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Into the Wild summary

Name: Into the Wild
Rating: 4.3 (65 reviews)
Author: Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer

An unflinching account of the extraordinary life and death of Christopher McCandless

4.3 (65 ratings)

21 mins

Brief summary

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a gripping true story of a young man's journey into the Alaskan wilderness, exploring themes of adventure, self-discovery, and the power of nature.

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Memoirs

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Into the Wild
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What’s in it for me? An unflinching meditation on youth, trauma, and the thrill of adventure.

One morning in late April 1992, Christopher McCandless walked alone into the Alaskan backcountry, armed with a rifle, a pair of too-large rubber boots, and a field guide to edible plants. It was the latest chapter in his two-year odyssey roaming the American West in pursuit of adventure, self-discovery, and a higher truth than what he’d known in his genteel suburban upbringing.

Four months later, his body was discovered by moose hunters in an abandoned bus. He’d starved to death 19 days prior.

Alaskans have largely dismissed McCandless as a foolhardy dreamer with a death wish. But the bus where he died became a pilgrimage site for his admirers – people from all over the world who know what it means to yearn for something more. In life, too, McCandless touched many of the people he came across. In these blinks, we’ll meet some of those people and examine what it means to be lost – and found.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how one traumatic discovery set McCandless on his fateful course;
that McCandless’s easy charm and open heart won him friends wherever he went; and
how McCandless’s death was the unintended result of a fatal error.

Chris seemed calm on the surface, but underneath he was roiling.

Christopher McCandless grew up in Annandale, Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. His father, Walt, was a prominent aerospace engineer. He’d moved his family from California to take a job at NASA, earning enough to set up a trust fund for Chris and his sister.

Chris had always had itchy feet. At age two, he snuck out of his parents’ house in the dead of night, crept down the street, and broke into a neighbor’s house to steal candy. After his son’s remains were discovered, Walt summed up his son’s adventurousness: “Chris was fearless even when he was little. We were always trying to pull him back from the edge.”

Chris would have hated to admit it, but he and his father were very much alike – willful, intense, and stubborn. Their inevitable clash – and one key discovery about his family’s past – is what set Chris on his fateful course.

The key message here is: Chris seemed calm on the surface, but underneath he was roiling.

In high school and college, Chris appeared to acquiesce to Walt’s strict control. But, inwardly, he brooded, plotting his escape – even as he made plans to attend college in Atlanta.

The summer after graduating high school, he drove off in his secondhand yellow Datsun. It was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But while visiting his parents’ old neighborhood in southern California, he made a shocking discovery. Apparently, his father had lived a double life for years, father to two families and husband to two wives. Worst of all, two years after Chris’s birth, Walt had fathered another son. But his mother wasn’t Chris’s mother. She was the other woman – Walt’s first wife. The discovery shook Chris to the core.

His parents had made their peace. But Chris couldn’t let it go. Over the next few years, he became reclusive, turning away from his family. By his final year in college, he was living in an austere, cell-like room with little more than a mattress on the floor.

He told his parents he would be staying on in Atlanta after graduation. But after not hearing from him for a few months, they drove down for a visit. When they arrived, they were greeted with a “for rent” sign outside his apartment.

Five weeks earlier, Chris had donated his trust fund to charity and once again lit out west in his yellow Datsun. His plan? To cut himself off from bourgeois privilege and live an unfiltered life of raw existence out on the road. He gave himself a new identity to symbolize his transformation: Alexander Supertramp.

In Jan Burres, McCandless found his first friend on the road – as well as a surrogate mother.

It was August 1990 when Jan Burres and her partner, Bob – two middle-aged drifters in an old van – pulled to the side of the road near the Oregon-California border. Looking into the trees, Jan saw what she describes as a pitiful-looking kid gathering wild berries in a gallon milk jug with the top cut off. “Said his name was Alex,” Jan recalls. “He was big time hungry. But real happy.”

Estranged from her own son, who was about McCandless’s age, Jan took an immediate liking to him. He joined the couple at their beach camp for about a week. When he moved on, heading north, Jan thought that was the last they’d hear from him. But McCandless stayed in touch, sending them a postcard every month.

