The Alaskan odyssey of Chris McCandless, also known by his alias Alex Supertramp, is told in two different mediums.  These are a book by Jon Krakauer and a film directed by Sean Penn.   Both are titled Into the Wild.  While these formats do present the same base story, the methods in which the story is produced is very different.  Where the book can only go so far in descriptions of wildlife scenery, the film can tell the audience in a second.  While the film has some struggles to communicate the thoughts and mood of its characters, the novel can be very in-depth with the characters.  These different mediums provide for different methods to portray McCandless in the way the creator wishes to.  The methods used by the creators behind their respective production are camera panoramas and zooms, use of music and camera movement in McCandless' final days in Alaska, the employment of silence and foreshadowing, introductions of the main character, and the use of postcards from McCandless.

Throughout the film, during scenes in which McCandless is exploring the wild, the director, Sean Penn, uses panoramic shots of the wilderness around McCandless to convey a natural, peaceful mood and to give environmental context.  The shot shows the pure beauty that McCandless has found himself in.  Meanwhile, country music played on an acoustic guitar help to set the mood that McCandless is experiencing out in the wilderness.  This helps the viewer to become immersed in the world that McCandless is seeking to belong.  At other times the camera will zoom out from McCandless or the bus and zoom so far out that it becomes clear how much wilderness there is around.  This is meant to help the viewer realize the degree in which McCandless is putting himself out in the wilderness.  Another use of this is to show the viewer that McCandless is not insane.  McCandless is risking life and limb and is putting his family life on hold for a chance to live a life among nature. The audience can better understand this by seeing the beauty that nature has to offer mankind.

The camera begins to act strangely during McCandless' later moments in Alaska.  The film differs from the novel in the manner of McCandless' death.  The movie portrays McCandless to have made an honest mistake by eating the wrong plant.  This plant looks different only by the horizontal veins in the roots.  However, this plant will poison the one who consumes it by making it impossible for the consumer to properly digest or utilize the food it eats by any capacity.  This leads to McCandless' eventual starvation after more than 100 days of survival in the Alaskan wilderness successfully.  While he is first experiencing pain and writhing on the ground, the camera takes us low with McCandless.  While He is struggling to read about the plant that he ate by mistake, the camera pans over the text and emphasizes certain words like death and starvation.  All of this is done in an effort to create fear and a feeling of hopelessness in the audience.  Also, this shows that McCandless will not give up but will instead try to get food and wait for a miracle.  Even in McCandless' agony he fights on until death takes him.  He is resilient. 

 The music throughout the film is light and happy in an effort to give the audience the impression that McCandless is perfectly fine on his own.  While the effect of this music on the mood of the story is great, the lack of music is even more noticeable and powerful.  Upbeat country music is playing up until McCandless comes into contact with the old, broken down school bus.  At this moment, the music stops.  Only the rustling of trees is audible.  This moment of silence is signals an intrusion into McCandless' perfect Alaskan adventure.  The purpose of going far out into the Alaskan wilderness was to be away from civilization.  As much as this discovery disturbed McCandless initially, he soon would come to rely on it to be his new home.  This broken down bus also serves to foreshadow the eventual breaking down of McCandless, his death.  Another instance of the failure of civilization foreshadows McCandless' demise.  This is the scene in which the car breaks down.  These two scenes show the real vulnerability that civilization must face if it clashes with the wilderness.  After McCandless settles down in the bus, the music returns to its original fast paced and happy state.  This lasts throughout the time McCandless stays in Alaska up to the time he decides to head back to civilization.  Here McCandless comes into contact with the river that is now melted and far too big and fast for McCandless to cross.  McCandless tries to cross but is swept into the current and almost dragged off however, he is able to pull himself back to the edge.  At this point in the film the music turns dark and remains predominantly so until the ending credits.  This change in music signifies the first real, dangerous conflict of the story.  This is the moment when McCandless may begin to doubt the effectiveness of his abilities to get him out of this predicament.  

The novel and the film begin by introducing the audience to McCandless in different but effective ways.  The novel begins by following a man named Jim Gallien.  He is driving along Alaska and picks up a hitchhiker who goes by the name Alex Supertramp.  Gallien spends time talking to the boy in an attempt to better understand his reasoning for hitchhiking in Alaska and for wanting to live in the wilderness (Krakauer 4).  This version of opening is designed to introduce the audience to the character of Chris McCandless.  We are supposed to realize that he is stubborn but ready for the wilderness ahead of him.  This passage also allows the audience to see how McCandless connects with people without spending very much time with them.  The film begins with a scene of McCandless' mom waking up after dreaming of her son.  This approach at an intro is effective in a different manner.  It shows that McCandless has a family that worries about him.  McCandless' mom is able to sense that McCandless is in trouble, a detail omitted from the novel.  After this scene the film shows a great shot of the Alaskan wilderness and then follows the intro of the novel with the scene of McCandless and Gallien.  However, the film only features the end of that chapter when McCandless is dropped off by Gallien and given his boots. The book sought to lead by showing McCandless' ability to connect with new people.  The film led with a connection to McCandless' former life that he sacrificed to live on the road.  McCandless' family clearly miss him and want him back.  This shows that McCandless cares less for his family than they care for him.  In other words, the film shows a flaw of McCandless from the get-go.  This is likely an attempt to make him more relateable to the audience.  The novel initially shows a positive characteristic.

Before the story begins in the novel, there is an epigraph of a postcard from McCandless to Wayne Westerberg.  The final postcard tells Westerberg that McCandless "now walk[s] into the wild" (Krakauer 3).  This postcard is a message to thank Westerberg for his friendship and tells him that he is a good man.  This serves to convey to the audience that McCandless does have people in his life that he cares dearly for.  Most of the story portrays a side of McCandless that is more primal and savage.  He has an insatiable desire to be out alone in the wilderness.  This grounds the reader in the fact that McCandless is a man who loves other people as opposed to only himself.  The film adaptation also features this line near the beginning of the story.  As scenes of McCandless walking through the wilderness play in the background, different postcards or letters are read aloud by McCandless' voice as a voiceover.  This serves to show that McCandless has been very busy in his life in the wilderness.  He has networked with many different kinds of people from all over his travels.  People love McCandless and he loves them back because his capacity for companionship is vast despite being a loner on the road.  He will come to realize this much later when he notes that "Happiness only real when shared" in his journal (Krakauer 189).

In conclusion, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and its film adaptation directed by Sean Penn employ different methods in their efforts to develop the Character of Chris McCandless.  Some of these methods are; camera panoramas and zooms, use of music, and the use of camera movement in McCandless' final days in Alaska, the employment of silence and foreshadowing, introductions of the main character, and the use of postcards from McCandless.  Through these methods, the true character of Chris McCandless is found.  He is shown to be sane, wild, caring, and resilient.  He was someone who accomplished things.  Even though laziness plagues millennials due our little exposure to the outside, we can all learn a thing or two from Chris McCandless.

