Into the Wild: Final Study Guide
Format:100 questions: 60 multiple choice, 20 true or false, 20 character matchup (approximately)
Content:
• Transcendentalism: key principles, tenets, system of beliefs, ways of living a Transcendentalist lifestyle, key people associated,
Emerson and Thoreau, their roles, influence, texts
• Characters: Billie, Sam, Walt, Carine McCandless, Ron Franz, Jan Burres, Wayne Westerberg, Jim Gallien, Carl McCunn, John
Waterman, Gene Rossellini, Everett Ruess, Gaylord Stuckey, Buckley
• Into the Wild novel content
Emerson:
1. Who was he?
2. What is his role in Transcendentalism?
3. Describe his background.
4. What are two texts he wrote?
5. (Nature)What is Emerson saying is the connection between himself and nature? Cite evidence to support your response. (p. 388)
6. What is “mean egotism” and when does Emerson say it vanishes? (p 389)
7. What does Emerson mean when he says that “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit”?
8. What is Emerson's main point in “Nature”? Provide text evidence to support your response.
9. In what way is “Nature” a transcendentalist work? Cite evidence to support your response.
10.(Self Reliance) What does the passage beginning “Trust Thyself” (page 391) tell you about Emerson’s belief in the importance of
the individual? Cite Evidence to support your response.
11.According to Emerson, What is society’s main purpose? In what ways does Emerson believe people should be affected by the way
others perceive them? Cite evidence to support your response.
12.What does Emerson mean when he says “to be great is to be misunderstood”? To what and whom is he referring?
13.In what way is “Self Reliance” a Transcendentalist work? Cite evidence to support your response.
Thoreau: (Walden and Civil Disobedience)
1. What advice does Thoreau offer to his felos about ownershipt of land or property? What does Thoreau mean by his comment, It
makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail?
2. What advice does Thoreau offer to thsoe who live in poverty? What does this advice suggest about Thoreau’s definition of true
wealth?
3. According to Thoreau, by what is our life “fritered away”? What does Thoreau mean by his advice to “simplify, simplify”?
4. What did Thoreau hope to achieve by living at Walden Pond? Do you believe Thoreau felt his time at Walden was well spent?
Explain.
5. How would you define those things that are necessary to the soul?
6. What motto does Thoreau accept?
7. How does Thoreau define the best possible kind of government?
8. What is Thoreau asking his readers to do?
9. Does Thoreau present a convincing argument for acting on on’s principles?
10.What arguments might you use to counter Thoreau’s objections to the idea of a standing government?
Into the Wild:
Intro:
1.What do we know about the story before even reading chapter one? How does this impact the reader/what effect does it have as you
begin reading?
2. In his attempt to understand how and why Christopher McCandless came to be dead in the Alaskan wilderness, what subjects does
the author inherently reflect upon?
3. What is your first impression of chris Mccandless? How do you feel about him from this brief introduction?
4. What does Krakauer claim about his approach with writing this book?
5. What is an epigraph and how are they used in the text?
6. What are the three primary inquiries? Connect this throughout the novel.
Chapter 1:
1.What is Jim Gallien’s first impression of Chris McCandless?
2.What items has Chris brought with him into the forest?
3.What in particular does Gallien remember about Chris?
4.Describe the effect in Krakauer starting the novel off with this chapter?
Chapter 2:
1. Now that you’ve read it, why would Krakauer include a quote from another author such as Jack London as the heading for this
chapter?
2. What is the purpose of the detailed descriptions of Mt. McKinley, Denali, and the Stampede Trail?
Into the Wild: Final Study Guide
3. What was considered to be the cause of Chris McCandless’s death?
4. Describe the land where Alex disappears.
5. Who visits the bus and what do they find? What date is it?
6. Write down what you have found out about Alex.
Chapter 3:
1. Describe the town of Carthage. What does Krakauer’s description of the town suggest?
2.Who is Wayne Westerberg?
3.Describe Chris’s relationship with his parents. What evidence do you have to support his?
4.How does he respond to his parent’s offer to buy him a car? Why?
5.Why and how did Alex change his name? What does this represent?
6.The chapter ends with “...he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered
experience.” What does this mean?
Chapter 4:
1.The epigraph to chapter four finishes with: “To the desert go prophets and hermits; through deserts go pilgrims and exiles. Here the
leaders of the great religions have sought therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality.”- Apply this to
Chris, and then explain what mood it establishes for the coming chapter. What chapter of his life do you predict it will encompass?
2. What does McCandless do with the Datsun?
3.How is the Datsun used once it’s discovered?
4.What do McCandless’s parents do to find him?
5.What river does Chris travel down?
6.Why does Chris end his journey on the river?
Chapter 5:
1.What all do we learn about Alex’s personality and work ethic?
2.What is ironic about his job at McDonalds?
3.What can you interpret about Alex’s relationships with the vagabonds he meets on his journey?
4.What does Jan try to give Alex and how doe he respond?
5.Where does Alex work while living in Bullhead city?
6.How is he described by his co-workers?
7.Who visits Alex in Bullhead? (name)
8.Where does Alex tell (the answer to #3) he wants to go to next?
9.What example is given to prove to the reader that Alex is not a recluse?
