Christopher McCandless led America on an epic expedition throughout the western frontier and into the Alaskan wilderness.  His story, portrayed in print by author John Krakauer and in film by director Sean Penn, respectively, is one of societal abandonment and isolation.  As McCandless leaves everything he once knew to whither away in his forgotten past, he creates a new self-image, turning to a life of hitchhiking and even coining a new name for himself: Alexander Supertramp.  McCandless embarks on his journey across America and up the West Coast, forming new bonds with the individuals he encounters along the way.  His ultimate goal is to reach Alaska, where he plans to "walk deep into the bush and live off the land for a few months" (Krakauer 4).  Unfortunately, his adventurous nature and desire to prove that modern society is flawed are what lead to his demise, as he is found dead inside an abandoned bus a few months after breaking ground in Alaska.  Krakauer's Into the Wild is an attempt to tell McCandless' story, based off his journal entries, letters to friends, and the personal interviews Krakauer conducted with the few individuals with which McCandless interacted, while Sean Penn bases his movie adaptation directly off of the book.  Each work hypothesizes reasons for McCandless's Alaskan expedition, and both Krakauer and Penn make use of epigraphs and voiceovers, respectively, to propose possible explanations for his rejection of the modern world. 

Throughout Kraukauer's book, chapters open up with epigraphs that give the reader a look into the mind of Christopher McCandless with potential reasons for the desertion of his previous life.  While most are quotations from some of his favorite authors, others include letters written by McCandless himself, as well as newspaper articles about his death.  Krakauer uses these epigraphs to reveal the values that McCandless held true to heart, like the value of nature and the corruption of society, which he developed in part from reading the works of some of his most favorite authors, including Jack London and Henry David Thoreau.  These authors, including several others, were well known for their works that included frequent themes such as the crookedness of society and the elegance of the uninhabited world around us.  Krakauer opens chapter 3 with an epigraph from Leo Tolstoy's "Family Happiness", which reads, "I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence [ ... ] I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life" (Krakauer 15).  Krakauer is making it clear to the reader that McCandless did not desire the average American life like the rest of society did.  Instead, he yearned for the danger and excitement that could be found in nature all around him.  The oppurtunities and possibilities he left behind in Washington, D.C. meant nothing to him.  Instead, he saw his future in the wilderness.  His moral standpoint and outlook on humanity are what drive him to leave everything behind and start a new life, once and for all. 

In his movie version of the book, Sean Penn makes use of voiceovers in place of epigraphs to explain McCandless' utter fascination with the wilderness. Most voiceovers are spoken by McCandless himself, while some are spoken by the actress playing his sister, Carine McCandless, as she gives us a deeper look into the mind of her brother and exposes what makes him tick.  She makes it clear that the literature McCandless has grown fond of (i.e. London, etc.) is where he inherited most of his values and morals.  She notes that "he risked what could have been a relentlessly lonely path but found company in the characters of the books he loved from writers like Tolstoy, Jack London and Thoreau"(Penn).  It was through these works that he came to condemn society and except the wilderness as his true calling. His books and readings convinced him that there was something better for him out in Alaska.  The sheer power of literature is what really drove McCandless to drop everything, start fresh, and begin a new life. 

Because Krakauer tells a story that has its missing parts, he uses epigraphs to fill in the blanks as to why McCandless broke away from society.  As noted earlier in Chapter Three's epigraph, he craved adventure and wanted to avoid the monotony of society at all costs.  It reads, "I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love" (Krakauer 15).  McCandless' expedition is not only a rebellion against the societal norm, but also a mission to find his true self.  Alaska is where he McCandless seeks solitude, hoping to find his identity and redefine himself as Alexander Supertramp.  

In his movie, Sean Penn uses voiceovers to help the audience further understand McCandless' motives, and what drove him on his expedition.  Because Carine stays with her parents throughout the film, she is used as the "inside man" in a sense, exposing the viewer to the life McCandless left behind.  Several times throughout the film, her voice can be heard while the movie depicts scenes of her fighting parents, giving us a glimpse of their past experiences.  She sees the troubles that her brother wishes to leave in his past, and because the two were so close, she understands why her brother has left, and she is accepting of it.  Carine states, "I understood what he was doing [ ... ] and now he was emancipated from the world of abstraction, false security, parents, and material excess" (Penn).  She sees now that her brother is at peace, living the life he was truly meant to, without the burden of society's necessities weighing down on his shoulders.

The use of Krakauer's epigraphs help depict the struggles that McCandless endured inside his own home as a child and the negative relationship he shared with his parents.  McCandless' youth was filled with constant fighting and unrest.  Krakauer writes that it was not uncommon for McCandless to come home to huge arguments between his mom and dad.  He also notes that it wasn't until later in his life that McCandless discovered that both he and his sister were bastard children.  Their father impregnated their mother twice while still legally married to another woman.  The resentment that McCandless has for both his parents after this was revealed to him burns inside of him with a passion.  Chapter Eight opens with an epigraph from Edward Hoagland's Up the Black to Chalkyitsik, which states that "[w]e have in America 'The Big Two-Hearted River' tradition: taking your wounds to the wilderness for a cure, a conversion, a rest, or whatever"(Krakauer 70).  McCandless yearns for the wilderness because he sees it as his medicine, the cure for his disgust and rejection.  Through nature, McCandless can finally be liberated from the shackles that his parents have cast upon him.

Carine McCandless's voiceovers in Into the Wild are key in order for the viewer to be able to fully comprehend how McCandless sees his parents.  She helps explain her brother's desire to get away by sharing some of their childhood experiences.  The movie depicts scenes when the two were just children as she states, "from as long ago as Chris and I could remember, there have been daily bouts of rage in our house, violence that we were forced to witness" (Penn).  She makes a point to say that both her and her brother were lied to about how their parents met, and both were the result of an unfaithful marriage.  McCandless showed no love for either of his parents, which is most likely why he never mentioned them to any of the new people he met throughout his journey.  He was putting them behind him, to wither away with the rest of his past.  Carine McCandless's voiceovers allow the viewer to feel her brother's pain and help understand how their parent's dysfunctional relationship played a huge role in why McCandless decided to walk away from it all.

Not much of McCandless' epic journey is well documented, so Krakauer and Penn take it into their own hands to piece together his story.  In their attempts to understand what fueled McCandless and what led him on the path to start a new life for himself, each uses specific literary and filmography tools to expose his true motives.  Krakauer's use of epigraphs in each of his chapters identifies McCandless' true passsions- his idea that nature is all-powerful, his hatred for society, and the disgust he has for his parents.  Penn's use of voiceovers has the same purpose as Krakauer's epigraphs, but at the same time, they are tied to an image for the viewer to see. Now one can actually see a picture of McCandless' current situation.  The viewer can comprehend what it was like for McCandless to escape from his problems, and leave the only life he ever knew behind him.  It is clear now that Chris seeks his solitude in nature, and Krakauer and Penn do a great job of telling his story, the story of a young man who finally escaped the societal norm, by walking into the wild.

