Into the Wild, the novel by John Krakauer and movie adaptation directed by Sean Penn, follows Christopher McCandless' two-year journey to escape society. McCandless grew up in a well-off family, and upon graduating high school he attended Emory University. While at Emory he realized how unhappy he was while living among society. As a result, after graduating from Emory University, he began his journey away from his past. Over a two-year period, McCandless traveled all over the country looking for solitude and freedom from the pressures of society, reinventing him self as Alex Supertramp. He documented his trip in his personal journal and in the postcards he sent. He also kept many books in which he highlighted ideas that he agreed with. Words were used a lot in McCandless' life, this is reflected in both the non-fiction book and the movie adaptation. Krakauer uses McCandless' written journals, letters, and highlighted readings to help expose pieces of his personality while Penn relies on the use of those materials to keep the pace of his movie and create a strong bond between the audience and Christopher McCandless.

In his book, Krakauer uses McCandless' written journals to expose his thought process. Considering McCandless' journal is the only first hand account of his journey, it is expected to be heavily used in the telling of the story. But, surprisingly, Krakauer uses direct quotes of the diary sparingly. Instead Krakauer simply inserts quotes from time to time and tells most of McCandless' story through paraphrasing. While the journal entries are used sparingly, the readers learn a lot about him from them. In the few entries included, we can see that McCandless has a very factual tone and rarely inserts any outside context into his own story. "Canals break off,  ... ., Encounters some canal officials,  ... ., Alex is crushed. Pleads an persist ... .," (Krakauer 34). By including the journal entries, Krakauer allows the reader to see McCandless' style of thinking. One interesting readers gather from the journal entries is that McCandless often referred to himself in third person. The audience can conclude that he views his actions as Alex Supertramp as somehow separate of his actions as Chris McCandless. "At last! Alex finds what he believes to be the ... . Alex finds Mexican ... ." (Krakauer 35). Krakauer analyzes the fact that the entries are in third person, saying that the entries, "often veered toward melodrama" (Krakauer 29). By offering his opinion he tells the reader that the journal entries were plot based and not centered around McCandless' feelings. This exposes how McCandless viewed life as event based and not self-centered.

Krakauer includes letters McCandless wrote to his friends to show how he enjoyed personal relationships even though he wanted to live in seclusion. The written letters function dually as plot fillers and examples of how McCandless interacted with people. By including the letters, Krakauer forces the reader to realize that McCandless put effort into withholding friendships. This sheds light on the idea that while he may have wished to lose touch with society and his family, he obviously still craved the attention and affection of others. McCandless could have easily never talked to the people he met again, but he consistently went out of his way to let them know he was still alive and working towards his Alaskan dream. Krakauer's choice to include the letters in their entirety allowed the reader to see how Alex interacted with others. While analyzing the letters, it is noticeable that no matter the circumstances, McCandless often relayed positive messages to his friends. In the letter where he talks about being kicked off of a train, he concludes the message by saying, "I got the last laugh when I caught the same train 5 minutes later ... " (Krakauer 53). The letters provided written examples of his positive outlook on life.

On multiple occasions, Krakauer includes the highlighted words in McCandless' personal books to draw conclusions of what drove McCandless to leave society and enter the Wild. Chapter three begins with an excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's Family Happiness, "I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger ... " (Krakauer 15). This passage talks about wanting to get away from the normalcy and the routine of daily life. By including this passage, Krakauer allows readers to gain insight into what McCandless was hoping to achieve from going into the wild. Up until the day McCandless left for his journey he always did what others asked of him. By leaving for his journey he was finally able to do what he wanted; experience the unpredictable and the unknown. Chapter eleven opens with a quote form Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, " ... . All your life you had been led by the hand like a small child and suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself ... ." (Krakauer 103). Again this passage brings to light McCandless' desire to forge his own path and test his ability to survive on his own.

Sean Penn's movie adaptation of Into the Wild utilizes subtitles to help establish setting and time. The plot of Penn's movie does not work chronologically; instead it follows multiple storylines and shifts from one setting to another rapidly. When used in movies, this type of plot can easily confuse the audience. In order to smooth out transitions and allow for a more fluid understanding of the plot, Penn inserts a few different types of subtitles into the movie. The first type is a chapter subtitle.  The movie moves through multiple stages of McCandless' life, Penn breaks these stages down into chapters. By including the chapter names, Penn reveals to the audience a common theme in all of the upcoming scenes, subconsciously causing the audience to pay attention to to the way all of the storylines in that chapter are similar. The chapter titles act as a guide of what details to look for and how to interpret them. The second type of subtitles utilized depicts the setting of a particular scene. When changing from one storyline to another Penn includes a wide shot of the setting, in which the subtitles containing the date and location appear. By including these subtitles Penn is giving the audience a timeline to help organize all of the story lines. Penn's use of subtitles allows the audience to shift focus from one period in time to another instantly, which allows the movie to continue its rapid pace seamlessly.

Penn's use of editing to form written words on the screen works to form a bond between the audience and Chris McCandless. From the first scene of the movie, it is noticeable that written words play a large role in the film. The first scene opens up with the words "and now I walk into the wild," appearing on screen as if they are being written (Penn). Through out the continuation of the movie, more words appear to be written on screen. Any time McCandless is shown writing in the movie, whether it be a letter, or journal entry, it is shown on screen. By editing the movie in this way, Penn creates the visual sensation that the audience is actually writing the words. This sensation leads to the audience feeling connected to McCandless, almost as if they, too were experiencing his journey. This technique is used as McCandless carves his last note into a piece of wood before he dies. The audience is experiencing everything form his point of view which makes it much more emotional. In creating this connection Penn forces the audience to have an intense reaction to McCandless' death.

In his movie Sean Penn uses camera angles that focus on the words that McCandless is reading. While McCandless is reading his books, the camera does a close up on the words he is reading. The close up is done in a sweeping motion, which mock the feeling of reading a book in person. Penn uses this filming technique to strengthen the bond the audience feels with McCandless. Penn engages the audience to make them feel as though they are completing the same actions as McCandless. Penn employs this technique throughout the whole film, but he specifically uses it at the end to add a dramatic effect. It is best used in the scene where McCandless discovers he has eaten the wrong plant, which will eventually lead to his death. The way the scene is shot gives the audience McCandless' point of view as he reads that he is going to die. By placing the words on screen and choosing to reveal his eventual death in written form Penn places emphasis the importance of written word to McCandless. 

Krakauer and Penn both captured the emphasis writing and reading had in McCandless' life. Everything McCandless did he documented in writing, and most of his thoughts came from books that he read. Krakauer chose include McCandless's writings and readings in his book to help readers gain a more personal understanding of McCandless. Penn uses the writings and readings to help the audience understand the story line and connect with McCandless. Because both adaptations of the story focus so heavily on the readings and writings it can be concluded that readings and writings were very important to McCandless. 