Chapter 6:
1. Who is the author of the epigraph and why is this significant? What does it mean?
2. How do you see Alex become engulfed in the vagabond culture?
3. What is Franz’s tragedy and how does it impact his actions? Why do you think he connects with Alex?
4. What advice does Alex give Franz?
5. Describe the belt that Alex makes.
6. How does Alex consistently respond to people who want to help him? Why?
7. When Franz drops Alex off after asking him if he can adopt Alex, what is his reaction? How was he impacted by Alex?
8. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to than to have an
endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”- Explain what this quote means. Do you agree?
Chapter 7:
1. Describe Wayne Westerberg’s demeanor and job.
2. How does Wayne Westerber describe Alex’s thinking abilities?
3. How did the other people describe him?
4. What is revealed about Chris’ intimate life with women?
Chapter 8:
1. Describe the mixed perspectives of people who read the article in outside magazine.
2. Who is Gene Rossellini? What is his background?
3. What is he noted for? How does he die?
4. Who is Carl McCunn? What is his background?
5. What is he noted for? How does he die?
Into the Wild: Final Study Guide
6. Who is John Waterman? What is his background?
7. What is he noted for? How does he die?
8. What mistake did Carl McCunn make?
9. What specific series of tragedies or losses did Waterman experience?
Chapter 9:
1. Why is an entire chapter devoted to Everett Ruess?
2. Compare the family lives and relationships of Everett and Chris.
3. What type of experiences did Ruess have?
4. What are the questions and mysteries surrounding Ruess’s death?
Chapter 10:
1.What does it open with?
2.What does it entail?
3.Why don’t the police believe Westerberg or Gallien? Why do they end up believing them?
4.How are Billie and Walt going to find out about their son’s death?
Chapter 11:
1.Describe the set-up of the interview.
2.Who is Loren Johnson? Why is he significant? Connect him to Chris.
3.Describe Chris in high school. Cite three specific examples that describe him.
4. How did the children in Walt’s two families grow up? What type of relationship did they have?
5.What type of work does his father do?
6.What type of business do Walt and Billie start?
7.What was Chris like as an adolescent?
8.What were his talents?
9.What did he often refuse to do with regards to his talents?
10.Describe the set-up of the beginning of Chapter 11
11.Describe Loren. Who is he? Why is he significant? Who is he in comparison to Chris?
12.Describe Chris as a student.
13.What is displayed in the room where the interview is being conducted? (in relation to Chris being dead)
14.Describe Chris in track. What type of mentality did he have? What did he do as the leader?
15.What do we learn about Chris’s activities late at night in the city around the homeless? What did he do for the?
Chapter 12:
1. What gift does Chris give Walt for his birthday?
2. What does Chris do during the summer after his fathers birthday? When does he return?
3. What was the background of Walt’s two families?
4. What is the cause of discourse between Chris and his father?
5. How did Chris find out?
6. Describe Chris’ political leanings.
7. What does Billie doe every time she leaves the house?
8. Explain the epigraph and how it relates to Chris.
9. What does Chris give his father? How does Chris react?
10.Describe Chris’ first trip.
11.What job does he have when he travels home his sophomore year?
12.What happened to the family? What was Walt’s secret?
13.How does Chris hold double standards for people he admires in comparison with his parents?
14.Describe Chris’s political views.
15.What do Chris’s parents do during the time he is missing?
Chapter 13:
Chapter 13 begins: “Two framed photographs occupy the mantel in Carine McCandless’s Virginia Beach home: one of Chris as a
junior in high school, the other of Chris as a seven year old in a pint-size suit and crooked tie, standing beside Carine, who is
wearing a frilly dress and a new Easter hat.”
1.-What can you infer from this passage? What seems odd or contradictory the description of Carine’s mantel?
2. Who did Chris want to take with him to Alaska?
3.Why might this have helped save him?
4.When does Carine make peace with her parents?
Into the Wild: Final Study Guide
Chapter 16:
1.Who is Stuckey? Characterize him and support it with a quote from the book.
2.What is the one thing Stuckey asks Alex to give him/do for him?
3.What takes up the most space in Alex’s backpack? What is significant about this?
4.In its descriptions of Chris’s struggles, what does this chapter state as well as imply why winter is better for this type of journey,
rather than summer?
5.Describe Chris’ last days in civilization. Use two quotes from the chapter.
6.What is the irony surrounding Chris’ determination to become “lost in the wild” in comparison to the bus’ surroundings.
Why does Chris say shooting the moose was “One of the greatest tragedies of his life”?
Chapter 17:
1. Identify Krakauer’s message and connect the 5 principles of transcendentalism (beginning of the unit) to Into the Wild.
2. What type of seeds did Chris ingest that could have poisoned him?
3. What does Krakauer believe was the ultimate cause of Chris’s death?
4. Give (2) side effects of starvation
5. Approximately how long after Chris’s death did Jon visit the bus?
Chapter 18:
1. Once Chris realizes that happiness is only achieved when shared with others, it is too late. Do you think that this meant that he had
forgiven his parents? Why or Why not?
2. Why didn’t Chris write a final note to his parents and especially his sister when he figured that he wasn’t going to live? Do you
think that if he had, his parents would have felt more settled?
3. What were 5 mistakes that Chris made, which ultimately contributed to his death? Which do you think would have made a
difference and maybe prolonged his life?
4. Regardless of Chris’s mistakes, he had to die alone, in a bus. Do you think that at any point during his final hours he regretted his
decisions? Why or Why not?
5. Why does Chris stop calling himself Alex in the end?
Additional Viewing Supplements:
Return to the Wild Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4lB5-e6L20
Emerson and Transcendentalism: http://ed.ted.com/featured/8H0FHeWq