Into the Wild (book)

Into the Wild is a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It is an expansion of a 9,000-word article by Krakauer on Chris McCandless titled "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside.[1] The book was adapted to a film of the same name in 2007, directed by Sean Penn with Emile Hirsch starring as McCandless. Into the Wild is an international bestseller which has been printed in 30 languages and 173 editions and formats.[2] The book is widely used as high school and college reading curriculum.[2] Into the Wild has been lauded by many reviewers, and in 2019 was listed by Slate as one of the 50 best nonfiction works of the past quarter-century,[3] but the book has also been described by Alaskan reporter Craig Medred as "something invented" by its author.[4]

For the novel by Erin Hunter, see Into the Wild (novel).
Into the Wild
Cover of paperback, depicting the bus in which McCandless stayed.
AuthorJon Krakauer
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreBiography/True travel essay
PublisherVillard
Publication date
1996
Pages224
ISBN0-679-42850-X
OCLC35559213
917.9804/5 20
LC ClassCT9971.M38 K73 1997
Preceded byEiger Dreams 
Followed byInto Thin Air 

Background
Further information: Christopher McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless grew up in suburban Annandale, Virginia. After graduating in May 1990 with high grades from Emory University, McCandless ceased communicating with his family, gave away his college fund of $24,500 to Oxfam, and began traveling across the Western United States, later abandoning his 1992 Datsun after a flash flood.

On April 28, 1992, McCandless hitchhiked to the Stampede Trail in Alaska. There he headed down the snow-covered trail to begin an odyssey with only 10 pounds (4500 g) of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera, and a small selection of reading material—including a field guide to the region's edible plants, Tana'ina Plantlore. He declined an acquaintance's offer to buy him sturdier clothing and better supplies. McCandless perished sometime around the week of August 18, 1992, after surviving for 113 days.

Summary

On September 6, 1992, Christopher McCandless' body was found in an abandoned bus at 63°52′06.23″N 149°46′09.49″W on the Stampede Trail in Alaska.[5] One year later, author Jon Krakauer retraced McCandless' steps during the two years between college graduation and his demise in Alaska. McCandless shed his legal name early in his journey, adopting the moniker "Alexander Supertramp", after W.H. Davies. He spent time in Carthage, South Dakota, laboring for months in a grain elevator owned by Wayne Westerberg before hitchhiking to Alaska. Krakauer interprets McCandless' intensely ascetic personality as possibly influenced by the writings of Henry David Thoreau and McCandless' favorite writer, Jack London. He explores the similarities between McCandless' experiences and motivations, and his own as a young man, recounting in detail Krakauer's own attempt to climb Devils Thumb in Alaska. Krakauer also relates the stories of some other young men who vanished into the wilderness, such as Everett Ruess, an artist and wanderer who went missing in the Utah desert during 1934, at age 20. In addition, he describes at some length the grief and puzzlement of McCandless' parents, sister Carine, and friends.

Cause of death

McCandless survived for approximately 113 days in the Alaskan wilderness, foraging for edible roots and berries, shooting an assortment of game—including a moose—and keeping a journal. Although he planned to hike to the coast, the boggy terrain of summer proved too difficult, and he decided instead to camp in a derelict camping bus left behind by a road construction company. In July he tried to leave, only to find the route blocked by the Teklanika river raging with snow-melt. On July 30, McCandless wrote a journal entry which read, "Extremely Weak. Fault Of Pot[ato] Seed".[6][7] Based on this entry, Krakauer hypothesized that McCandless had been eating what he thought was the roots of an edible plant, Hedysarum alpinum, commonly known as wild Eskimo potato, which are sweet and nourishing in the spring but become too tough to eat in the summer, perhaps forcing McCandless to eat the H. alpinum's seeds instead. Krakauer first speculated that the seeds were actually from Hedysarum mackenzii, or wild sweet pea, instead of the Eskimo potato, which contained a poisonous alkaloid, possibly swainsonine (the toxic chemical in locoweed) or something similar. In addition to neurological symptoms, such as weakness and loss of coordination, the poison causes starvation by blocking nutrient metabolism in the body. However, Krakauer later suggested that McCandless had not confused the two plants and had in fact actually eaten H. alpinum. Krakauer had the H. alpinum seeds tested for toxins and, through tests on Hendysarum alpinum, it was discovered that it contained an unidentifiable form of toxin.[8]

According to Krakauer, a well-nourished person might consume the seeds and survive because the body can use its stores of glucose and amino acids to rid itself of the poison. Since McCandless lived on a diet of rice, lean meat, and wild plants and had less than 10% body fat when he died, Krakauer hypothesized that McCandless was likely unable to fend off the toxins. However, when the Eskimo potatoes from the area around the bus were later tested in a laboratory of the University of Alaska Fairbanks by Dr. Thomas Clausen, toxins were not found. Krakauer later modified his hypothesis, suggesting that mold of the variety Rhizoctonia leguminicola may have caused McCandless's death. Rhizoctonia leguminicola is known to cause digestion problems in livestock, and may have contributed to McCandless's impending starvation. Krakauer hypothesised that the bag in which Chris kept the potato seeds was damp and the seeds thus became moldy. If McCandless had eaten seeds that contained this mold, he could have become sick, and Krakauer suggests that he thus became unable to get out of bed and so starved. His basis for the mold hypothesis is a photograph that shows seeds in a bag. Following chemical analysis of the seeds, Krakauer now believes that the seeds themselves are poisonous.[9]

