I chose to read this book because as I read the summary of the book, a whole bunch of questions popped into my head. I wanted to know what was going through this man’s head, why a 24 year old would want to go to Alaska and make a life on his own. I especially wanted know why he wanted a new life, when he had a life that some people only dream of having; he had a good home, good grades, graduated high school and college with outstanding grades, and was about to go into law school. I wanted to find out why he threw his life away. I honestly thought to myself, “This guy is absolutely crazy!” and definitely felt no compassion for him. Later on, I found out that what my thoughts and feelings towards Chris were completely different.
Christopher McCandless was a young man, only 24 years old, who decided to hitchhike to Alaska and start a life on his own just North of Mt. McKinley. He got rid of all his money, and the things he thought were unnecessary, only taking with him what he could carry on his back. He traveled to so many places and met so many people before he got to his destination. While he traveled, I started to feel compassion/sympathy for him. I felt that all he wanted was a new life; he wanted to start out fresh, and forget about his past. Chris was just looking for something different. Four months after he made it to his destination, he was found dead in an abandoned school bus.
Through his journey, Jon reveals details and commentary of the people who Chris worked with, stayed with, or even hitchhiked with. All these people seemed to really care about McCandless, even though they might’ve not known him for very long. I liked how the author used parts of the interviews with those people because it let the reader create an opinion of their own on Christopher. I think that was what the author was aiming for, having the reader create their own opinion of Chris, instead of that author creating an opinion for us.
I completely enjoyed reading this book. The only thing I did not like was how towards the end of the book, Jon compared both his adventures and Chris’ adventures. I felt that it wasn’t necessary to include that, it really added nothing to the story and just gave it a dull ending. Overall, Into the Wild was a great book and I recommend it to anyone who likes to read about adventure, this book has lots of it!