was written in what point of view?

35. Oh-My-God Hot Springs

36. When the newspapers ran stories about the dead hiker

37. In the following sentence the word enigmatic can best be defined as: “When they flew away, they took McCandless’s remains, a camera with five rolls of exposed film, the SOS note, and a diary –written across the last two pages of a field guide to edible plants—that recorded the young man’s final weeks in 113 terse, enigmatic entries” (13).

38. In the following except the sentence “I’m going to let them think they are right…” is an example of:

Since they won't ever take me seriously, for a few months after graduation I'm going to let them think they are right, I'm going to let them think that I'm “coming around to see their side of things” and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time in right, with one abrupt, swift action I’m going to completely knock them out of my life. I’m going to divorce Into the Wild Study Guide 3

them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live. I’ll be through with them once and for all, forever (64).

40. What is the function of the author telling the reader about Everett Ruess’ carving “NEMO 1934” on a stone wall?

41. What is the purpose for McCandless’ overuse of fragments throughout his declaration below?

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.

Alexander Supertramp May 1992

42. According to Westerberg, “[McCandless] tried too hard to make sense of the world” (18). This most clearly magnifies the Transcendental priority to pursue ______.

44. McCandless believes that monetary wealth is:

45. What is Krakauer’s purpose in exposing other stories of people- like Rosellini and Waterman- that sought the wild by wandering away from mainstream society?

46. McCandless’ name-change to “Supertramp” most accurately symbolizes which of the following?

47. Krakauer loosely calls McCandless a “pilgrim” (85). Why is this an apt term?

Directions: Read the “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman and the letter written by Chris “Alex” McCandless published in Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Answer the questions 48, 49, & 50

48. What is the primary theme that resonates in both Whitman’s poem and McCandless’ letter?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alex here.

I have been working up here in Carthage South Dakota for nearly two weeks now. I arrived up here three days after we parted in Grand Junction, Colorado. I hope that you made it back to Salton City without too many problems. I enjoy working here and things are going well. The weather is not very bad and many days are surprisingly mild. Some of the farmers are even already going out into their fields. It must be getting rather hot down there in Southern California by now. I wonder if you ever got a chance to get out and see how many people showed up for the March 20 Rainbow gathering there at the hot springs. It sounds like it might have been a lot of fun, but I don’t think you really understand these kind of people very well.

I will not be here in South Dakota very much longer. My friend, Wayne, wants me to stay working at the grain elevator through May and then go combining with him the entire summer, but I have my soul set entirely on my Alaskan Odyssey and hope to be on my way no later than April 15. That means I will be leaving here before very long, so I need you to send any more mail I may have received to the return address listed below.

Into the Wild Study Guide 4

Ron, I really enjoy all the help you have given me and the times that we spent together. I hope that you will not be too depressed by our parting. It may be a very long time before we see each other again. But providing that I get through this Alaskan Deal in one piece you will be hearing from me again in the future. I’d like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover. Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.

My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.

Ron, I really hope that as soon as you can you will get out of Salton City, put a little camper on the back of your pickup, and start seeing some of the great work that God has done here in the American West. You will see things and meet people and there is much to learn from them. And you must do it economy style, no motels, do your own cooking, as a general rule spend as little as possible and you will enjoy it much more immensely. I hope that the next time I see you, you will be a new man with a vast array of new adventures and experiences behind you. Don’t hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did.

TAKE CARE RON, ALEX Please write back to: Alex McCandless, Madison, SD 57042 Into the Wild Study Guide 5

Directions: Read the “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman and the letter written by Chris “Alex” McCandless published in Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Answer the questions following to the best of your ability.

Song of Myself

1 same, I I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, receive them the same. And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of you. graves.

I loafe and invite my soul, Tenderly will I use you curling grass, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, summer grass. It may be if I had known them I would have loved My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this them, soil, this air, It may be you are from old people, or from offspring Born here of parents born here from parents the same, taken soon out and their of their mothers' laps, parents the same, And here you are the mothers' laps. I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, Creeds and schools in abeyance, Darker than the colorless beards of old men, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues, hazard, And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of Nature without check with original energy. mouths for nothing. 6 A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young full hands; men and How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is women, any more And the hints about old men and mothers, and the than he. offspring taken soon out of their laps. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green What do you think has become of the young and old stuff woven. men? And what do you think has become of the women and Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, children? A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, They are alive and well somewhere, that we may see The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, and remark, and say Whose? And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe end to arrest it, of the And ceas'd the moment life appear'd. vegetation. All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, And to die is different from what any one supposed, And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and and luckier. narrow zones, Growing among black folks as among white, 52 Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he Into the Wild Study Guide 6 complains of my gab I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I and my loitering. love, If you want me again look for me under your boot- I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, soles. I sound my barbaric yaws over the roofs of the world. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, The last scud of day holds back for me, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on And filter and fibre your blood. the shadow'd wilds, Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk. Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.