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 4/26 Into the Wild blog

            The book I chose for this week is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. For those that do not know, Into the Wild is the true story of Christopher McCandless, a graduate of Emory College who decides to give up his all communications with his family, donate all his money to charity, and hitchhike across the Western United States. He adopts an alias, has a few run-ins with the law, and eventually makes it to Alaska and spends more than 100 days in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the book, we see that McCandless has a drive to reinvent his life and live on his own terms. He is greatly influenced by Thoreau, Emerson, London and other “self-made,” transcendentalist-type writers and his diary is full of quotes from them. The book is the ultimate struggle of man versus nature and McCandless’s efforts to live simply and embody the ideals of his favorite transcendentalist writers.
            There are many themes with which we can connect students to Into the Wild. One that stands

 out to me is when McCandless reinvents himself, he gives up all of his money and material
possessions. He wants to live his life with only what he can carry on his back. This theme of 

 materialism (or lack thereof) stood out to me because of the extremely “plugged-in” lifestyle our 

 society has become. Students are heavily reliant upon technology that I think they would have a 

 tough time imagining and living a life like McCandless. One of the ways I would try to connect the 

 story with students is by challenging them to disconnect themselves from all technology. Even if it 

 was just for a day or two, I think most students nowadays would have a hard time without their cell 

 phone. Although it would be on a much smaller scale, I think this would give students a glimpse into 

 what McCandless felt when he freed himself of communication with the outside world.  

Comments

  1. Anya BentApril 27, 2017 at 12:23 PM

    Great idea about disconnecting. I do this with my Walden Unit-I use a string activity where I ask them to set aside all devices for 15 minutes a day, and sit inside the same string circle observing what is going on around them....some go outside, some do it looking out a window. They all reflect, and it is really neat to read what they write.

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