Both Jon Krakauer and Sean Penn were given the story of Christopher McCandless to recreate the trials and tribulations of entering the wild. Krakauer had to convey all of his personal thoughts with words alone. Luckily, he could make the book as long and detailed as he wanted. Penn took the story and told it through a screenplay, which gave him both many advantages and disadvantages. Penn could use the visual aspects of the movie screen to make the audience connect more with the story, but the movie medium also gave him a limited amount of time to tell the story. Penn used the small time he had very well. Penn got many ideas out through not only the dialogue but also the camera shots, sound track, lighting, and the notes that McCandless wrote; he even threw in a breaking of the fourth wall in the middle, which told us more about McCandless's behavior. Each element of the film worked in unison to create a strong symbolic and literal meaning to McCandless's story.

In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer uses interesting literary devices by being the voice and opinion of how McCandless thought during his times of desperation. In the book, Krakauer literally inserts himself into the story and gives us his personal feeling on the matter. The reason Krakauer gives us his personal experience is that he has accomplished great feats in the outdoors. He accomplished something similar to what McCandless wished to do. In the movie, Chris McCandless's sister, Carine McCandless, does this. She is the one in the family who best understood her brother and what he was doing. Chris McCandless's parents were concerned at first and only wanted him to return home so that things would return to normal. The longer he was gone the less angry they became and they actually started to miss him. Two scenes in particular demonstrate the start of the loss and several months after his disappearance. The first being when his parents found out he left, they returned home to find all the mail they had sent him. They became upset at him at first, but quickly turned on each other and started to fight one another. We see in this scene that Carine McCandless is just hiding in the hallways listening to them fight. In a later scene, we see the father walking down the street where he falls to his feet in tears. His mother doesn't cry, but is instead paranoid every time she sees someone walking on the streets because she hopes that possibly one time it will be her baby boy Chris McCandless (Into). This shows us that his family actually cared about him but it took a while for their true feelings to come to the surface.

While this is happening, Carine McCandless narrates, explaining that this is no surprise to her and that her brother was always a free spirit who liked to travel. She tells the audience of the time when Chris McCandless was little and how he ran out late at night only to go down a few streets and enter the stranger's house. Once inside, he opened the candy drawer and ate their sweets. This shows us how adventurous and spontaneous that her brother can be. He was always like this and has since expanded his neighborhood. It cuts from the childhood memory to him jumping off a cliff into a river. Carine McCandless understands her brother the best because she had to deal with nearly the same issues growing up. That's why Penn chose her out of all the other characters to narrate and justify Chris McCandless's actions. One way the two siblings grew close was from the trauma of their parents fighting and arguing. We later learn that McCandless's father, Walt McCandless, at one time would beat his mother, Billie McCandless, when they would argue. This made Chris McCandless and Carine McCandless comfort each other since they only had one another.  

Breaking the fourth wall isn't something Krakauer did in his book and that was a smart choice. In the novel, the entire time we are told about McCandless and others like him. The closest he comes to breaking the fourth wall is when he addresses what other people thought of his book "Krakauer is a kook if he doesn't think Chris 'Alexander Supertramp' McCandless was a kook, McCandless had already gone over the edge and just happened to hit bottom in Alaska" (Krakauer 71). By being able to address his criticism, he can make a counter statement. One reason Krakauer couldn't make McCandless break the fourth wall is because it was an almost documentary style book. This is reinforced with the fact that he puts other people's opinions of McCandless in the story. The same can be said about the movie, which is why he only does it the one time. Sean Penn put in a short scene where McCandless breaks the fourth wall and looks at the viewer. He is eating an apple in the scene and appreciating all that it has to offer (Into). This is something that is not done often in movies as is can take the viewer out of the experience. It also emphasizes McCandless's love for nature. The entire scene is of him praising the apple and himself in a way. He is nature. He wants to get back to the roots of it. He said that the apple was "the apple of my eye" (Into).  Now this is a pun but it is also a great representation of how he feels in that moment. He is in love with nature and all it has to offer. McCandless calls the apple a super apple and himself a super tramp (Into). Just as that apple is completely natural and the best nature has to offer, McCandless thinks that he is the best when it comes to people traveling the country. This shows that he is completely confident in his ability to survive whatever misfortunes come his way. He seems very happy and this is only reassured by the fact that he smiles into the camera before the scene changes. 

