Analysis During the plane ride home with Chris’s remains, his sister Carine eats “every scrap of food the cabin attendants set in front of her.” Soon afterward, however, she discovers she has no appetite and loses so much weight that friends think she has become anorectic. Chris’s mother also stops […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 13 – Virginia BeachSummary and Analysis Chapter 12 – Annandale
McCandless received near-perfect grades during his first year of college. He wrote for the school newspaper and considered attending law school. But the summer after his second year at Emory, McCandless’s personality appeared to have grown markedly different. The author traces McCandless’s “smoldering anger” to the fact that during his […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 12 – AnnandaleSummary and Analysis Chapter 11 – Chesapeake Beach
According to his parents, Chris was a smart child who was placed in an accelerated school program for gifted students — a program eight-year-old Chris tried to get out of since he didn’t want to do the extra schoolwork associated with it. Chris was also eight when he went on […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 11 – Chesapeake BeachSummary and Analysis Chapter 10 – Fairbanks
Analysis By flashing forward to McCandless’s death, Krakauer intensifies the drama of his story. He reminds us that McCandless’s adventure ends tragically. In addition, the author emphasizes the young man’s connections to those whose lives he touched: friends Gallien and Westerberg, as well as MCandless’s relatives. The prior two chapters […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 10 – FairbanksSummary and Analysis Chapter 9 – Davis Gulch
Krakauer connects Everett Reuss and Christopher McCandless with those seeking solitude at other times, in other places, by briefly discussing the Irish monks who inhabited an island called Pepos off of Iceland. These monks created stone dwellings in the fifth and sixth centuries, hundreds of years before the Anasazi built […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 9 – Davis GulchSummary and Analysis Chapter 8 – Alaska
Analysis This chapter offers context for, and thus perspective on, McCandless’s situation. By quoting from some of the many outraged responses to his article, Krakauer shares with the reader the typical reaction to McCandless’s story: smug superiority laced with disbelief that anyone could be so foolhardy. And yet, as the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8 – AlaskaSummary and Analysis Chapter 7 – Carthage
Still, Christopher McCandless charmed the inhabitants of Carthage. Along with Wayne Westerberg, he also established deep friendships with Westerberg’s mother and long-time girlfriend. Westerberg told Krakauer, “There was something fascinating about him . . . He was hungry to learn about things. Unlike most of us, he was the sort […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 7 – CarthageSummary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Anza-Borrego
From his next stop, in South Dakota, McCandless writes Franz a long letter in which he details his time on the road and suggests that 80-year-old Franz change his sedentary ways. “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure,” McCandless writes. “Ron, you must […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Anza-BorregoSummary and Analysis Chapter 5 – Bullhead City
McCandless stays with Jan and Bob at “the Slabs,” the remnants of a demolished Navy air base that has become home to a community of drifters. There he helps Jan and Bob sell used books at the local flea market. McCandless proves himself a charismatic salesman and tries to convince […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5 – Bullhead CitySummary and Analysis Chapter 4 – Detrital Wash
He next hitchhiked around the West for two months. While hitchhiking, he met a man known as “Crazy Ernie,” who offered him work at a rundown ranch in northern California. After working at the ranch for 11 days, however, McCandless realized that Crazy Ernie was never going to pay him, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 4 – Detrital Wash