Category: Reflections

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44285884@N00/131688722/

1) “Alex,” says Gail Borah, “could really play.  I mean he was good.

The picture shows hands fervently playing the piano, causing the hands to be blurry.  I chose the caption first, because I thought that Chris playing the piano very well was a rare insight into another part of his personality.  It came to a complete surprise for me as a reader to read that he played very well and entertained for so long through his piano, and in another part of the book, through his voice.  Aside from jumping into the life of a hobo and drifter, I see a Chris who is educated and talented.  Considering his house on Willet Drive is literally less than a mile away from my house, it is hard to visualize anyone from these parts becoming a drifter.  I chose the picture because I thought it captured an atmosphere of a pianist being expressive through his music.  In the book Chris plays “honky-tonk country tunes, ragtime, and Tony Bennett numbers.”  So Chris probably had a classical education but actively pursued other musical interests.  This further provides insight on Chris, how he refused to go with the flow or follow anyone’s footsteps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_t_schmitt/97733161/

2) Near the end of his trip, it turned out, Chris had gotten lost in the Mojave Desert and had nearly succumbed to dehydration.

This is a neat picture of water flowing from a regular water fountain into its drain.  The picture is ironic because a water fountain provides unlimited amounts of water for a thirsty soul who walks to it and presses a lever.  It would have been easy for Chris to be prepared or at least be helped by people or technology, but he didn’t and that is the irony between the caption and picture.  We find that Chris once had a near death experience in the Mojave Desert when he went on a road trip from home.  Instead of starvation though, he was dehydrated.  I saw this picture and I thought of technological society, and how it helps us live a better life.  Protective gear and nonperishable foods for example, would be a way that technology helps Chris, yet he always refused it unless it was shoved down his throat.  There are so many ways that people tried to help him, that this water from the water fountain could help him, but instead Chris wanted to walk away and find his lake so that no one would help him, that he would find some truth in his journey.  Dehydration apparently didn’t snap him out of trying to brave the elements out in the wilderness.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88937568@N00/110659281/in/set-72057594055069675/

3) “He’d figured out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at inner-city missions.  He’d figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he’d figure out Alaska, too.”

This is a picture of a freight train.  Coming out of Fairfax, Virginia Chris figured out how to be a hobo hopping trains.  I selected the caption because Jan Burres asks a question of if he can do all these things, he can figure out how to life in Alaska too.  Canoes, freight trains and beds are things in a technological world; living in the wilderness is on a completely different plane.  I chose the picture because it was simple the most stereotypical freight train I could find, something simple.  A freight train has boxes that someone has to get into and hide from cops.   How starkly different this is to surviving in the wilderness!  But Chris saw it all on one level, him against the world, whether it was freight trains or Alaska.  I am fairly certain that Chris never hopped freight trains before ever in his life.  Chris was out of place, mentally at least, from everyone else he was around.  It seems that Chris was so disgusted with mainstream American life that this was the abrupt change he needed to see something different in his country, something different and unknown to him previously

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55531326@N00/129550284/

4) A little more than a year after McCandless’s death he regards the world through wary blue eyes.

This is a picture of a young boy with big blue eyes.  I chose the caption first because I knew exactly what I wanted to find to juxtapose it with – energetic, young blue eyes.  When Franz hears about Chris’ death it is one of the most poignant parts of the book aside from when we hear Chris’ family.  I feel that Franz is jaded with time, with how life treats people unfairly at times, and how that has taken a toll on him.  On the other hand Chris (whose eyes I don’t remember being discussed in the book) sees life as a place to help people and find himself.  Although several times Chris accepts the possibility of his death, at one time breaking down, I do not feel he completely accepts it.  Chris might have been ready to suffer physically to the point of near death, but a 24-year old simply cannot cope with death that young.  His eyes are still young and hopeful, even in the picture he took at near death.

Summary

A photograph influences a caption by giving an impression of what that caption is supposed to associate with.  With the hands on the piano, I feel a rush of energy from the fingers to the piano. That energy stays in my head when I read the caption about Chris playing the piano very well.  In my mind it accentuates this energy I “read” from the photograph and carries it to my idea of Chris’ personality.  Chris could be sociable, energetic, and entertaining with friends he met, and the energy illuminates this aspect.  The caption frames a photograph by highlighting a distinguishing characteristic.  In my photo with the boy, there are several things one could dwell on, but the caption makes me put my attention into what the young eyes show me, and what they make me feel.  His skin, hair, or background does not matter to me anymore.  In this same way, Krakauer’s whole book is a caption of Chris’ life, giving us glimpses of his life through words and interviews.  We can simply be turned to different aspects of his life but we do not have the “picture” of Chris to scrutinize, and so I find myself trying to make a whole out of the pieces Krakauer gives us, which in itself is biased and ironic at times. When Into the Wild is quoted out of context, it misleads the reader to think that the author (may be it Joyce or London) to be of a certain thought.  When London describes the desolate wilderness, we see the “picture” of Chris one way, and when we read onward about how life still prevails, we see it another way.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesec/124673194/

 

“A year ago down in Mexico,” he told Gallien, “I was out on the ocean in a canoe, and I almost drowned when a storm came up.”
 

 

This picture of the canoe with two paddles inside reminds me of the abstractness of Chris McCandless’s journey down the Colorado River.  In his mind, this was a beautiful idea, and just like everything else Chris has done up until this point, this too was an impulsive move.  We do not know what Chris could’ve been thinking about when he decided that he was going to buy an aluminum thing and paddle it down a course which he was unfamiliar with.  If you look at the picture, you will see that the water is calm, unmoving, and unrealistic.  It is as though someone had painted this false picture, maybe this is what Chris did, painted a false picture.  We know that the journey wasn’t easy.  There is a color-divide in the picture, a line stretching across the waters shifting colors, almost looking as though a volcano had erupted and split over onto the water, it is anything but safe.  Yes Chris had managed to come out of this little adventure alive, but he ran into some obstacles that he was not prepared to undertake.  He ran into dead ends, he pushed his canoe through trees and mud, and experienced powerful currents (almost died he said), yet Chris still held onto the idea that he would find the sea; what was the grand purpose of it all? If it was not for an incredible amount of luck, and finding duck hunters who dropped him and his canoe in the Golfo de Santa Clara, Chris might not have made it as far as he did.  Maybe nature was already warning him that the path he is headed for was one he should not take.   Chris finally abandons the canoe at the southeast of El Golfo de Santa Clara; yet Chris learned nothing from this calamity.  Instead, Chris just cleaned the slate and started heading back North; maybe he was testing fate, and fate eventually pushed back.

