Into The Wild

By Jon Krakauer Cycle 23 pg.127-144

            Carine McCandless is Chris’s younger sister who now resides in her Virginia Beach home.  On her mantel are two photos of Chris, one when he was a junior in high school, and another when he was seven years old at Easter.  In both photos, Chris’s expression remains the same as though someone was interrupting his thoughts to take a meaningless photo.  The summer he disappeared, Chris wanted to take Carine’s dog Buck with him on a road trip.  His parents said no since Buck had just been hit by a car and was still resting.  Chris’s parents and Carine all wonder how things would have turned out if he brought Buck with him.  Chris wouldn’t think twice about putting his life in danger, but he would never risk Buck’s.  There would have been less of a chance of Chris injuring himself if Buck had gone with him.  Chris and his sister, Carine, had been very close in their childhood.  In a letter that Chris wrote about his parents, he says, “I like to talk to you about this since you are the only person in the world who could possibly understand what I am saying.  When Chris’s body was found, Carine was hysterical for five hours and couldn’t be communicated to.  Once she got over it her and her boyfriend, Chris Fish, flew to Fairbanks to gather Chris’s remains.  To relieve her stress, Carine started eating plenty of food and soon gained 10 pounds, and so did her father, Walt, who gained eight pounds.

            Chris’s final postcard to Wayne Westerberg said, “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man.  I now walk into the wild.”  Jon Krakauer used to be reckless and not think twice about whether or not he should risk his life climbing a mountain or not.  On one occasion, Krakauer quit his job at as a construction worker and drove to Alaska to climb the Devils Thumb.  When he was at Gig Harbor, he met a woman named Kai Sandburn, who offered him dinner for the night.  He then began his climb up the mountain.  Krakauer was only planning on spending three weeks or a month on the mountain, so he paid a bush pilot to drop six cardboard cartons of supplies to help him.  He tried two times to climb the mountain but couldn't make it.  The only way to go now was down.

            Jon Krakauer in this segment is comparing his own life as a mountain climber to that of Chris McCandless.  They were both willing to put their own lives at risk in order to complete a certain goal that they had each set for themselves.