
Author Jon Krakauer and movie director Sean Penn both tell the journey of a man named Christopher McCandless's from Atlanta, Georgia to the Alaskan wilderness. Chris McCandless was from an upper middle class family, but he chose to throw that life away. McCandless viewed material goods as something meaningless and not needed in life. McCandless instead wanted to live in the wild to, because he thought that it was the way to attain true happiness. He also wanted to prove to himself and others that it was possible to survive in the wild without the need of modern material goods. McCandless eventually died during his stay in the Alaskan wild after having survived for at least one hundred days. McCandless wrote in his journal that even though he was excited to make it to one hundred days he acknowledged he was in a physically weak. Not long after that entry, McCandless died. Krakauer theorizes that McCandless died from eating some sort of moldy potato seed, which was mentioned by McCandless when he wrote, "Extremely weak, fault of pot. Seed" (Krakauer 189). All these experiences were recorded in McCandless's journal. These journal entries would later be used in both Krakauer's book and Penn's movie. Krakauer uses the literary techniques of nonlinear narrative and personal interview to write a story about McCandless's journey, while Penn uses the filming techniques of cinematography and sound to tell his version.

Krakauer tells his story out of the usual chronological order, using nonlinear narrative, to switch between the different aspects of McCandless's life. The narrative of the book is constantly switching between the past and the present. For example, in the first sentence of the first chapter, it reads, "Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker" (Krakauer 3). The book jumps straight into McCandless's last known connection with anyone before going into the Alaskan wilderness. Jim Gallien was the person that drove McCandless to the Stampede Trail where he would begin his journey. The next chapter suddenly talks about the discovery of McCandless's decomposing body, found by a group of random people who decided to visit the bus that he was living in. All of the following chapters use a similar sequence, alternating between different time periods. Krakauer uses this technique to first describe a specific experience that McCandless had gone through, and then give an explanation of why McCandless acted the way he did. This can be seen in chapter eight when Krakauer first presented letters that were written to him that characterize McCandless as being similar to those "idealistic, energetic young guys who overestimated themselves, underestimated the country, and ended up in trouble" (Krakauer 71). These letters criticized McCandless and said he brought death upon himself by going into the wilderness without being well prepared. Most of the blame was put on McCandless by the letters. Krakauer tried to protect McCandless from the criticism by bringing up past examples of similar journeys by other people. This can be seen in the following chapter when he talks specifically about twenty year old Everett Ruess's journey into Utah's desert. Like McCandless, Reuss first hitchhiked to travel to different places for fun by himself. Reuss eventually decided to live in Utah's desert, but he never made it out. By comparing McCandless's story to Reuss's, Krakauer shows that McCandless's journey was not an isolated incident. Krakauer showed that McCandless was not crazy by going into the wild, and many people before McCandless also tried dangerous journeys too. McCandless and Reuss both "tried to follow their dream" (Krakauer 96). This chapter helps to show that McCandless was not acting on impulse, but rather he knew exactly what danger he was getting himself into. The nonlinear narrative creates an effective way of conveying McCandless's various journeys.

Another literary technique Krakauer uses is the personal interviews to understand McCandless through the eyes of other people that knew him. He interviewed McCandless's family as well as the various people McCandless met through his journey. Walt McCandless, McCandless's dad, states, "Chris was fearless even when he was little," which shows that McCandless was a natural born risk taker (Krakauer 109). Krakauer uses this information to explain that McCandless was not just acting on impulse to travel to the Alaskan wilderness, but it had always been a possibility for McCandless to do it. In another interview, Krakauer learned that Walt had actually maintained a relationship with his ex-wife while he already had McCandless. Walt kept a relationship with his ex-wife and McCandless's mom, Billie, at the same time. This happened when McCandless was still young, and Walt was able to end his relationship with his ex-wife before McCandless grew up and moved east. McCandless eventually found out about his dad's relationship with his ex-wife from one of his trip to California. Carine McCandless, McCandless's sister, stated, "Chris was the sort of person who brooded about things" (Krakauer 121). Krakauer reasoned from Carine's statement that McCandless felt betrayed that his father would do such a horrible thing, because McCandless's relationship with his parents worsened during the summer he graduated from high school. Given the facts that McCandless was adventurous and kept things to himself, Krakauer asserts that McCandless wanted to get away from all the negativity by leaving everything behind and going into the Alaskan wilderness. 

In his film version Penn uses the film technique of cinematography to position and move the camera in different shots to portray a particular scene. The beginning of the movie starts with McCandless being dropped on the outskirts of the Alaskan wilderness. As McCandless starts to make his way into the wilderness, the camera raises up high and gives a panoramic shot of the surroundings. This camera shot the vast emptiness of Alaska to the viewer by showing nothing but wilderness in the shot. This high panoramic shot foreshadows the dangerous situation McCandless is about to get himself into. The dangers included how McCandless underestimated the wilderness by not bringing enough materials. There were also certain times the camera did a full shot. For example, a full shot of Walt was shown when he found out about McCandless's death. Walt was out in the middle of the street crying hysterically. This lets the viewer know that Walt actually did care for his son. This is important because McCandless was portrayed as someone who really hated his parents. The full shot of Walt completely turns away the notion that Walt did not care about McCandless, so it was not one of the reasons that contributed to his son leaving. Penn uses various cinematography techniques throughout the movie that convey the message that McCandless was loved by his family, but McCandless just did not understand their feelings.

Penn also used the film technique of sound to set the mood for different scenes of the movie. An example would be Penn using different music depending on the situation. Adventurous music were the dominant before the scenes when McCandless realizes the river can't be crossed. The adventurous music conveyed to the audience that he was happy and enjoying the wild. After the river scene, the music turned serious and reminded the audience about how dangerous a situation McCandless was in. Towards the end of the movie, a fast-paced heartbeat sound is played while McCandless is lying in the bus after eating the poisonous plants. The heartbeat sound was erratic, and it was used to signify that something was wrong with McCandless. Then the heartbeat suddenly stopped and McCandless lay still. Penn uses music to tell the audience that this is when he died without having to use words. As the music stops, McCandless was not suffering from the poison, but rather had a peaceful look as to say it is over. This creates a more emotional scene, because the viewer's attention is on McCandless without having to listen to anybody speaking. Penn uses music to convey McCandless's feelings, which he wanted the viewer to also experience.

There are scenes where Penn uses camera shots and music to make a scene more detailed. Many scenes of McCandless walking around the wild played upbeat music. The upbeat music gave the impression that McCandless really did enjoy being out in the wild but not because he was forcing himself to live there. There were multiple close-up shots of McCandless's face during his journey smiling and really enjoying the wild specifically when he first arrived at the abandoned bus. He was very excited to explore the area. On the other hand, serious scenes had alarming music and erratic camera movement. For example, the scene when McCandless ate and found out about the poisonous plant. The camera and music mimicked McCandless's actions of being flustered and confused. The camera shots and music are used to enhance the particular emotions that Penn wants the audience to feel with McCandless.

Krakauer and Penn use their respective technique to tell the story of McCandless. Krakauer uses the literary technique of nonlinear narrative and personal interview in his book to explain why McCandless did what he did. Krakauer combine these techniques to present past experiences that might have culminated in McCandless's decision to go to Alaska. Meanwhile, Penn uses film technique of cinematography and sound to enhance the feelings that McCandless is going through. These techniques makes the story of McCandless more descriptive and give an insight into McCandless's views of living a simpler life without the stress of the world he lived in.