There is no soundtrack in the book so instead Krakauer gives accounts of McCandless from others point of view. By knowing how others thought of McCandless it makes us want to think in a similar manner. The soundtrack of the movie is also very important because Penn could just have easily not included one since the movie is about how Chris McCandless wants to go back to nature and live off the land. The soundtrack uses natural sounding instruments like a guitar, tambourine, and others. It is very important that the songs in this movie have natural sounds because an electric guitar would not emphasize nature. During some scenes of McCandless in nature there is no music. This is just as important as when there is music because it puts an emphasis on the natural sounds in the scenes. The instruments in the music are representative of Chris McCandless himself. The acoustic guitar is a solo instrument for a solo performance in some instances, just as he is a solo act. The tambourine can represent Chris McCandless in that he has a vibrant personality. Much like playing the tambourine, it takes skill to understand how McCandless works. He doesn't conform to anyone or any rules. In the book the best line to represent this is "How I feed myself is none of the government's business. Fuck their stupid rules" (Krakauer 6) and this is evident when he breaks the law in order to go canoeing. 

The camera shots have much to say just on their own. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so what is a camera shot worth? All the scenes with dialogue between the characters were super close ups of the characters' faces. This not only adds intensity but allows us to analyze their facial expressions more. We may not be constantly thinking about what their face looks like because we are paying more attention to what is being said but subconsciously we are analyzing every little move and each muscle twitch can mean many things to us. Many of the shots of Chris McCandless in nature are either started or ended with a high shot of the terrain around him. Penn did this to show us that he was truly isolated out in the middle of the Alaskan environment. The camera also follows the feelings of Chris McCandless through his journey. When he is happy and calm all the pans are smooth and slow. As he becomes trapped and in danger the camera starts to have a panicked motion with it. The scene that best exemplifies this is when Chris McCandless is beginning to starve because all the game he once hunted is gone. He has to start eating berries and roots (Into). The camera follows him closely and jerks from one angle to another as he moves from bush to bush. Making the camera do this gives the interpretation of being there with him and having to scavenge for food with him.

The lighting is just as important as the camera shots themselves. This is very obvious if you take it to extreme cases such as no lighting or so much that it blinds the viewer. The lighting in all the nature scenes is natural lighting. This must have been very difficult to use since it was always a perfect day up until the point he became trapped by the melted river he crossed in order to get to the bus. Penn used natural light over artificial for these scenes because artificial light in nature would have taken away from the beauty nature has to offer. For scenes like the one after the graduation in the diner he used artificial light. Penn did this to represent that Chris McCandless may have felt fake in his former life as a member of society. Just as the light was fake so was Chris McCandless life. He was only doing it to please his parents but after he graduated, he decided to change.

Penn found an amazing way to incorporate Chris McCandless's journal entries and notes into the film. He used a close up shot every time he was making an entry so we felt like we were with Chris McCandless on his daily struggle. Throughout the film, Chris McCandless quotes lines from his favorite books in reference to his life. When Chris McCandless realizes that he is doomed and there is no chance for him to survive he makes his own memorable quote "Happiness only real when shared" (Krakauer 189) which can indicate that he may have regreted his decision to enter the Alaskan wild. He found out the hard way that if you are they only one who is happy and you don't share it then it really doesn't exist.

Penn used all the resources he had in order to make the best representation of what actually happened. From his lighting to the words that are written by McCandless. Carine McCandless was the second biggest role as she replaced Krakauer and had to compensate for the lack of other stories similar to Chris McCandless's. The camera and lighting worked in unison in order to make nature seem as real as it was for the real Chris McCandless. The same goes for the soundtrack but it also represents McCandless as an individual. With the little screen time Penn had, he gave just as much if not more information than Krakauer on Chris McCandless's life.