In March 2015, Krakauer co-authored a scientific analysis of the Hedysarum alpinum seeds McCandless ate. The report found relatively high levels of L-canavanine (an antimetabolite toxic to mammals) in the H. alpinum seeds and concluded "it is highly likely that the consumption of H. alpinum seeds contributed to the death of Chris McCandless."[10]

Major themes

Into the Wild addresses the issues of how to be accepted into society, and how finding oneself sometimes conflicts with being an active member in society.[11] Most critics agree that Chris McCandless left to find some sort of enlightenment.[11][12][13][14] He also tries to find his way in the wild with minimal material possessions, because "it made the journey more enjoyable."[15][16][17] His extreme risk-taking was the hubris which eventually led to his downfall.[15][17][18]

McCandless was influenced by transcendentalism and the need to "revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience."[18]

Adaptations
Main article: Into the Wild (film)

A film adaptation was released in September 2007, directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless.

McCandless' story is also the subject of the documentary by Ron Lamothe named The Call of the Wild (2007). In his study of McCandless' death, Lamothe concludes that McCandless ran out of supplies and game, and starved to death, instead of being poisoned by eating the seeds of the wild potato.[19]

The Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation, headed by McCandless' parents Bille and Walt, with the editorial and writing input of family and friends, released the book and DVD Back to the Wild: The Photographs & Writings of Christopher McCandless (2010). The material includes hundreds of McCandless' previously unseen pictures and journal entries. Jon Krakauer has written a piece in the book's introduction, while Hal Holbrook—who appeared in the Penn film—narrates the DVD.[20]

Controversy
See also: Stampede Trail § Bus 142

The bus that McCandless died in remained a tourist attraction after the book became popular. However, after many reports of tourists getting trapped in the Alaskan Backcountry, the bus was removed on June 18, 2020. Members of the Alaska National Guard secured chains to the steel vehicle and airlifted it to a "secure" undisclosed location, state officials said.[21][22] On September 24, 2020, the Museum of The North[23] at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks announced that it had become the permanent home of Bus 142, which will be restored and an outdoor exhibit will be created.[24]

References
  1. Krakauer, Jon (January 1993). "Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless lost his way in the wilds". Outside Onlne. Archived from the original on 2013-12-20. Retrieved June 28, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. Formats and Editions of Into the wild. WorldCat.org. OCLC 35559213.
  3. Miller, Dan Kois, Laura (2019-11-18). "The 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  4. "The fiction that is Jon Krakauer's 'Into The Wild'". Alaska Dispatch News. Retrieved December 27, 2015 – via adn.com.
  5. "Hiking to the Into The Wild Bus; Arriving At The Bus!". shanesworld. Retrieved December 2, 2007 – via YouTube.
  6. Into the Wild, p. 189
  7. "McCandless' fatal trek: Schizophrenia or pilgrimage?". Anchorage Daily News. April 17, 1996. Archived from the original on June 19, 2008. Retrieved May 30, 2008.
  8. Krakauer, Jon (1996). Into The Wild. New York: Anchor Books. p. 195.
  9. "'Into The Wild' Author Tries Science To Solve Toxic Seed Mystery". NPR.org. National Public Radio. May 1, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  10. Krakauer, J., et al. (2015). "Presence of l-canavanine in Hedysarum alpinum seeds and its potential role in the death of Chris McCandless." Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.wem.2014.08.014
  11. Anderson, Michael A. (Fall–Winter 2007). "Into the Wild Book Review". Taproot Journal. 17 (2): 26–27. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  12. Machosky, Michael (October 19, 2007). "Into the Wild Book Review". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  13. Kollin, Susan. "Into the Wild Book Review". American Literary History. UK: Oxford University Press. 12 (1/2): 41–78, 38p. doi:10.1093/alh/12.1-2.41. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  14. Raskin, Jonah. "Calls of the Wild: On the Page & on the Screen". American Book Review. 29 (4): 3–3, 1p. doi:10.1353/abr.2008.0007. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  15. Dalsted, Kyle (March 2007). "Into the Wild Book Review". Teen Ink. 18 (7): 27–27, 1/5p. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  16. Williams, Wilda (November 15, 1995). "Book reviews: Science & technology". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. 120 (19): 96, 1/6p. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  17. Virshup, Amy (May 31, 2009). "Where Civilization Exists on the Fringes of the Backcountry". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  18. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (January 4, 1996). "Taking Risk to Its 'Logical' Extreme". The New York Times. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  19. "The Call of the Wild film". tifilms.com.
  20. "Back to the Wild. The Photographs & Writings of Christopher McCandless". Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation. Retrieved April 25, 2012 – via backtothewildbook.org.
  21. Bohrer, Becky (June 18, 2020). "'Into the Wild' bus removed from Alaska backcountry". Star Tribune. AP. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  22. Horton, Alex. "'Into the Wild' author torn over removal of iconic bus: 'I wrote the book that ruined it'". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  23. "Bus 142 | Museum of The North". University of Alaska. September 24, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  24. Osborne, Ryan. "Famous McCandless 'Bus 142' moved to UAF's Museum of the North". Alaska's News Source. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
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