Into The Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a novel about an attempt on becoming self-reliant. As Christopher McCandless treks across the United States he finds that self-reliance becomes much more difficult by relying on many other individuals for food, transportation and shelter. The themes in the novel speak not only to self-reliance but also the desire to finding one’s self and only being able to do that through struggle. Another reason for his decision is the existential crisis he finds himself in when he realizes the faults his father possesses and in turn losing the idolization, he once had for him. The desire to find happiness through connecting with nature ultimately leads him to venturing out on his own ill equipped and tremendously unprepared for what he is up against. By attempting this escape from his family, the theme of running from your problems becomes prevalent, especially when those problems can be seen as insignificant in the eyes of true struggle that happens often and outside of the bubble of someone who seemingly has everything handed to him through the privilege he has.

As far as the teaching aspect of this novel I think there is plenty of opportunities in the classroom to use part of this book, discover themes and to even build an entire unit out of the book. With themes like man vs nature, finding one’s self, struggle, and dealing with problems just to name a few, these are all important themes that can be developed and beneficial to students on many different levels. This book is also a great way to introduce journaling and biographical writing to a classroom such as creative writing or a solitary unit in an English Language Arts class. The novel is not only one that is full of themes, but it is also a full-on adventure novel that would keep students engaged and interested throughout the unit. All in all I believe this book would be a wonderful teaching tool for most high school students.