Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer (1996)
“A young man walked away from everything America told him to want — and died for it. Jon Krakauer can't stop thinking about why.”
Characters in Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer · 1996 · 7 characters analyzed
Cast: Chris McCandless (Alexander Supertramp), Jon Krakauer, Wayne Westerberg, Ron Franz, Walt McCandless, Billie McCandless, Jan Burres.
Character Analysis
A genuine idealist whose philosophy was coherent and whose execution was fatal. He was not mentally ill, not careless in the ordinary sense, and not unaware of risk. He accepted risk as the price of authenticity — and paid it. The question the book refuses to answer is whether he was right to pay it.
His writing is formal and literary — full of allusion to Tolstoy, London, Thoreau, Byron. His speech (reported by witnesses) was direct and egalitarian.