Into the Wild Chapters 1-7 Author’s Note • What does the author’s note tell us? – Timeline and Punchline – Tidbits of the journey/experience – Mistakes will plague the experiment – AsceGcism—deny worldly pleasures for spiritual elevaon – Themes of fathers/sons and young men/ challenges – Interpretaons of Chris McCandless Strategies • Strategies – Start with the end – Open chapters with notes/quotes/excerpts – Nonlinear—jumps in Gme and space— pieces of puzzle—put together fragments like detecGve or psychologist – Language—terse, uGlitarian, concrete imagery, stats/facts/maps/photos, travelogue Chapter 1 • Into the wild (April 28, 1992) • What does first notecard establish? 3 • Jim Gallien – Thoughts on Chris McCandless (Alexander Supertramp) 4 – Problems with journey into the wild 5 – Foreshadow—references to water Chapter 2 • Out of the wild • Reset of Naturalism (Jack London) and Transcendentalism (Henry David Thoreau) • What does Alaska conjure/connote? • Origin of the Fairbanks Bus 142 10 – Stampede Trail between Teklanika River (East) and Sushana River (West) —Pocket of Denali Naonal Park, Outside of Healy Chapter 2 • The discovery (Sept 6, 1992) – Irony – 6 people / 3 parGes – Facts of the end • Blue sleeping bag • 67 pounds • SOS note Chapter 3 • What does the West conjure/connote? • Carthage 15,18 • Cabaret 16 • Wayne Westerberg 16,19 • Revelaons of Chris / Alex – Tramps 17 – Physical 16 – EmoGonal 18 – Familial 19 • Car—Roadtrip/Odyssey—July/Aug 1990 22 Chapter 4 • Southwest journey – July 1990 – February 1991 • What are the associaons of desert? 25 • Fate of yellow Datsun 26 – Guitar – Brush with water and next move – Ironic side story of car 27 Chapter 4 • Reference to Thoreau – What does he mean by “statutes of a higher order” and “moral responsibility?” 28 • Tone of journals 29 – How affects your take on Chris? • Jan Burres and Bob 30 (we will see again) – Look for paern in people Chris meets • Canoeing the Colorado 32 – Trouble geng out / Almost drowns • How do you define meaning in life? 37 Chapter 5 • “The dominant primordial beast” vs “the bourgeois trappings of mainstream America” • Bullhead City 39 – Job at McDonald’s and House at Charlie’s • Niland 43 (December 1991) – The Slabs – Jan and Bob again – Tracy 44 • Irony of Jack London 44 Chapter 6 • Thoreau quote – what’s it mean? 47 • Salton Sea and Oh-My-God Hotsprings 48, 50 • Ronald Franz leger 47 (January 1992) – Backstory 50 – Belt 51 • Chris – 24 years old (Feb 12) 53 – Riding the rails (Missions and Bulls) 53 – Avoids deep emoGonal inGmacy 55 Chapter 6 • Leger to Ron 56 – Advocates “radical change” 57 • Staying vs. moving? • Role of relaonships? – Portrait of Ron 59 – Ron’s view of god – fair? 60 Chapter 7 • Passage on creave people 61 • Wayne Westerberg revisit (Oct 1992) – A foible of Chris 62 – Chris and Walt dynamic 64 – ChasGty and purity of soul and lust of life 65 • Character sketch of Gail Borah 63 • Two final postcards 69 – DicGon and tone .