 

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismoody1111/126585653/

 

“Chris” says Billie, “thought we were idiots for worrying about him.”
 

I would think that if I was in Chris’s shoes, stranded out in the middle of nowhere, where there is not a single person in sight, I would write more than a “disquieting note” that reads “S.O.S I need your help.  I am injured, near death…”  Maybe the parents weren’t idiots after all.  Their reasoning was justified and in the end, it is Chris whose motives we question ourselves about.  He is a person so full of self contradictory that even with all the information that we are given, a lot of things remain inconclusive.  He’s manage to not see that in a disquieting way, he’s been asking for help all along, and he’s received it from so many kind strangers; in the end, being alone killed him. That’s why I choose this picture.  The irony is: everyone saw that Chris needed help, except for Chris.  People tried to give him better equipment, food, shelter, friendship, and a home, which he refused.  In the letters he wrote to friends before his Alaskan journey, Chris hinted at the notion that that he might not make it out alive, giving his new friends closure if he should not make it back, but he didn’t provide the same courtesy for his family who was sickly worried about him. “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again…” “I now walk out to live amongst the wild” some people speculate that this was a suicide trip, but if it was a suicide trip, than why write an S.O.S letter?  Why not brave his death like great men of the wild usually do in fictional writing, why leave behind such a desperate plea for help.

 

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildcountry/119976303/

 

“I didn’t have a watch, but in what seemed like a very short time, I was on the distinctive final ice field.  By now the entire sky was smeared with clouds.”
 

 

The picture is a picture of ice stretched over land, almost like what I envision Krakauer was describing in his mesmerizing state while still attempting to climb the Devils Thumb.  It is interesting how Krakauer relates himself to Chris McCandless.  He even states that he didn’t have a watch.  In between the many years since his climb, he still recalls that he did not have a watch on him; neither did Chris.  Was this something that all men who seek to conquer the wild must do before they walk forth into what is often called a dark abyss?  A point where time does not exist, therefore why should one have a watch? Maybe this was why Krakauer felt so connected to this kid; he sensed in Chris the same passion that drove him to risk his own life (once upon a time).  But in all actuality, Krakauer’s climb involved a lot of planning on his part.  He had a lot of resources that he had already planned on using, he even had a plane drop off food; there was no disillusionment. It was a temporary high for Krakauer, his intentions were pretty clear, he had a focus.  If we were to ask Chris what he planned to achieve out there, would there be a concise answer?  The way Krakauer described his adventure, and his continued passion for the wild, we sense that Krakauer supports the motivation behind Chris’s attempt.  By telling us his own story, Krakauer is coming to the defense of Chris’s actions, saying that he could’ve easily died, just as Chris had.  Still, the only thing his story showed me was that planning and experience has a lot to do with survival. 
 

 

     
 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/21855797@N00/128565077/
 

“His struggle was to mold me in his image had been successful after all.  The old walrus in fact managed to instill in me a great and burning ambition; it had simply found expression in an unintended pursuit.”
 

I choose this picture because Krakauer had compared his climbing of The Devils Thumb to medical school without further explaining the similarities “He never understood that the Devil’s Thumb was the same as medical school, only different”.  He instead leaves it up to the readers to make a connection.  Just like medical school, climbing the devil’s thumb was an extremely difficult task which almost cost him his life. Kraukauer seem to believe that he and Chris was ironically molded into the person they are by their fathers.  Both fathers: “built a bridge of privilege for me (them), a hand-paved trestle to the good life, and I repaid him by chopping it down and crapping on the wreckage.” The only difference is Kraukauer had come to accept and be thankful for who he has become because of his father; Chris McCandless never forgave or moved pass the human flaws of his parents.  I wonder if Chris ever stopped for moments of self deflection and uncovered any hypocrisy in the way he lived and acted. 
 

 

 

 

My findings have so far been assumptions and questions; which has really lead me to uncover how I feel about this story and towards Chris McCandless.  Seeing the captions with a picture tagged to it, often cultivates an idea.  The picture allows you to summon thoughts that you can then link to the caption that are given.  If I just saw a picture of a doctor performing surgery, and it had no caption on it, I would not know where to start in deconstructing the picture.  Words can often form a picture in a readers mind; pictures on the other hand can influence and distort the words.  We see them and we automatically use them as a tool to decipher what we believe is really going on.  The captions serve as a clue to uncover what the picture is, or maybe it is the other way around.  The picture serves as a tool to uncover the meaning behind the words.  In either case, having both under the same roof is influential.  Take the picture of the canoe for example.  You read the caption and you look at the picture, and you don’t see an Ocean or a storm (maybe a river), so you look harder, try to summon a better idea at why this particular picture with this canoe was chosen, it is then that you see the subtle danger outlined by the abstractness of the photograph.  You wouldn’t concentrate so hard to find a relationship unless there was a caption there; you just accept that it’s a picture of a canoe.  Same applies to things taken out of context; you search for the meaning, try to connect the picture and the caption, if you still can’t find it…you dig deeper. 

 

“Steve on Flickr,” uploaded on April 27^th, 2005, by Jason Michael.

 

“Alex used to sit at the bar in Cabaret and read that belt for hours on end,” says Westerberg, “like he was translating hieroglyphics for us.  Each picture he’d carved into the leather had a long story behind it.”  – Wayne Westerberg, p. 68
 

First, is the image of an engraved leather belt, akin to the one McCandless created.

Besides his incredible story, McCandless left behind a loving family and a group of people he came into contact with, all of whom came to deeply care for him.  Material possessions are far and few between; all that is truly left are his memories, what can be pieced together.  These, however, are intangible, the majority of which we rely on Krakauer and his sources to provide for us, as the readers.  The tangible evidence – what few remains there were – is what is most valuable as it is only from McCandless himself that we will ever gain insight – what little there is – into what was going on.  The leather belt McCandless engraved tells a deeper story, gives more meaning to who he was, than any other artifact.  Inscriptions detailed in the text on pages 51-52, include (but are not limited to) the name ALEX, his initials, a hitchhiker’s thumb, and Westerberg’s house.  All of the engravings are symbols of what was important to Alex, the places and people he came into contact with in his life that meant something.  Also evident is the notion that there is no turning around and going back, shown by an engraved NO U-TURN sign.  That engraving in and of itself speaks a great deal about the character of McCandless, of his determination.  It is evident that Westerberg was important to McCandless – the fact that he engraved his house onto his belt is proof.  Additionally, McCandless’s pride over the belt and the story that it told illustrates the pride he himself felt over his journey, despite the fact that he did not always show it.   

