Into the Wild, originally written by Jon Krakauer, was adapted into a film directed by Sean Penn. Into the Wild is the tale of Chris McCandless and his two years of traveling up and down the west coast of North America. Ultimately, his goal was to spend a few weeks living off the land of Alaska to end his trip. Unfortunately, his time ends with him dying of starvation during his time in Alaska, but his story lives on through the journal he kept and the letters he sent to the friends he made along the way. McCandless's adventure was filled with difficult obstacles he had to overcome and some near-death experiences. McCandless's journey is exemplified through two mediums that portray two different interpretations of his story. By looking at the journalistic style, the use of letters, and the non-linear aspect of the book, we can see that Krakauer's interpretation is more factual. This is important because he wrote what happened to simply share McCandless's story. On the other hand, by looking at the use of voiceovers, shot choices, and the music of the film, we can see that Penn viewed McCandless's adventure as a story to be told to inspire others. His techniques created an uplifting vibe that would encourage others to take some chances like McCandless did. The two mediums successfully shared the story of Chris McCandless in a manner that emotionally affected their audiences. 

The incorporation of McCandless's letters to the people he met along the way is another technique used in Into the Wild to tell his story. The letters not only share parts of McCandless's that aren't told in his journal, but they also share the different relationships he formed while traveling. Each person McCandless met was impacted by his views on life. Based on his letters the beliefs of the people that McCandless met shaped his own beliefs. These people all shared something in common and that was impacting his journey to Alaska. The letters showed the formation of friendships that would last a lifetime. Two of McCandless's closest friends that he made on his journey were Gail Borah and Wayne Westerburg, an on-again off-again couple. As McCandless was leaving for his final trek to Alaska "he hugged Gail good-bye" and that's when she knew "noticed he was crying" Gail began to have "a bad feeling [she] wouldn't never see him again" (Krakauer 68). The emotions felt in this one scene of the book exemplified the relationships formed by McCandless are portrayed even further through is letters. 

The story of McCandless is written as a non-linear narrative, meaning it does not go in chronological order. The book begins and ends with the death of McCandless. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild in this style to support the reasons McCandless went on this adventure in the first place. Throughout the story, different events of McCandless's past are shared. The events prior to his journey impacted his decision to go to Alaska and they justified the type of person McCandless was. McCandless lived his life in a way that resembled his running strategies in high school; start off by going into the unknown at a significant pace and slowly make your way back into familiarity only to become familiar with the scenery and pick up the pace once again. McCandless was one to take a chance and try new things. Once he became accustomed to the new thing he would try something else going into everything blindly yet open-minded. He was not the average the kid. Instead of attending "keggers", like the average high schooler might, McCandless would "wander the seedier quarters of Washington, chatting with prostitutes and homeless people, buying them meals, earnestly suggesting ways they might improve their lives" (Krakauer 113). This is not the typical mindset of a high school boy; it showed McCandless's character and his desire to find out what life was really about. This, along with his belief that you don't need money to be happy, influenced him to make the trip to the west coast and eventually Alaska. By going back and forth between the present and the past, one is able to understand what led to McCandless's adventure and McCandless's death is discussed at that start and the end to exemplify this. 

In Sean Penn's movie adaptation of Into the Wild he uses a technique called voiceovers to show different perspectives the people in McCandless's life had on his journey and their different emotions, as well. Unlike Krakauer's book where there is an unknown narrator, the narrator for majority of the film is the actress who plays Carine, McCandless's sister. Majority of the scenes where a voiceover occurs, the voice being heard is hers. Penn does this to give the story a more personal feel and to show that McCandless's death had a huge impact on Carine, one of the closest people to him in his life. His death's effect on her is shown through her somber tone that is used in the scenes that she is narrating. However, one scene in particular, the sea scene where he and Jan have stripped down are jumping through the waves, the voiceover that is happening is McCandless's. This scene in particular shows the true bliss of life by jumping in the waves and is shown by them smiling; but by adding the voiceover the viewer is told the thoughts of McCandless as this scene is happening. Voiceovers allow the emotions of a scene that aren't completely obvious to be explained. So much can be shown by a single scene but the audio takes it to a whole new level by adding an explanation of emotions and thoughts. 

Another technique used in films is the shot choices made by the director to give each scene a certain perspective that will portray the meaning of the film better. Penn used a bunch of different shot choices, but the majority of them could fit into the categories of long and far away or close up shots. In Into the Wild long shots were used to show the setting of a scene. Different angles of the long shots gave the viewers different perspectives of the settings. On the other hand, close up shots made a scene more intimate. Viewers could see the true emotions of the characters. A perfect example of this would be the final scene of the movie when McCandless died. The camera is looking down on him and is close to his face. The camera captured the tears coming from his eyes as he looked to the sky and a semi smile formed on his face as he realized that death was approaching and he slipped into unconsciousness. The emotions captured in this one scene are shown only because of the shot choice Penn made when planning this scene. These two particular kinds of shots help fulfill the goal of creating an emotional reaction in the audience by giving the viewer a setting and feelings of the characters. 

The music and soundtrack of a film plays a big part in the emotional aspect of films. The sounds in films are put in to not only help form the context but to also create an emotional side to the film. For example, the dark deep sounds associated with the arrival of the shark in Jaws is supposed to create fear. In Into the Wild, a majority of the music that plays in the background of scenes is uplifting; in place to inspire the viewers and make them think of McCandless's trip and their own lives. The music is meant to also coincide with the feelings the characters were experiencing. In the scene where McCandless has reached the peak of the mountain in Alaska, loud, bright inspiring music plays as the camera circles around him. As McCandless raises his arms to show his accomplishment of reaching the top, the music proceeds to get louder. This is a good example of the music fitting with the emotions of the scene because throughout the film the main goal of his is to reach Alaska and the viewer can't help but feel joy when observing McCandless accomplished this and the music plays a key role in this. 

The two mediums used to share Chris McCandless's story were successful in creating emotions in their audiences. Different techniques used in the book and the film helped share the adventure of McCandless as an inspiring tale. The journalistic style, the use of letters, and the aspect of non-linear narration in the book shared the facts of his story; what happened and where. The use of voiceovers, the shot choices, and the music of the film created an inspirational tone of his two-year adventure that connected with the emotions of the viewers. 

