Into The Wild
By: John Krakauer

Into The Wild is a story about a man named Christopher McCandless that goes through something much more intense than a mid-life crisis. Christopher gives up everything he has to go try to survive out in the wilderness with a brief selection of supplies. After roughing it in the wilderness for just over one hundred days, Christopher’s body is found in Alaska. This exciting (AND TRUE) story about Christopher is absolutely insane to most people. Why would anyone give up such a promising future? The author does a great job of digging deep down into Christopher’s journey and analyzing his decisions.

The author uses a variety of sources, including Christopher’s family, friends, and even the journal that Christoper McCandless kept with him while he was exploring. The author uses a blend of primary sources and secondary sources to find out the most he could about the decisions that the young adventurer made. Because there were so many accusations being thrown around about the story of Christoper McCandless, the author found a great interest in learning about this adventure.

I thought that this was a great book, because I could tell that the author really cared about finding a deeper understanding of what happened; instead of just accepting the fact that Christoper McCandless did something completely insane which lead to an unfortunate death. The author also made me question whether or not I felt bad for Christopher McCandless, or if I felt no pity for his display of foolishness. At first when I started reading the book, while ignorantly analyzing Christopher’s journey, I thought he was crazy. As I read on though, I began to feel for him. The author helped me a lot to see “behind the scenes” of this journey. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to put the book down.

Although this book was fantastic there were parts of it that were unimportant. The author continuously compares Christopher to adventurers that aren’t even part of the story, or aren’t even connectable to the book. The author also compares Christopher McCandless to himself, which I found kind of odd and unimportant. The book also went into extremely grueling detail. So, at times, the book dragged on a little bit slow.

All in all, this book a major page turner. It’s an empowering story that anyone can find interest in. I highly recommend this to anyone that loves a great adventure.