 

  

“Rice on White on Flickr,” uploaded on January 3^rd, 2006, by Crystl.
 

“Cooked a lot of rice.  You’d think he would of got tired of it, but he never did.  Said he could live for a month of nothing but twenty-five pounds of rice.”  – Borah, p. 63
 

Second is an image of cooked, long grain rice.  

Rice was one of the most important sources of nourishment for McCandless.  As it was mention by Borah, McCandless claimed that he could live on twenty-five pounds for a month.  Why, then, would he leave Gallien and head off into the bush with nothing but a ten pound bag of rice (p. 5) in his backpack?  Not only is that not enough rice for even one month but he had intended to stay in the bush for approximately three to four months (from May until August).  There is no way that McCandless would have been able to survive, even he knew that.  This error, for lack of a better word, is one of the any similar contradictions throughout the narrative.  Moreover, I find it extremely ironic that McCandless died, in part, because of starvation all the while having donated his money in effort to ending starvation.  The rice is one of the many examples of his naiveté that eventually cost him his life.    
 

 

“Myrtilles on Flickr,” uploaded on December 27^th, 2005, by Bibi.
  

“On August 12, he wrote what would prove to be the final words in his journal: ‘Beautiful Blueberries.’” – Krakauer, p. 199
 

Third is a shot of blueberries. 

One of the most impressive facts about McCandless’s personality was, for me, his ability to find the good and the beauty in objects and instances that others might not.  Similarly, there are many occasions where McCandless was unable to see the good that was there, or the positive parts of something that the general public would see as positive; maybe if he had been able to, this journey never would have occurred.  Perhaps, after you have been starving in the wilderness, almost anything looks beautiful yet in this passage, his last words, it is comforting to know that he was still able to find the beauty in something, despite the horrifying circumstances that were the end of his life.  These words are also significant, obviously, because they are the last words in his journal; they give finality to the situation as a whole.  It is interesting, however, that his last words are not something more profound, a message to the rest of the world about changing the way we live our lives or what his mission was.  All that follows this entry is a tally of the days but I think, in a greater sense, that is a very accurate account of McCandless – he did all of this for himself, it was not for anyone else.  In essence, “beautiful blueberries” is a perfect ending for McCandless. 
 

 

 

 

“P1070797 on Flickr,” uploaded on April 16^th, 2006, by scherre.
  

“And at the perimeter of this boneyard lies one much larger skeleton: that of the moose he shot, and subsequently agonized over.” – Krakauer, p.77
 

Finally, a shot of a caribou’s head.  Ironically enough, the sheer fact that McCandless was convinced – and distraught! – over his killing a moose when it was, in fact, a caribou is, again, evident of his aforementioned naiveté.  Krakauer writes, “When I’d questioned Gordon Samel and Ken Thompson shortly after they’d discovered McCandless’s body, both men insisted – adamantly and unequivocally – that the big skeleton was the remains of caribou, and they derided the greenhorn’s ignorance in mistaking the animal he killed for a moose.” Thompson continues, “The kid didn’t know what the hell he was doing up here” (Krakauer, 177).  While there are some who simply do not understand the purpose behind McCandless’s mission, others understand the journey, the search to find oneself, if that is, in fact, what this journey was.  One problem I would agree that almost everyone has with this story, however, is how a man as smart as McCandless was, could be so ill-prepared.  How can someone purposefully enter the Alaskan wilderness without being equipped with a map, proper food supplies, proper hunting supplies, proper clothing; without the proper plan?  Mistaking a caribou for a moose (although I am sure that I would too!) is a mistake that he should not have made.  Eventually, enough mistakes are going to cost you your life, as was the case with McCandless.   
 

 

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”   Or so they say.  I think that a picture is worth so much more than just a thousand words, yet the words that a picture portrays vary from viewer to viewer; we all see things in a different way.  One person might see something I hadn’t even noticed, I might see beauty where someone else doesn’t, someone else might find the irony where there isn’t any.  It is all in how we perceive things.  With that in mind, the caption comes in handy – it gets the intended message across so that we all see things in the same light.  Words have a huge impact on the image.  In that respect the image also has an effect on the words.  Tying the two together can, at times, be tricky.  Depending on whether you first see the picture or the caption, the second part serves as a frame, it puts the first part into a box, makes the viewer focus.  If one reads the caption first, for example, he or she will look at the picture with something specific in mind.  Alternatively, viewing the image first allows one to take his or her own snapshot, taking away something personal.  Reading the caption then allows the viewer to narrow in to what he or she is “supposed” to be seeing and/or thinking.  Captions are the frame for each image.       

A) http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagarazoku/122934109/

Caption: “EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT. SEED…”–Chris McCandless pg 191

-This photo is a pot with tiny seeds in it. I felt the image was appropriate because it is the seeds that ended up being the demise of McCandless. The pot is old and dirty, the soil is black and all you can see are these beige seeds popping up. McCandless himself says that these seeds are what made him sick, and, in the end, caused him his life.

B) http://www.flickr.com/photos/bsmart/122431382/

Caption: “His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him.” –Nick Jans pg 71

-This photo is of a man with a large backpack on, holding a map and compass in his hands, all of which McCandless lacked on his journey into the wild. This photo and caption are ironic because McCandless was far from prepared for his trip. Though he did well for himself, in the end, if he did have a map or a compass he could have walked out of the wilderness just as easily as he walked in. I chose this quote because I think Jans had a point, it was ignorant for McCandless to neglect to bring the items that could have saved his life.

C) http://www.flickr.com/photos/dobak/112772453/

Caption: “Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large, but rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.” –Krakauer pg 183

– This is a photo of footprints leading through the snow into the wilderness. I chose this photo because I think it’s appropriate because it’s a desolate area with just footprints leading to nowhere in particular. McCandless was headed for nowhere in particular and that’s where he ended up, stranded in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, with nothing but his footprints littering the snow.

D) http://www.flickr.com/photos/bumpkinbwoy/131235402/

Caption: “Attempting to swim the numbingly cold torrent or even to paddle some sort of improvised raft across seemed too risky to consider.” –Krakauer pg 170

-This is a photo of a tiny puddle on the ground with white graffiti reading “Weak Signal” inscribed in the middle of it. I thought this photo was ironic because in order to get back into civilization and survive his journey, McCandless had to cross a terrible lake that happened to be flooded. This is clearly a tiny puddle, but the caption states otherwise.

