People & Places
The last person to see McCandless alive, this Alaska local drove him to the Stampede Trail and was so worried he almost called the troopers.
Who is Jim Gallien?
This Henry David Thoreau work about stripping life to its essentials is one of the books McCandless carried on his journey and annotated heavily.
What is Walden?
Rather than beginning at the beginning, Krakauer opens the book at Bus 142 — an example of this narrative technique.
What is non-linear structure? (accept: in medias res)
McCandless lived this kind of lifestyle — owning almost nothing, eating minimally, and rejecting material comfort entirely.
What is ascetic?
These are the final words of McCandless's last journal entry — the last thing he ever wrote.
What is "Goodbye and may God bless all"?
McCandless worked briefly at this fast-food chain in Bullhead City, Arizona — an ironic choice for someone rejecting consumer culture
What is McDonald's?
McCandless's final journal entry — "Happiness is only real when shared" — is deeply ironic because his entire journey was defined by his desire to...
What is deliberately rejecting human connection? (accept: choosing solitude over relationships)
In Chapters 14–15, Krakauer makes this unusual choice for a journalist, inserting himself into the narrative about McCandless.
What is telling his own story / his solo climb of the Devil's Thumb in Alaska?
McCandless showed remarkable ________ during months of hardship — enduring cold, hunger, and isolation without complaint or turning back.
What is fortitude?
Clue: McCandless wrote these words on his final SOS note, nailed to the bus: "Attention possible visitors — S.O.S. — I need your help. I am injured, near death…" — followed by a specific plea for this
What is asking anyone who finds the note to wait and save him / to remain at the bus?
McCandless returned to this South Dakota town and grain elevator twice during his wandering, drawn back by the friendship he'd built there.
What is Carthage, South Dakota? (or: Westerberg's grain elevator)
This discovery McCandless made about his father as a college student is presented as a key psychological driver of his decision to leave his family's world behind.
What is his father's secret double life / second family?
This term describes a narrator whose personal bias or emotional investment shapes how events are presented — a label some critics apply to Krakauer because of his clear sympathy for McCandless.
What is an unreliable narrator?
Fundamentally ________, McCandless never stayed in one place — always moving, always headed toward the next destination.
What is nomadic? (accept: peripatetic, vagabond, transient)
This is the two-word alias McCandless gave himself — printed on handmade business cards and used throughout his wandering years.
Who is Alexander Supertramp?
This 80-year-old leatherworker in Virginia Beach formed a deep bond with McCandless — and, according to Krakauer, abandoned his Christian faith entirely when McCandless died.
Who is Ron Franz?
Krakauer uses the Everett Ruess parallel, his own Alaskan story, and multiple literary references to argue that McCandless's impulse was not reckless or unique — it was this.
What is a universal human desire for meaning, freedom, or authentic experience? (accept similar answers)
Krakauer's Chapter 9 — dedicated to Everett Ruess — is an example of this technique, where a second story runs alongside the main narrative to deepen it by comparison.
What is a parallel narrative? (accept: juxtaposition)
McCandless treated his ties to family and hometown as ________ — temporary, fleeting, and easily left behind.
What is ephemeral? (accept: transient)
"It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve." This line most directly applies to this character flaw in McCandless.
What is hubris / entitlement / the belief that his idealism entitled him to survive on his own terms? (accept related answers)
Krakauer argues that McCandless may have been poisoned by this specific plant — not simply starved — a claim that remains contested by scientists.
What is wild potato / Hedysarum alpinum seeds? (accept: wild potato seed poisoning)
This classical concept — excessive pride or overconfidence leading to one's downfall — is frequently applied to McCandless's decision to enter Alaska without a map, an axe, or adequate food.
What is hubris?
Krakauer's decision to tell us McCandless dies on the very first page is a deliberate structural choice. This is the effect it creates for the reader throughout the rest of the book.
What is dramatic irony / a sense of dread or inevitability that colors every earlier adventure? (accept thoughtful answers about tension and tone)
Krakauer describes the Alaskan interior as ________ and unforgiving — a landscape that offers no mercy to those unprepared for its silence and isolation.
What is desolate? (accept: implacable)
In a letter to Ron Franz, McCandless wrote: "The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure." The irony of this statement is that McCandless died pursuing it — but Krakauer argues this makes him this kind of figure, not a foolish one.
What is a tragic hero? (accept: someone who died in pursuit of something genuinely human/meaningful)