Into the Wild

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Summary: Book About A Selfish Kid And Potato Seeds Causes Narcolepsy
Review: When I read the summary of Into The Wild on the cover of the book my heart beat a little faster and my hands began to sweat ever so slightly. I had the feeling I was about to dive into a fast paced, vigorously exciting adventure. As I began to read the book I was highly disappointed. Not only did my hands turn dry and my heart rate plummet, I could barely keep my eyes open to continue reading. The first couple of chapters managed to keep me awake but from that point on it was a constant struggle. I was extremely bored by the journalistic style the book was written in. Every time Krakauer jumped onto a tangent about another adventurous soul or a four page discussion about potato seeds I had the intense desire to throw my book across the room.

Even though I detested the style in which this book was written I bit my lip and suppressed my desire to inflict upon it. I drearily trudged through the book hoping to find something exciting or at least gain some insight about why Chris ended up starving to death in Alaska. I never accomplished either of these things but I did manage to develop an intense hatred for Chris McCandless. Throughout the story I was continuosly amazed at how incredibly selfish he was. This young man was given nothing but love in his life. His parents worked incredibly hard to provide a good life for him. Chris repaid them by vanishing from their lives for two years and resurfacing only when he showed up dead in Alaska.

I tried to be sympathetic about Chris's vanishing act. I thoughtfully considered the family secrets he had recently discovered, the betrayl he felt. His anger and hurt were completely justified feelings after these events. However the more I thought about it the harder I found it to forgive Chris's behavior. Not only did he shut his parents out of his life he also left behind a sister who had never caused him pain. Throughout Chris's voyage across the country he touched and broke many hearts. As soon as he felt someone getting close to that tender spot around his heart he ran off to the shelter of the road. Chris moved through people's lives like a tornado with little thought about the pain he was inflicting.

I believe Chris was a selfish, self-centered and egocentric individual. Not only did these qualities damage the people he left behind but they lead him to his death. Had Chris only been selfless enough to drop his terrified parents a line before he skipped off into Alaska they might have been able to send a search party for him. Had he not been so egocentric that he didn't even take a map with him into the wilderness he would have escaped. Chris's death was a pointless waste of a young life, an accidental suicide. He left behind him a wake of pain and suffering. The one lesson I hope people dig out of this tedious book is; if you want to go traipsing off into the wilderness to die, PLEASE call your parents first!!

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Summary: Deeper meaning in poorly organized book
Review: Upon reviewing the book, I did find a deeper meaning to Krakauer's story, Into the Wild. Although I found Chris's actions to be distasteful,I did see some growth in his personality through his trip "into the wild". In the end, I think Chris did realize that he needed love and people with whom to share his life. Chris thought of only nature as a gift from God. I thought that Chris's family, Mr.Franz, and others he met along his journey, were also gifts of God. Chris's charming personality led everyone to like him, but as soon as they got close to him, he became detached from them. I did not like Jon Krakauer's style of writing. I felt this book could have been one hundred fifty pages shorter. I enjoyed reading Chris McCandless's story, but I didn't feel it was necessary to read three other men's adventures. I understood the author's parallels he drew between the stories, but I think that he devoted too much of the book to these other stories. I expected the book to be all about Chris's struggles and journeys making his way to Alaska. Into the Wild reminds me of a "choose your own adventure" book. This book forces the reader to analyze it to understand. Each individual reading this book must decide for themselves why Chris gave up all he had to venture off to Alaska. It gives the reader several possibilities to explain why Chris did what he did. Over all, I did like how Krakauer left the story open ended. I had to come to my own conclusions about the mysterious Chris McCandless, his journeys, and his death.

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Summary: An Inner Quest
Review: "Into the Wild" is not so much about a wilderness adventure as it is an inner quest. Chris McCandless was a college age kid who while searching for his identity lost his life. So many of us are at an age where we want to find the "real" us, to get away from it all and really live. We want to do some good soul searching, but not to quite the extreme that Chris took his odyssey.

Chris McCandless tried to take his literary mentors to the wild, and he died living by their standards of freedom. Steeing for himself their unattainable goals of self denial. Though his idols never lived by their words they set their ideals into Chris' mind. Taking moral stands from the works by Tolstoy, Thoreau, and London he ran away from his problems with his parents and tramped around the United States. Living off the kindness of strangers, and his charisma and talent for making friends he made his way to the wilds of Alaska.

Chris was not a stupid kid, he had a fine education, but he made some fatal mistakes. His only companions on this journey in Alaska were the books he carried. These books could not answer his questions when he needed help the most. From inside the bus, his shelter, he died with his self realization that "happiness is only real when shared." It was there Chris found himself one Augest in Alaska, it was there he found he could not escape from the wild. At this inescapable age one does not think about the consequences of one's actions on themselves, or on other's they know or have influenced. We believe we are invincible, and sometimes we come to late to the knowledge that we are only human. Bound by the incomprehensible frailties of mankind we wander to fine our niche.