-Throughout Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer continually takes paragraphs and excerpts out of context, leading the reader along the path he chooses. It is the same idea with these photos and captions. I am taking a quote from the book and pairing it with a photo I see as appropriate. In the photo of the tiny puddle, I am taking Krakauer’s own description of the treacherous waters McCandless would have to cross and pasting them under a photo that clearly does not represent the words written. Therefore my reader views Krakauer’s words out of context when paired with the photo of the tiny puddle.

I especially liked the footprints in the snow leading into the wilderness. McCandless would only have seen his own footprints in the snowy hills of Alaska, acting as a daily reminder of his solitude. The caption reads that he went on his journey to explore nature but to also find his inner self. The footprints in this photo are leading to nowhere in particular, causing the reader to believe that McCandless got nowhere in his travels. Though I personally believe that McCandless did find out a great deal about himself and nature on his journey into the wild, the fact that he was a loan traveler could have contributed to his ultimate death. There are only one set of footprints in the snow, should there have been more, it is possible that McCandless would still be here with us today.

Another contributing factor to the death of McCandless is his seemingly lack of knowledge as to what to pack. In the second photo there is a man who has clearly planned for the journey he is about to take. It shows a large, well packed backpack, and, perhaps the most vital items, a map and compass. This photo paired with the caption from an intoxicated reader of Outside magazine make for an ironic scene. What I found even more ironic is that Nick Jans was also from the Washington D.C. area and now lived in the wilderness, but refers to McCandless as “hardly unique”, when he himself has taken on a very similar move. In his sarcastic, late night comment, Jans says that a Boy Scout map and a USGS quadrant would have saved McCandless’s life. I agree with Jans, McCandless should have been more prepared, but his words paired with the photo of a man with an easy fifty pounds on his back seems ironic to me.

The first photo I found came when I searched the tag “seed”. I came across this dark pot of seeds and immediately McCandless’s words sprang into my mind. He knew the seeds were killing him, and this photo is full of dark seeds. His journal entry portrays a very weak young man who seems to be certain of his nearing fait. The photo and the caption match the haunting words of McCandless himself paired with the old, dirty seeds.

Captions are very important to understanding a particular photo because without a caption the reader could completely miss the drift of the author; especially by way of irony. Captions sometimes directly match the photo it’s under, but sometimes they do not. For instance, the photo with the man and the fully loaded backpack, with the caption that states the traveler was ill prepared which would ultimately cause his death, could be seen as ironic. However, if I were to just leave the photo the way it was, the irony I see would have no way of making its self known to the reader. Sometimes a caption is perfectly fitting to a photo. For example, the photo of the seeds in the pot, the photo contains the seeds the author is describing in the text. I can see the seeds in the pot and I can read about the seeds McCandless ate, the photo and the caption match which, in my opinion, is a huge help when reading texts such as Krakauer’s.

The photos are imperative to the captions because they are a visual representation of the text. It always helps me to see a visual in most any circumstance, and captions are no different. The text will always be the same text no matter how many times you read it. However, when placed with a photo the text could, and most often does, take on a completely different meaning for the reader. Now, whenever I reread the part about McCandless not being able to cross the rushing currents I will always think of the tiny puddle I posted above this caption and the irony it eludes to. The photo made the caption take on a whole different meaning. Though I know it was impossible for McCandless to cross that river, an image of a puddle will forever be burned into my mind.

Captions are also useful for focusing the reader’s attention onto one aspect of the photo. For example, the photo with the man and the large backpack, in my caption I only referred to his backpack, the map, and the compass he held. I never made reference to the fact that the man has shorts on and is clearly not in the harsh Alaskan interior. Because I only focused on those aspects of the photo that the text referenced, the reader will most likely only focus on those aspects as well. The caption doesn’t say anything about McCandless’s location; it only states what he should have possessed to prevent his death.

In addition to bringing certain aspects of a photo into focus, a caption also has the ability to revert the reader’s attention. For instance, in the photo of the tiny puddle, I only referenced the tiny amount of water and the graffiti scribbled in the middle. I did not, however, make any reference to the factory like smokestack in the reflection of the water. Of course, if I had chose to focus on the reflection the reader would focus on it as well, but I chose to leave the photo with the caption to make for an ironic effect.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierrefrancoise/127579972/

“It was like he was off in his own universe” – Lori Zarza of Chris McCandless as a McDonalds employee, pg 40.

 

This picture is of a young man standing in an open area which looks similar to a baseball field.  Although he is surrounded by characteristics of city life – high fences, trucks, buildings, dirt – he is also surrounded by a halo of sunlight which seem to separate him from the dark shade which bathes the rest of the city.  This man in his own world of light reminded me of Chris.  Not only has he turned his back on those who had authority over him, like the man in the picture has turned his back on the person who is taking the picture, but Chris is forcing himself to escape the reality of his past life in order to discover a universe of his own in which he can live off naturally.  It is interesting that although the man in the picture is standing in a circle of light that separates him from the darkness of the world around him, he is still, nonetheless, within the boundaries of that world which surrounds him.  Similarly, Chris is seeking to escape from the world’s boundaries, authorities, and legalities, yet he cannot seem to rid himself of marks of civilization.  All along his journey he is “saved” by people that he keeps running into, and ultimately, his refuge is in a bus that was put in the wilderness for hunters.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17098578@N00/130424353/

 

“We were always trying to pull him back from the edge.” – Walt McCandless thinking about their hike as a family in Rocky Mtn National Park

 

The original caption of this father and son picture points out the mosquitoes that are circling their heads, as well as a missing digit on the father’s pinky which he lost to frostbite on Mount St. Elias.  What I find intriguing about the juxtaposition of this quote of Chris’s father with the endearing picture of the adventurous father and son is that Walt would only take Chris so far.  He would go so far as to take him on a hike, but then would not allow him to go to the top because it was too dangerous.  The complete opposite is seen the picture of the father, who went so far as to lose part of his finger while braving the cold, dangerous slopes of Mount St. Elias.  The closeness and companionship of the father and his son in the picture stands in direct contrast to the relationship between Walt and Chris:  Walt was holding Chris back from experiencing the dangers of living on the edge while the other father embraced them and even took his son with him to oppose such strong forces of nature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akfirebug/86699103/

 

