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sedeara 's review for:
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
50-state challenge: Alaska
This book first caught my interest back when I worked for the library. I didn't know anything about Chris McCandless or his tragic death; what appealed to me was the idea of someone who had shunned the trappings of society and attempted to make a go of a nontraditional lifestyle. It languished on my to-read list for about a decade, finally rising to the top when I decided to do a fifty-state challenge.
It's not often that a non-fiction book written 30 years ago remains in demand. My library still carries this book in several formats, and some of them were checked out when I was ready to read it. So part of my reflection as I listened to this book was to wonder why this story has such staying power, when Chris McCandless is hardly the only person to have perished in the wilderness.
The book itself held my interest. Krakauer did a good job of arranging the interviews he did with people McCandless encountered on his journey so that you felt like you were gradually getting to know this person. I didn't mind the diversions into other, similar-minded nomads from throughout American history because I think they provided some context for the moment McCandless was stepping into.
One thing that I felt was missing was a larger exploration of the WHY that drives men to these solo expeditions that so often prove fatal. I think there's a conversation to be had about the nature or the cultural construction of masculinity in America, perhaps a conversation that we were not ready to tackle in 1996 when this book was published. But one thing that I kept thinking is that these are not the ways in which women would choose to "find themselves." Sure, you have women who have done solo nature adventures -- Cheryl Strayed comes easiest to mind -- but never so far from civilization and never with so few safeguards in place. The idea seems so deeply unsafe to me as a woman that I would never give such an excursion serious consideration, as much as I am drawn to stories of people who forge an alternative path for their lives. But these "live solo off the land" types are almost always white men, which makes me think there is something about the sense of safety this demographic feels in our culture. They do not have the perpetual feeling of being "unsafe" that sends off major warning lights for women at the thought of such an excursion. They have gone through life feeling as if the world is basically a safe place, not always acknowledging that it's because the world is set up to accommodate them in particular. So they have to seek out this sense of "danger" and "mastery" as a challenge, often overconfident about how up to the challenge they are because they've never entered a space that wasn't set up for them.
My husband thinks that plays into it, but also that there are so few rites of passage in our culture that some men, mostly out of a sense of insecurity, feel the need to create their own rite of initiation, something that will prove to themselves and to others that they are "worthy" of the good things they hope will come their way -- home, stability, family -- once their odyssey is complete. Indeed, Krakauer argues that, had McCandless survived, he seemed to be moving back toward society and planning to "reintegrate" after he had spent some time finding himself on the road and in the wilderness.
Ultimately, this book left me with more questions than answered, but they are of the sort that are worth pondering and which, I believe, reveal why this story continues to loom large in our imaginations.
This book first caught my interest back when I worked for the library. I didn't know anything about Chris McCandless or his tragic death; what appealed to me was the idea of someone who had shunned the trappings of society and attempted to make a go of a nontraditional lifestyle. It languished on my to-read list for about a decade, finally rising to the top when I decided to do a fifty-state challenge.
It's not often that a non-fiction book written 30 years ago remains in demand. My library still carries this book in several formats, and some of them were checked out when I was ready to read it. So part of my reflection as I listened to this book was to wonder why this story has such staying power, when Chris McCandless is hardly the only person to have perished in the wilderness.
The book itself held my interest. Krakauer did a good job of arranging the interviews he did with people McCandless encountered on his journey so that you felt like you were gradually getting to know this person. I didn't mind the diversions into other, similar-minded nomads from throughout American history because I think they provided some context for the moment McCandless was stepping into.
One thing that I felt was missing was a larger exploration of the WHY that drives men to these solo expeditions that so often prove fatal. I think there's a conversation to be had about the nature or the cultural construction of masculinity in America, perhaps a conversation that we were not ready to tackle in 1996 when this book was published. But one thing that I kept thinking is that these are not the ways in which women would choose to "find themselves." Sure, you have women who have done solo nature adventures -- Cheryl Strayed comes easiest to mind -- but never so far from civilization and never with so few safeguards in place. The idea seems so deeply unsafe to me as a woman that I would never give such an excursion serious consideration, as much as I am drawn to stories of people who forge an alternative path for their lives. But these "live solo off the land" types are almost always white men, which makes me think there is something about the sense of safety this demographic feels in our culture. They do not have the perpetual feeling of being "unsafe" that sends off major warning lights for women at the thought of such an excursion. They have gone through life feeling as if the world is basically a safe place, not always acknowledging that it's because the world is set up to accommodate them in particular. So they have to seek out this sense of "danger" and "mastery" as a challenge, often overconfident about how up to the challenge they are because they've never entered a space that wasn't set up for them.
My husband thinks that plays into it, but also that there are so few rites of passage in our culture that some men, mostly out of a sense of insecurity, feel the need to create their own rite of initiation, something that will prove to themselves and to others that they are "worthy" of the good things they hope will come their way -- home, stability, family -- once their odyssey is complete. Indeed, Krakauer argues that, had McCandless survived, he seemed to be moving back toward society and planning to "reintegrate" after he had spent some time finding himself on the road and in the wilderness.
Ultimately, this book left me with more questions than answered, but they are of the sort that are worth pondering and which, I believe, reveal why this story continues to loom large in our imaginations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Cannibalism