Into The Wild

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is the strongest example of the theme of Food as Sacred Substance?

A) Chris joins Wayne’s mother for dinner.

B) Chris feels regret for killing the moose.

C) Jim gives Chris his sandwiches at the Stampede Trailhead.

D) Chris takes a job at Wendy’s.

2. What does the Devils Thumb symbolize for Krakauer?

A) An assertion of independence and autonomy

B) An impossible obstacle to surmount

C) A failure of purpose and loss of pride

D) A declaration of dependence

3. What does the canoe trip in Chapter 4 reveal about McCandless?

A) He likely took precautions to stay within the US border.

B) He made decisions without thinking them through.

C) He cut off all ties to the academic successes of his youth.

D) He was following a path to solitude that others had found useful.

4. What is Krakauer’s purpose in providing first-hand accounts from people who met Chris?

A) To assure the reader that Chris was a real person

B) To support his point that Chris was a person worth remembering

C) To illustrate the in-depth research he conducted to write this story

D) To give the narrative a more factual feel

5. What does Jan Burres give Chris when she drops him off at the post office in Salton City?

A) Books

B) Money

C) Food

D) Knives

6. What is the most likely reason Ron Franz wants to adopt Chris?

A) Franz wants Chris to take over the family business.

B) Franz’s only child was killed in a car wreck.

C) Franz needs someone to look after him.

D) Franz wants to give Chris a good home.

7. How does Krakauer characterize Chris?

A) Arrogant but charismatic

B) Selfless but proud

C) Friendly and gullible

D) Naïve and guarded

8. Why does Chris work at Wayne’s grain elevator?

A) To buy food

B) To gain experience

C) To meet new people

D) To buy new gear

9. Which of the following legends does Krakauer say Chris is most like?

A) Everett Reuss

B) John Waterman

C) Gene Rosellini

D) Carl McCunn

10. Which of Chris McCandless’s intense passions does Krakauer contextualize by including the history of Irish monks known as the papar? (Chapter 9)

A) A love of nature

B) A desire for adventure

C) A search for peace

D) A refusal of human company

11. What does Wayne Westerberg provide the police with to help them contact Chris’s parents after his death?

A) Chris’s social security number

B) Chris’s family’s phone number

C) Pictures for identification

D) Tax forms

12. What technique does Krakauer use by beginning his narrative with Chris’s message “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man” (Chapter 1)?

A) Flattery

B) Foreshadowing

C) Irony

D) Hyperbole

13. Why does Carine think things would have turned out differently if Chris had taken Buck, the family dog, with him?

A) Chris would have felt protective of Buck and would have been more careful.

B) Buck was aging and his condition would have prevented Chris from risky travels.

C) Buck had a keen sense of danger and Chris would have paid attention to his warnings.

D) Chris would have felt annoyed by Buck, which would prompt Chris to return home.

14. What does Krakauer discover as he sits in the bar after summitting the Devils Thumb?

A) He wants to find a way to make a living climbing mountains.

B) He should have listened to his father and gone to medical school.

C) Mountaineering is too dangerous for him.

D) No one cares about his triumph.

15. Which of the following is an example of irony in Into the Wild?

A) Chris’s tale is a riches-to-rags story.

B) Chris was within a six-mile radius of four cabins when he died.

C) Chris wastes most of the moose he kills.

D) One of Chris’s favorite authors was Jack London.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. One of Chris’s last journal entries reads, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.” What does this suggest about what Chris learned on his pilgrimage?

2. What similarities do you see between Jon Krakauer and Chris McCandless?