“…ascents of remote mountains in Alaska…obscure spires, steep and frightening…The danger bathed the world in a halogen glow that caused everything – the sweep of the rock, the orange and yellow lichens, the texture of the clouds – to stand out in brilliant relief.” – Jon Krakauer on his fantasizing about climbing through Alaskan/Canadian mountains

 

This picture of Denali National Park in September seems to be perfectly described by Krakauer’s quote.  In fact, the close resemblance between the picture and the quote almost validate his authority as the narrator.  He has been to the same area as McCandless, has the images of the dangerous, obscure slopes and the bright blankets of lichen embedded in his head, and he declares that he cannot seem stop fantasizing about this wilderness.  The beauty of this picture caught me by surprise; I was expecting something so icy looking and frozen over that there would be no room for beauty but now I can almost empathize with both Krakauer and McCandless’s desire to get lost in such a beautiful and powerful landscape.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/awebers/130750861/

 

“They were drawn across the storm-racked ocean, drawn west past the edge of the known world…reading of these monks, one is moved by their courage, their reckless innocence, and the urgency of their desire.” – Jon Krakauer relating the bravery of monks to the adventurous spirit of Ruess and McCandless

 

In a ridiculous attempt to glorify the spirit of adventure and bravery within Ruess and McCandless and displaying their pursuit as that of other prominent religious and spiritual beings, Krakauer stretches the reader to compare the two wilderness explorers to monks.  After detailing the travels of the monks as they rowed off westward toward Greenland to discover themselves in nature and religious freedom, Krakauer decides that all his readers “cannot help but think” of the daring, enlightened journeys of Ruess and McCandless.  Interestingly enough, this picture shows a group of monks sitting on a pier, relaxing and sipping on cups of coffee, totally immersed in the normality of everyday urban life.  One can even see a few men in business suits in the background.  So in a sense, this picture shows a couple ironies.  The first irony relates to Krakauer’s portrayal of McCandless as a monk.  McCandless did not go out into the wilderness to receive a sense of personal enlightenment and quietude but rather to escape from the pressing matters of life and to discover if he could survive without dependence on other human beings.  The second irony refers to Krakauer’s account of the journey of the monks as they were purposefully placing themselves in dangerous, volatile circumstances, exploring the unknown.  But this picture shows a handful of them relaxing and drinking coffee together, one of the most peaceful and conventional things to do.

 

In working on this project, I tried to not take these captions out of context.  However, when searching for a specific word or phrase, I found myself easily skipping over previous sections and entire other parts of sentences which might have refuted or supported the part that I chose as my caption.  In a way, this is what Krakauer was did in writing Into the Wild.  He probably had all of his facts, quotes, evidence, stories, and stories laid out in front of him and it was his job to piece all of it together and to reconstruct the story of Chris McCandless, adventurer, wilderness man, supertramp.  By identifying pictures with these quotes, the reader is forced into adopting my perspective on these pictures, simply because I leave them with no other option.  It is this same authority that Krakauer is subject to in recreating Chris’s story, and although it is a difficult task to recreate the last few years of a person’s life, Krakauer is inherently entrusted with the power to twist, reword, create and compose Chris’s mysterious and intriguing journey into the wilderness. 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/broc7/129707824/     

Uploaded on April 16, 2006
by broc7  

“I stood on a stump.” Samel continues, “reached through a back window, and gave the bag a shake. There was definitely something in it, but whatever it was didn’t weigh much. It wasn’t until I walked around to the other side and saw a head sticking out that I knew for certain what it was.” Chris McCandless had been dead for two and a half weeks (Gordon Samel, Into the Wild, p. 13)  

Gordon Samel was among the three Alaskan men who discovered Chris McCandless’s decaying body in a bus near the Teklanika River. His body was found in a sleeping bad similar to the one in the picture above. This image of a man in a sleeping bag reminded me of Chris. His head is sticking out of the sleeping bag just like the description of Chris that Samel gives. Next to the man is a pair of boots and a cooler, indicating that he is sleeping outdoors somewhere. The fact that there is only one pair of boots and one sleeping bag in the picture, also implies that he is all alone, like Chris was. Another similarity that exists between the two men is that they both wore boots. Jim Gallien (one of the men who offered Chris a ride) lent Chris his rubber work boots to wear in the wilderness. Those same boots are found next to Chris’s dead body in the bus. This photo seems to match well with the caption.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loosetooth/130108554/  

Uploaded on April 17, 2006
by Loosetooth.com  

“One thing I do remember is that he had a thing about socks,” says the assistant manager, a fleshy, garrulous man named George Dreeszen. “He always wore shoes without socks-just plain couldn’t stand to wear socks” (Into the Wild, p. 40)  

George Dreeszen is referring to Chris McCandless in this quote. Chris used to work at McDonalds with him during his stay in Bullhead City, Arizona. The photo is ironic because George is describing Chris as a guy who hated wearing socks, and never wore them. This man, however, is clearly wearing socks. The photo contradicts the caption. The quote I chose for this photo is also somewhat taken out of context. If you continue reading on page 40 in the book, you will find that George goes on to say that although Chris hated wearing socks, he always wore them to work because that was company policy. By omitting part of George’s words, I have changed the meaning, and made an untrue statement. It is true that Chris hated wearing socks, however, he wore them when he needed to. My intentions in quoting out of context were to convey a message that was just the opposite of that depicted in the photo. Krakauer repeatedly quotes some of Chris’s favorite authors out of context throughout the story. He uses this technique to convey a certain message to the readers as well.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbangsadventures/113889020/in/photostream/  

Uploaded on March 17, 2006
by RichardBangsAdventures        

 

“The insubstantial frost feathers ensured that those last twenty feet remained hard, scary, onerous. But then suddenly there was no place higher to go. I felt my cracked lips stretch into a painful grin. I was on top of the Devils Thumb” (John Krakauer, pg. 153) 

 

In this passage Krakauer is telling the readers about his experience climbing the Devils Thumb, a mountain in Petersburg, Alaska. At this point in his narration of the story, he has finally reached the top of the mountain. This was a significant moment for him because of the struggles he endured to reach that point. Earlier in his narration he mentions having to climb up numerous glaciers with his climbing gear, some of which consisted of a heavy backpack, a rope, and a ice axe. I thought that this photo fit the image of Krakauer that the readers get from his narration. The man, like Krakauer, has a heavy backpack on his back, and is carrying climbing gear in his hands. He is also standing on the highest peak of a snow covered mountain. What we see in the picture is exactly what Krakauer describes.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/75920020/  

