Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Back in May my brother Sean accompanied me on a drive down to southern Utah so that I could help out at a small outreach conference for math teachers. He brought gear to go for a run up in the mountains while I was at my conference, and he also brought along his copy of this book. When I told my brother that I'd never read it, he told me that he'd read it about twenty times, and that he'd lend it to me the next weekend when he'd finished it (again).

True to his word, he brought the copy to our next family dinner. It's a slim volume, only 200 pages, and a fast read, so it didn't take me long to finish once I started. I wasn't reading it just because my brother loaned it to me, but also because I know that the story in this book is one that has struck a deep chord with many, many people, my brother included, and I was interesting in seeing why.

I already knew the basic synopsis. Into the Wild is an expansion of an article Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless who, after graduating from Emory University, cut ties with his family, hitchhiked across the United States, and eventually made his way to the Alaskan wilderness. He spent several months there living successfully off of the land, but then died of starvation before he could return.

Apparently both the original article and the book inspired strong reactions from people. Some strongly identified with McCandless's desire to escape civilization, his search for something more that he couldn't find in his sheltered suburban childhood. Some were upset that McCandless was, in a sense, being glorified for going off into the Alaskan wilderness, foolish and cocky and ill-prepared. Of course the story is complicated, and a lot of it is pieced together from secondhand accounts and sparse written notes.

I did find the story intriguing, but I don't know that it resonated deeply with me. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, and I'm glad I read it because it does resonate with some people who mean a lot to me. I may not always be the most adept people-person, and while I have decided introverted tendencies, but I've never felt the urge to leave civilization. There are lots of ways that people seek meaning (and I'm not talking so much about religion or philosophy, because I think faith and beliefs can embrace and encompass all of these). Some people seek meaning in nature, in isolation and solitude. And some people seek meaning in much more human endeavors, like art and music and literature. There's an overlap, but while I love nature and can find peace in isolation, I tend to seek meaning in embracing culture rather than isolating myself from it. I think Into the Wild is about someone who sought meaning through isolating himself, but I think the desire to find deeper meaning, to feel more, to understand one's life is the same that most of us feel to greater or lesser degrees, and that I was able to understand.