The style of this book did not agree with me very well. It skipped from one place to another, and from the author to the story too much. The quotes at the beggining of each chapter gave great insight to the mindset of Chris and others who have fallowed a similar path. Overall this book had a great story to be told, but needed a better story teller.

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Summary: Poignant Character Study Becomes Random, Journalistic Babble
Review: Into the Wild began as an intriguing and poignant character study. The bestseller started out as a compelling story of a young man who was so scared of intimacy that he ran all the way to the barren Alaskan outback to escape it. The novel tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young college graduate who destroyed all of his material possessions in order to live the life about which his idols (Tolstoy, London, and Thoreau) had only dreamt. At first, I was eager to read on, my curiosity consuming me. What made Mccandless tick? Why did he have to run so far away? From what was he running? My curiosity and anticipation were soon enough replaced by boredom and frustration. About half way through the book, Krakauer began to recount the sagas of other young idealistic mountaineers whose stories seemed to parallel McCandless'. I thought such parallels would eventually be drawn by Krakauer and thus I kept reading chapter after chapter about people who had no relation to McCandless. Much to my surprise, such parallels were never drawn, at least not enough to constitute thirty pages of a two-hundred-page book. Then, to make matters worse, Krakaeur went on for another twenty or so pages about his own personal experiences on a remote mountain in Alaska. At this frustrating juncture, I became completely infuriated and I lost all interest in the book. Without significant parallels, which would have helped to further illustrate the psyche of McCandless, all of these tales of woe were just a waste of pages. Throughout the novel, I had mixed feelings about McCandless. Everybody who met him along his journey was positively affected by him. No on had a bad word to say about him. He appeared to have possessed some mysterious charm which just drew people to him. At first, I was interested by Chris; I wanted to know what had made him the ascetic he became. However, as the book wore on, I became horrified by his behavior. At the conclusion, I hated McCandless for what he had done to his parents, to his sister, to his friends, and to all of the people whose lives he had touched. He was eerie, irresponsible, and inconsiderate. While I respected his idealism and his courage to follow his dream, I could never find justifications for his actions. When I was first assigned Into the Wild, I had my reservations. I did not think that I would enjoy reading a book written by a journalist. I prejudged the book as being factual and dull, as newspaper articles are. At the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised by a riveting and intriguing character study. At about page one hundred, my suspicions were confirmed. Into the Wild concluded in a painfully factual manner (basically the last chapter was dedicated to a forensic study of potato seeds). You can take the journalist out of the newsroom but you can't take the newsroom out of the journalist. For a wonderful character study that is easy to read, read Into the Wild, at least the first one hundred pages. After that, the reader is in for sheer frustration and bitter disappointment.

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Summary: This story only taught me about my own ignorance
Review: In this story, the author portrays Chris or "Alex" as some young man who has bigger dreams than he knows what to do with. He is possibly in shock about what happened earlier in his life with his father, or he is one of those "city-folk" who think that just because they read some books, and study/research for months, that they can go out there (to Alaska) and survive. For most of us, going out there and trying to "live off the land" seems something that only the few and mentally disturbed would do. But there again, is a show of my ignorance. I agree with the author, in that as a young person I don't have the impression that I'm going to die soon, or that anything is going to happen to me. I'm the invincible warrior, the almighty and powerful. When the reality of it is, I'm just as susceptible or even more so, than anyone else. My age group is the one that is taking all the risks, and trying to take on the world. People would assume that it's people my age going off to Alaska trying to prove how "invincible" they were. But that's just a stereotype. We've got our feet firmly planted on the ground. I respect what he did, but I don't. Going in and out of people's lives, getting them to care for him, and them leaving them so abruptly is one of the worst things anyone can do. When he left his family, that was the worst of it. I don't believe it;s wrong to make a good impression, but when you make such a substantial one, it's not fair to waltz in and out like you wre at a party you weren't invited to. The way I see it, and this may be wrong, if you're going to make that deep of an impression, I think your parents have the right to be a part of it, too. This story is a tragic one. One that will make you mad, wonder why he did the things he did, or even why people do the things they do. It almost makes you question your judgements on things, and where you stand with other people. Did you make a lasting impression or have they forgotten you? Do you remember them or was it just a brief meeting and then you moved on? It;s sad to think that we all do that, but the reality is, we do. My ignorance showed the entire book. I considered Chris to be some "Psychotic Mountaineer" when he was actually trying to escape the harsh reality of society. It's understandable to want to get away, but what I don't think he understood is that no one, not even a skilled person could live the way he did. No one can be away for that long and not realize who they hurt and what they've done to others.