Uploaded on December 21, 2005
by rllayman  

“The engine is gone. Several windows are cracked or missing altogether, and broken whiskey bottles litter the floor. The green and white paint is badly oxidized. Weathered lettering indicates that the old machine was once part of the Fairbanks City Transit System: bus 142” (John Krakauer, pg. 10)  

In this passage Krakauer is describing the bus that Chris McCandless’s body was found in near the Teklanika River. This passage is taken from the beginning chapters of the book, where Krakauer first reveals how Chris’s body came to be discovered. The photo is ironic because it does not match the description that Krakauer gives us of the bus. This bus does not appear to be old, wrecked, and run down in the least bit. It is just the opposite. The bus is in great condition with tinted windows, a nice paint job, and possibly air conditioned inside. The shiny windows and rims make it look brand new. This bus is also a great deal larger than the one that Chris’s body was found in. This is not the image that came to mind when I first read the above description of the bus that Krakauer gives us. Matching this photo with the above caption really makes people realize how bad Chris’s living conditions were. It does so by showing the contrast between the two buses.  

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norwegianmale/130057593/

Caption: (A) “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!  (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 199).

 
Here is a photo of a fairly young looking male who is smiling for the camera as a picture is taken of him outdoors. This picture captures my attention because this man smile reminds me of how I perceive McCandless smiling as he takes the last picture of himself. This photo is shown to us on the second page of Jon Krakauer’s book where he is seated in a chair next to the bus. I chose this caption because many people keeps trying to figured out the purpose that was behind McCandless journey whether McCandless was content or not with life. Well this caption proves to tell everyone that yes, Chris was content with the choice that he made and he leaves this world as he writes, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!  (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 199). Chris did not want people plundering over this and took upon himself to answer that he did indeed enjoyed himself while he was alive.

 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shazzib/127750805/

Caption: (B) “S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE, I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. ” (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 197).

 
Above is an image illustrating a No Exit directional sign. I chose this image only to illustrate that McCandless journey to Alaska was one that he was not going to back out off. McCandless hiked and journey onto Alaska without once ever turning around to head in the direction of home which was Annandale. I chose this caption that Chris writes seeking help as he is seriously ill only to show the irony that this picture captures. Chris departed from home with the intention of living alone and among the wild without human contact and here he is now writing for help from people. This is an irony because throughout the text, Chris wrote about living solely of the wild, but near death, he realizes that the wild cannot save him and that his only hope of survival would be from a human contact. This is why he finally placed his ego aside and writes, “S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE, I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. ” (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 197). This is ironical for Chris to ask for help because he originally went on this journey to get away from civilization and people but now he seeks their assistance.

 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97331182@N00/128367962/

Caption: (C) “McCandless conveniently overlooked the fact that London himself had spent just a single winter in the North and that he’d died by his own hand on his California estate at the age of forty, a fatuous drunk, obese and pathetic, maintaining a sedentary existence that bore scant resemblance to the ideals he espoused in print” (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 44).

 
This picture shows a man who is either dead or drunk, that has fallen off the couch, alone in his home, surrounded by trash and a laptop. I chose this image because of how upset Krakauer was at London for possibly being the cause of Chris’s death. The image that I had previously painted in my head of Jack London was not clear and this picture helps to clarify it. I now see why Krakauer was upset at London because as I look at this image and look at the caption that Krakauer uses to describe Jack London, even I get upset that he wrote such a book. The caption helps to reinstate the fact that London was useless and should be ashamed of himself for the death of this young man. I support Krakauer in showing Jack London as he really is rather than his fiction novels showed him to have been. Those false representation of London that Chris read from his novel, contributed to the cause of Chris’s death.

 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesusbet/107810426/

Caption: (D) “One of his last acts was to take a picture of himself, standing near the bus under the high Alaska sky, one hand holding his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave, beatific farewell” (Krakauer, Into The Wild, 199).

 
 
This image shows a male on the horizon of the beach as the sun is about to shine, who is filled with excitement, possibly over a soccer game victory. I chose this image to show the irony to that of Chris’s goal, which was to walk out of the wild alive and to prove to his family that he didn’t need them any more, he just needed to find himself. Unfortunately, his goal turns out to be death of starvation. I chose the caption because Chris is taking his very last picture to capture the goal he has reached in life. The irony is that Chris died because he did not fully prepared himself for this voyage and did not achieve his goal of walking out of the wild, in this picture, it is evident that this man was able to achieve his goal because he has his hands stretched out with excitement. Chris’s original goal before he encountered death, was to stay in Alaska for 100 days and then walk out alive, however, his mission proved to be fatal and Chris was unable to achieve that goal.

 
 
Synthesis:
All four of these images and the many others that I browsed through influenced the way I had read Into the wild. Like the No Exit sign, it makes me think whether or not Chris McCandless knew all along that he would end up dead during his journey. I start to wander; maybe this is why he wanted all his mails returned back to the senders. The ecstatic male image with the Goal headline, constantly reminded me of how happy Chris looked as he spoke about his voyage to those he encountered on the way, especially to the older man that he happened to persuade to go and also live among the wild. Both the captions and the pictures help us to focus more in depth on a particular passage. The quotes makes us to really concentrate on one idea or thought and try to understand what Chris or those that encountered him really meant by what they said. The pictures and quotes help us to draw our attention solely onto Chris and actually try to figure out what was really going on in his head. These four images helped but the other images that I browsed through, made me want to find a quote for each image and do this for the entire book. Maybe a visual layout of what Chris was actually thinking would help me decide whether he was a hero as many saw him as or an idiot as others view him as also.

 
 
 

“One hundred twenty-three dollars in legal tender was promptly reduced to ash and smoke” (29 Krakauer).
Uploaded on January 3, 2006
by sybexs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbran/81698299/

This is a picture of a young person, i think its a guy i don’t know, sitting on the stree with a sign made of cardboard.  This tends to indicate a homeless person, or someone who has to ask for money in order to survive.  I chose this picture because it contradicts what happens in the story.  The caption I used for this photograph is in reference to Christopher McCandless burning his money.  The person depicted in this photo did not choose to be without a lot of money, and yet Chris makes the decision to keep very little money.  Also, if the person in this picture had $123 i doubt they would burn it, in fact they would probably resent the fact that McCandless did.  

“Just plain couldn’t stand to wear socks” (George Dreeszen 40).

