How Did Chris Mccandless Learn In Into The Wild (2024)

FAQs

What did Chris learn into the wild? ›

Experiences are best when shared. Chris comes to this realization toward the end of his life after spending several months in isolation in Alaska. At first this expedition made him feel more alive than anything else. But after a time, he concludes experiences are better when shared with others.

Lesson Summary

In Chapter 4 of Into the Wild, author Krakauer describes the discovery of Chris's abandoned car in Nevada, a yellow Datsun. He also describes Chris's movements around the West. As Chris travels, he makes friends, forages, hitchhikes, and canoes.

Chapter 5 of Into the Wild shows us again Chris' inability to stay in one place for very long. Even after thinking he might ''settle down'' in Bullhead City, Chris sticks it out for only a couple of months. While he's in Bullhead, Chris gets a job flipping burgers at McDonald's.

This chapter begins to explore the character of Christopher McCandless in depth. Far from being a stereotypical slacker, he was hard-working, according to Wayne Westerberg. The fact that he had read the long and difficult War and Peace indicates that McCandless was intelligent and studious.

Franz tries to convince McCandless to get a job, but McCandless explains to him that he has a plan. He also begins lecturing Franz about how sedentary Franz's life is. Franz teaches McCandless leatherworking, and McCandless produces a monogrammed belt with a number of symbols from his life as a tramp.

The theme of this chapter is the astonishing ability of Christopher McCandless to win friends and influence people. Not only did he befriend the octogenarian Ronald Franz, but he convinced the old man to change his ways fundamentally at a time in life when most people have settled down for good.

Chris hoped to be reinvented and to live a new life, with a new identity, that had no connection with his past. Finding this new place to belong, for Chris, meant one thing- Alaska, a place devoid from society, its judgement, control and hypocrisies.

Wayne reflects after Chris's death that perhaps Chris had been unfair to his parents. We also learn that Chris never had much in the way of romantic relationships. Chapter 7 also ties up a lot of loose ends for us in Chris's story -- we see him preparing for his trip to Alaska by working to earn money for his gear.

Through Chapter 11, Jon Krakauer fleshes out the real-life character, Chris McCandless, through insights offered by his family and friends from his youth. We learn that his father was previously married with five kids, remarried with Chris's mother, and moved to D.C. to work for NASA.

In Chapter 10 of Into the Wild, Krakauer describes the long and drawn-out process it took to discover Chris McCandless's identity after his body was found in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris had died while wearing a sweatshirt bearing the logo of a Santa Barbara towing company. The police used this as their first lead.

What do we learn about Chris in Chapter 13? ›

Chapter 13 of Into the Wild gives us a closer look at Chris's family after his death. We learn of how he and his sister, Carine, were very close, despite their differences in their monetary pursuits. The family wonders if the same fate would have occurred if Chris had been let to take the family dog with him.

What happens in Chapter 6 of Into the Wild? Chapter 6 is an account of Chris McCandless's time spent with Ronald Franz, as told to the author and narrator, Jon Krakauer. Franz picked McCandless up hitchhiking and became close to him in the following weeks.

Chapter 2 begins with a description of the Stampede Trail and the conditions of the roads in the Denali Wilderness. This chapter also introduces readers to Chris McCandless's fate, as several groups of hikers happened upon his body about two weeks after his death.

In Chapter 8 of Into the Wild, Krakauer shares the criticism readers shared after hearing Chris' story. They believed he was foolish for attempting to live in the wilderness while unprepared. Some suggested that he suffered from mental illness and that his decisions were juvenile and ill-conceived.

The theme of this chapter is the astonishing ability of Christopher McCandless to win friends and influence people. Not only did he befriend the octogenarian Ronald Franz, but he convinced the old man to change his ways fundamentally at a time in life when most people have settled down for good.

Author Jon Krakauer explains McCandless quest for nature not only as a search for the beauty and quietness of nature, but also as a desire for danger. McCandless wanted to escape from safety and security.

McCandless's annotated books, both those left behind in the bus and those he gives to friends, reveal that he values independence and self-reliance.