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Summary: Chris McCandless's story is a unique and inspirational one.
Review: When I read the front cover of the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, I knew that this book would be a unique one. It is not common for the front cover of a book to let you know that the main character dies. I thought this was rather strange for an autheor to do, but I soon found out that it was necessary for the author to let us know. Christopher McCandless was not your typical nature-hippie-freak like I expected him to be. He was a man on a mission-to find himself and to find what he should continue living for. I doubt he thought that was his exact mission, but that is my interpretation as to why he set out on this miraculous journey. I personally found it to be strange that this man would throw away everything he had, and everyone he knew just so he could convert to an ascetic life. But after Krakauer explained more about the person that McCandless was, which was a very confused and wouded person, I had a bit more insight as to his intentions on remaining nameless. I thought the name "Alex Supertramp" was a very appropriate choice (a supertramp describes him well). The author really drew me in to McCandless by comparing him to all the other people in the world. After reading another person's review on here, I have to agree that everyone who reads this will probably see a little bit of McCandless in themselves. I know that some people who will read this book will walk away thinking that Chris was a complete idiot. I, on the other hand, would have to say that he was anything but an idiot. This sojourn was the one thing that he felt that he needed to do with his life. I know that if he hadn't gone on this journey, he would have been absolutely miserable because he'd constantly be thinking, "What if I had done it? Would I have made it?" and he'd probably regret it for the rest of his life. Even thought the "Alaskan Odyssey" turned out to be a fatal journey, he died happily. Every snap shot that he took of himslef, even the very last one, the author says he was smiling as though he was on top of the world. And in all of his other pictures taken before the trip, he has a "get that camera out of here" look on his face. He needed this trip, it was his destiny. I think it was his way of making peace with the world, his family and himself. I found this book to be very inspirational, and I don't mean that I'm going to go burn everything I own and try to attempt to live somewhere outside of Fairfield. I mean that the message of doing what makes you happy really came across to me after reading this book. I may sound cheesy, but if you do what makes you happy, then you may find you touch the lives of others on your journey to happiness. Chris McCandless did this to many of the people he met along the way, and he's sitll doing it thanks to the author who told us of Chris's incredible tale.

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Summary: The title and description are very deceptive.
Review: From the picture on the cover and the author description I thought this book was going to be a boy versus nature story. But, it ends up being author against critics. Krakauer spends most of his time defending Chris McCandless and trying to argue that it wasn't his fault that he died in the wilderness. He even spends 20-30 pages describing incidents that have nothing to do with Chris's life and tries to draw parallels to the story. It just doesn't work. The stories on the on the side only distracted me from the real story. To me, it is obvious that it was Chris's fault for dying. He was very hubris and irresponsible. He went into the Alaskan wilderness unprepared and it seemed he had a death wish by living lefe according to Nack London. The thing is Chris didn't know the difference between real life and fiction. Krakauer should have spent more time talking about what Chris could have done to save his life and where he went wrong and let the reader decide if they like Chris or not. When Krakauer is back on track he does try to figure out why Chris left it all and headed into the wilderness. He does a good job portraying Chris's last two years of life. With only a journal and a couple of leads to go by, the book shows Krakauer really did his homework. He has interviews with Chris's family members, friends from high school, and also from people Chris met during his days tramping through the southwest. Without the unnecessary side notes, Krakauer put together a decent story.

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Summary: gripping
Review: The book in to the wild is a great book, about one kids (Chris McCandless aka.alexander supertranp)great dream and his journey to fulfill his dream...The Alaskan Oddesy. Some have called McCandless an idiot and a moron, yes ill give you that he was not completely prepared for his alaskan adventure but he was nobody's fool. He managed to find help along the way and also make great friends as well. I think that Krakauer caught hold of McCandless's wild spirit and his magnetic personality expressed through his many acquaintances along his journey. All in all this book to me was great and well written and to all of the people who think it was a waste of paper well...get a clue.

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Summary: Very Interesting
Review: In April of 1992, Chris Mccandless ditched his belongings and abandonded his family and traveled to Alaska on his own. Chris Mccandless was later found dead in a trailer. Into the Wild is Chris Mccandless journey described by Jon Krakauer. In the novel, John Krakaeur is not very critical toward Mccandless journey and his death. Although I agree with Krakauer's overall assessment ,which is that Mccandless was on a spiritual journey to find his inner soul and identity in order to live a spiritually filled life; I disagree with Krakauer about Mccandless death which could have been easily avoided.Mccandless is more fair to Mccandless than most people because like mccandless Krakaeur is an advernturist who has put his life at risk for just getting a natural emotional high.

I reccomend this book. It's greatest downside is that krakeaur moves back and forth between Mccandless past and his journey. Although nobody will ever know why exactly Mccandless died, Krakeaur sketches his life and particularly, his past which explains why he went onto this journey. Perhaps, what makes this book so appealing is that is a" mystery of the highest order."

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Summary: "IT'S CRAZY WILD"
Review: Into The Wild I feel was a very good book, reading through and learning more about this man Chris McCandless. People wrote that they felt it was slow and boring. I really don't think this was supose to be an adventure book. If you think about it how can it be? A man is writing a book on knowing nothing he has to piece together everything that has gone on that has to do with this book. So how can it be that adventurous if a man is not writing the book from his own expience or from an expierence that he just heard about adn couldn't even talk to the person. I feel this nook is very good because of the way it is written. To think about what Krakauer went through to write this book, I think that is pretty wild itself.