Uploaded on April 15, 2006
by bruceley
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruceley/129153029

This image shows a man in fast food place.  He is sitting down and only wearing shoes, but no socks.  While he was in Bullhead City, Arizona Chris worked at a McDonald’s flipping burgers.  One of their rules was that you had to wear proper attire which meant socks and shoes.  Dreeszen mentions how as soon as he was done with his shift the first thing Chris would do was take his socks off then put his shoes back on.  This picture combines two aspects of this event: the fast food restaurant, and the lack of socks. This is an example of just how stubborn McCandless could be, even if it seemed silly to other people. 

“- scarcely qualifies as wilderness by Alaska standards,” (165 Krakauer).

Uploaded on April 18, 2006
by sarahlefton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahlefton/131116782/

This photo is of trees and snow, what would normally look like deserted woods.  However, in the left side of the photo you can barely see the edge of a cabin.  I actually didn’t notice it the first glance I had of this picture.  Christopher McCandless walked into the “wild” to live off the land and be completely alone.  Unfortuantely, he died doing this.  What he didn’t know was that just out the range of places he walked were cabins and campgrounds that a few hunters were staying out.  I chose this tag because as Krakauer says most people don’t even consider where he was the wilderness.  If McCandless had seen the bigger picture by either having a map or walking further he would have known that it only looked like the wilderness from where he was.  McCandless tried so hard to cut off everyone and be alone in the world, but when he needed the world to save him he didn’t even realize it was only a few miles away.

“I’m going to completely knock them out of my life.  I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live. I’ll be through with them once and for all, forever,” (64 McCandless).

Uploaded on August 13, 2005
by techsavant
http://static.flickr.com/21/33773716_a5294d1e2c.jpg?v=0

This picture shows a very happy man giving a piggy back ride to his smiling son.  They are both wearing matching baseball shirts which leads me to believe they spend a lot of time together doing that.  McCandless and his father had a very heated relationship, but perhaps not until later.  Krakauer claims that Chris submitted to his father until college but all the while his rage was building.  I choose this quote that Chris wrote in a letter to his sister because its hard to imagine such intense anger and resentment between a father and a son while looking at the serene picture above.  I would not look at a picture like that and guess that one day that little boy would want to cut off all ties with his family. There were probably pictures of Chris and his father at some point though, looking just as happy. 

 

I think a photograph can influence the meaning of a caption, but usually it is the other way around.  In the pictures where the caption matches what is going on it is pretty straightforward sometimes the caption can be humorous, or just descriptive.  In the photos that are different from their captions it makes you look at it in a whole new light.  For instance the last picture I use has a positive picture with a very negative caption.  When you read that caption it makes you take another look at the photo and wonder “what are they really thinking?”  It raises the question, are the people in that photo really projecting how they feel or are they just smiling for the camera?  Captions are good because if they are really striking or noticable then it sometimes makes us take a longer look at a photo we might have just glanced over.  Also, perhaps you don’t notice something in a picture the first time you see such as the Cabin in my third example, but when you read the caption it makes you go back and take a closer look.  I think that some of these quotes that are out of context from Into The Wild make Christopher McCandless look bad.  If you were just to look at this assignment that I’ve done and use those four quotes and pictures to judge him as a person it would not be very good.  He comes across as selfish, a little offbeat, stupid, and possibly a bad son.  If you read the book though you can see that these things he did had meaning.  He may have made a simple mistake about knowing his surroundings, but he was not by any mean unintelligent.  Christopher burned that money but he also donated the rest of his college fund to OXFAM, and he burned it for what it symbolized.  Things like that are not explained when all you have is a quote ripped out of an interview, or a chapter that can change how you look at it. 

A: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skidrd/72499995/

 “We camped out of the back of the truck, the Chevy Suburban,” Walt explains. “Later we bought an Airstream trailer and traveled with that. Chris loved those trips, the longer the better. There was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it.” pg. 108, dialogue

The image is a 1966 Airstream trailer, parked in a loading dock. McCandless’ father, Walt, said that Chris’ need to travel and move around was inherent and appeared early in his childhood on their family trips around the country. I selected this image because it is the classic image of American tourism when it was at its height, beginning after World War II and continuing for several decades.

B: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xrrr/88776083/

He lived on the streets with bums, tramps and winos for several weeks. Vegas would not be the end of the story, however. On May 10, itchy feet returned and Alex left his job in Vegas… page 37, journal entry

This is a quintessential image of the Las Vegas strip, complete with bright lights, an Eiffel Tower replica and palm trees. I chose it for its irony both with what Chris writes in his journal but also its contradiction of his beliefs. One can be sure that Chris did not live on the strip in Vegas but rather in a worse-off part of town where tourists do not spend much time. Most people go to Vegas to vacation and gamble, not earn honest money. In addition, Las Vegas is in contradiction with Chris’ beliefs about possession and commercialism. As a tourist and gambling city, it is known for its addiction to sex and money, things Chris is decidedly against. We see this as Krakauer discusses his chastity and also when Chris burns all his money.

C: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69128081@N00/129137273/

Leaving the river for a day to track a herd of wild horses, he came across a sign warning that he was trespassing on the U.S. Army’s highly restricted Yuma Proving Ground. McCandless was deterred not in the least. At the end of November, he paddled through Yuma. pg. 33

This is a photograph of a “No Trespassing” sign on the edge of Yuma. Krakauer has used information from Chris’ journals and maybe some eyewitnesses to determine Chris’ path. I chose this image because it illustrates the harsh terrain that Chris traversed and also his rigid deterrence from rules and regulations that governed most of his journey. Although this sign is intimidating, probably like the one Chris saw, he ignored it anyway.

D: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenbond/50229047/in/photostream/

McCandless tried to disguise the fact that he was a drifter living out of a backpack: he told his fellow employees that he was living across the river in Laughlin. pg. 41

This is an image of a man in a suit and tie sitting against a brick well, presumably in an urban setting. He is not quite the classic workingman, but seems to be an urban professional; on the other hand, Chris is anything but. Since this is a photo taken somewhere in a city or town, it relates to Chris’ location when he held a job. However, all of his jobs were labor driven – nothing involving what most college graduates do. He would never wear a suit or tie to work as his beliefs contradicted most of those of working Americans.

I tried to find photographs that would portray Chris McCandless as Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild, described him through inferences and interviews. Each of these pictures from flickr represents a piece of Chris – kind of like a piece in the puzzle. I wanted to look into what drove him to be the sort of man he turned out to be and how this led to his eventual death. Each of these photos in intertwined with its caption in some form – whether it is a literal or an ironic link.