McCandless’s unlikely friendship with Ron Franz had an outsized impact on the old man’s life.

One Thursday in January 1991, 80-year-old Ronald Franz came across McCandless hitching a ride back out to his desert camp from Salton City, California. Ron drove McCandless into the badlands, dropping him off past a hippie camp by some natural hot springs. Heading back into town, though, Ron couldn’t stop thinking about the kid who called himself Alex.

“I thought he was too nice a kid to be living by that hot springs with those nudists and drunks and dope smokers,” Ron recalled. He headed back out a few days later to try and convince McCandless to go straight.

McCandless made his last home in rural South Dakota, with Wayne Westerberg and his family.

In September 1990, Wayne Westerberg pulled over for a gangly hitchhiker who said his name was Alex McCandless. The young man had an easy charm – and he left an impression on Wayne.

A few weeks later, McCandless showed up at Wayne’s place in Carthage, South Dakota, and Wayne gave him a job at the grain elevator he owned.

McCandless lived happily in the wild for a few months. But he miscalculated his exit strategy.

When he started up the Stampede Trail, in the northern shadow of Denali, McCandless was giddy with excitement. At last he would fulfill his fantasy of being alone in the wild. He practically bounded into the backcountry, said Jim Gallien, who had given McCandless a lift to the trailhead – and was the last person to see him alive. Gallien, a native Alaskan, was disturbed by how little gear McCandless had for a long-term stay in the backcountry, and insisted the boy take his waterproof boots and two sandwiches.

McCandless saw gear as an encumbrance, a barrier between him and the wild. And truth be told, he didn’t really need it. For four months, he lived happily, subsisting on foraged plants and small game. Ultimately, it wasn’t a lack of gear that killed him, but two errors.

In late July, McCandless made a mistake that ultimately killed him.

Over the years, dozens of people have walked off into the wilds of the Last Frontier, never to return. The rugged beauty of the Alaskan landscape may inspire romantic fantasies of communing with nature – but, in reality, it’s a hardscrabble existence that even the toughest Alaskans sometimes don’t survive. Hundreds of people, even Alaskan natives, have starved to death in the backcountry over the years.

McCandless had been living pretty well in the backcountry for months. That, in itself, shows he was resourceful, hardy, and tougher than most.

McCandless made careless mistakes. But his death was an accident, not a suicide.

Having spent years getting to know McCandless through his letters, photographs, and the lasting impressions he left on the people he met on the road, author Jon Krakauer has reached some conclusions on McCandless’s untimely death.

First, he believes that McCandless was not a foolhardy kid with a death wish, as many Alaskans derisively describe him. He wasn’t suicidal; he had grit and tenacity, and he came very close to surviving his foray into the wild.

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What is Into the Wild about?

Into the Wild (1996) is an unflinching account of the extraordinary life and death of Christopher McCandless. McCandless gave up a life of privilege to roam the American West. He lived rough, made friends, and took risks – and for the thrill of adventure, he paid the ultimate price.

Into the Wild Review

Into The Wild (1996) uncovers the compelling story of Chris McCandless's adventure into the Alaskan wilderness. Here's why you should read this book:

It delves deep into the human desire for freedom and self-discovery, making it a thought-provoking read.
The book provides an in-depth analysis of McCandless's journey, offering insights into his motivations and actions.
Its intense portrayal of nature's beauty and danger keeps readers captivated throughout.

Embark on an unforgettable journey by reading Into The Wild.

Who should read Into the Wild?

People fascinated by the thrill of outdoor adventure
Anyone bored by their humdrum life
Those looking to understand why some people take risks others find unthinkable

About the Author

Jon Krakauer, a mountaineer and writer, expanded a nine-thousand-word article for Outside magazine into his first book: Into the Wild. It spent two years on the New York Times best-seller list and was adapted into a movie directed by Sean Penn. Krakauer has since written several other best sellers, including Into Thin Air and Under The Banner of Heaven.

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Biography & Memoir

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