When one looks at a photograph with a caption, the caption clearly influences the viewer’s take on the photo. For example, in the picture I chose for option C is an image of a “No Trespassing” sign at Yuma Proving Ground, where Chris reportedly trespassed. One may think that this is the specific sign Chris saw, when in actuality, the picture comes from a person who may never have even heard of Chris. In addition, Krakauer only hypothesizes that Chris saw a sign forbidding anyone from entering the area. Like matching captions with unknown photographs, Krakauer is matching a person’s experience with places or locations around the country. Some of his knowledge is based on personal interviews or photographs. But Krakauer also relies heavily on Chris’ own testimony and the photographs he took. Krakauer had to match captions to photographs, too, and did not have had the luxury of a “tag” on each photograph.

A caption draws attention to specific aspects of a photograph. As it draws focus to one particular area, it may leave other areas overlooked by the viewer. In the image I chose for option d, the viewer is drawn to the subject’s face due to placement and also lighting. One may neglect to see the worn brick wall or garage door behind him, which are equally important as they determine the setting for the image. The same thing happens with the picture of the sign in Yuma. There is an impressive landscape in the background, but most of our attention is focused on the sign. In this way, the captions of a photograph relate to Krakauer’s “captioning” of Chris’ life. He draws attention to specific parts, like childhood trips across country, to explain his motivation for leaving his family and heading out west. This way, the reader is convinced that Chris’ yearn for travel stems from an early age. However, Krakauer neglects to mention any real problems Chris had as a child. His sneaking into a neighbor’s house to take candy is dismissed as a penchant for cleverness. If Chris got into any serious trouble at school or had issues with friends or family, it is not really mentioned. Krakauer tends to glorify him in this way like a photograph. The picture (pun intended!) Krakauer paints of Chris is an outdoor hero who made a few mistakes – kind of like a school portrait of a high schooler, dressed up only for picture day to impress the relatives.

Like many items in Into the Wild, the photographs I chose are accompanied by completely out-of-context quoted captions. When the book is quoted out of context, it shows how efficient – yet unreliable – out of context quotes can be, which is probably why Krakauer insisted upon using them. The photograph I found of the Airstream trailer, for example, goes quite well with Walt McCandless’ description of early McCandless family vacations. But that photograph has nothing to do with the McCandless family and the actual quote is surrounded by talk of an unhappy childhood. In this way, I have acted as a narrator, framing these photographs with words that match the image in one way or another, much like Krakauer has done with all his interviews, pictures and journals of Chris. The act of putting a caption to photographs is nearly identical to the act of putting words to an experience or action.

A. http://www.flickr.com/photos/spike55151/127692508/

“I’d go out back to hang clothes on the line behind the trailer, and he’d attach clothespins all over me. He was playful, like a little kid” (75).

This is a photograph of clothespins on a clothesline.

I chose this quote from Burres because it shows Chris McCandless as a fun-loving youth rather than the thought provoked adult that we are used to hearing about in the text. The picture is significant because it only focuses on the clothespins, the detail that Burres remembers most about Chris. Chris’s attempts at flirting also show that he was in need of human contact, and that he was a typical young man with desires for women. Most of the text portrays Chris as a mature adult who is focused on living alone in the wild to find himself. This memory, on the other hand, gives us another side to Chris, a more youthful and playful side that we do not see much of in the text. This photograph influences the meaning by putting a focus on Chris’s actions toward Burres, rather than Burres’ memory of Chris. The clothespins represent Chris’s need for attention and human contact.

B. http://www.flickr.com/photos/67371673@N00/32644649/

“He was a big eater. Never left any food on his plate. Never” (104)

This is a picture of a starving child in Africa.

I chose this photo because it is ironic when paired with the above caption. What makes the picture ironic is the fact that Chris McCandless was constantly eating all of the food given to him, and never wasted anything, though he died of starvation. One of Chris’s goals was to end starvation, though he couldn’t cure his own. The picture encompasses Chris’s motivation as well as the beginning of his demise. The caption directs our attention to a healthy boy who had plenty to eat, while the photo directs our attention to the image of Chris’s emaciated body at death, as well as the image of what Chris wanted to prevent. The picture influences how we read the quote because it no longer shows us a healthy, happy picture of Chris. Rather, it foreshadows what will happen later in Chris’s life. The picture also leads me to feel that even though Chris cared a lot about never wasting food, that ideal was of no use to him at the end of his life.

C. http://www.flickr.com/photos/78428166@N00/127719093/

“When Franz met McCandless, his long-dormant paternal impulses were kindled anew” (84)

This is a picture of a young man hugging his father.

I chose this caption because one of the focuses in the book is to Chris and his relationship with his father. I felt that Chris looked to Franz as more of a father than his own, and that is why I chose to include him in this caption. I chose the image for this caption because it is a good fit with how I interpret the relationship between Chris and Franz. Though Chris was against the idea of being adopted by Franz, I feel that he loved the old man and looked up to him as a father figure. The image illustrates the love and compassion between the father and son, which is how I feel Franz and Chris acted toward each other. The photograph influences the caption by showing the son figure, or Chris, as a loving son toward his father, in this case Franz. It helps us get a visual of the dynamic between the two men. The caption and the accompanied photograph direct our attention to the love that was felt between Franz and Chris.

D. http://www.flickr.com/photos/air_ape/129527053/

“For a long time she gazes silently at her son’s boots under the stove, his handwriting on the walls, his toothbrush” (312)

This is a picture of a toothbrush with the inscription ‘prison toothbrush’.

I chose this caption because it gives me insight into the thoughts and emotions of the family members left behind after Chris’s death. I can imagine myself in the same situation, trying to take in the surroundings, and focusing on the few objects that were used by my late son. The photo of the toothbrush represents a focus that Billie had while in the trailer, though it is ironic because of the inscription on the brush. “Prison toothbrush” illustrates a sense of confinement, while Chris was in a state of freedom in his Alaska wilderness. My intent with this caption and photograph was to show the contrast between Chris’s emotions and that of his mother. Billie was constantly worried about her son, and was trapped in her anxiety over his absence. Chris, on the other hand, was reveling in his freedom of being subsistent off the land and not needing human contact. Also, part of Chris’s freedom was his ability to abandon material possessions and human contact, though he still needed a toothbrush, which is a norm of society. The inscription “Prison toothbrush” is ironic because Chris desperately wants to live a free life, but is confined to certain societal norms.

Krakauer, John. Into the Wild. Large Print Edition. Random House Inc. Maine: 1997.