The wild is regarded as vast, and, oftentimes, scary because of unknown features, inhabitants and the lack of comforts that humans today are used to. This connotation for the wild deters many from venturing out without many supplies, and tracking devices. Practically speaking, it would make sense to bring as much technology along when venturing into the wild. The opposite was true for Chris McCandless, or as some knew him, Alexander Supertramp. McCandless was a young adventurous twenty two year old who set out on his own after graduating college to live off the land by himself. McCandless had an idea in his head that he was going to go to Alaska and fend for himself in the wild. He had no help or contact with the outside world. The only record of his time in the Alaskan bush was diary entries he wrote to chronicle his time there. McCandless's time on earth was tragically cut short in the wild, and he was found weeks after he had passed in an abandoned bus that had been converted into a shelter by moose hunters. The events leading up to the discovery of McCandless body fascinated author Jon Krakauer and inspired him to write a book compiled with interviews with people that McCandless crossed paths with along his journey as well as letters McCandless sent to his various aquaintences. A movie was created shortly after by Sean Penn that depicted the events that unfolded in Krakaur's book. Both the book and the movie portray the same facts of McCandless's story, but each do so in a unique and powerful way. Krakauer uses flashbacks and personal stories to try and connect with the audience as Penn does so seamlessly in the film. Sean Penn uses the juxtaposition of wide sweeping shots of a landscape featuring a small McCandless by comparison and close up shots of only a person's face to describe feelings and emotions in the characters.

In Krakauer's book, Into the Wild, he uses interviews, letters and personal experiences in order to bring out emotional responses from readers. At the time of the book being written, McCandless, of course, had passed and all he left behind were diaries, books and some wood carvings. Without this personal interview from McCandless, Krakauer resorted to using secondhand accounts of his life and who he was as a person. Krakauer's portrayal of McCandless is much different than the movie. Never in his book does he portray McCandless as a weak or sensitive person. Consistently Krakauer uses descriptive words that all have a positive connotation when he interacted with other people. McCandless always interacted with those around him and made them feel welcome during his time among other people. For example, when living with the Burres, "he was no recluse: "He had a good time ...  He did a lot of socializing" (Krakauer 44). Even though McCandless was apart from his family and by himself, he still manages to give off a positive impression around others and the author makes sure that McCandless's sunny demeanor shows through in his book. Krakauer admits in the author's note that he has a clear opinion on McCandless, even admitting "I won't claim to be an impartial biographer. McCandless's strange tale struck a personal note that made a dispassionate rendering of the tragedy impossible" (Krakauer 2). Krakauer thinks that McCandless is fascinating, and writes his story with a fascination and idealistic view of his journey. While the author has ideas about McCandless that could be cast off as one mere man's opinion, the majority of the positive dialogue about stories of McCandless's life come from the interviews conducted with those that were in contact with him in the last years of his life. People who knew McCandless were just as fascinated and intrigued by him as Krakauer was, this became glaringly evident in the book. Franz was one of the people that McCandless came in contact with in his travels. Franz treated McCandless almost like a son, from the first time they met, Franz thought that McCandless was "polite, friendly, and well groomed" (Krakauer 50). McCandless was living off the land and what he could find, yet according to the book, he was presentable and made a good first impression. 

Throughout the book, Krakauer is explaining the roughness of McCandless's journey and how difficult it really is to survive in the wild. One thing that he does to qualify his knowledge is to bring in a personal story to the book. Up until that point, it almost seems like nothing could go wrong for McCandless, but with the inclusion of the personal anecdote, Krakauer puts the dangers of the bush into perspective. Krakauer prepared for his trip as a headstrong young mand and even though he "was dimly aware that [he] might be getting in over [his] head. But that only added to the scheme's appeal" (Krakauer 134). This observation draws a parallel to Mcandless's situation. Even though he knew his journey of solitude across the nation was dangerous, nothing was going to stop this headstrong man from completing the task that he set out to do. However, this also points to the fact that this journey in Alaska was more dangerous than McCandless let on to others he met. Krakauer also observes in his journey that he "was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt" (Krakauer 136). He acknowledges the fact that leaving was not only a physical departure, it was the start of an adventure and Chris would have felt the same joy and excitement as he departed from his many destinations, each time, a thrilling adventure. Krakauer ran into some complications on his journey, just as McCandless did. With a thick head, Krakauer had been thinking about and wanting to climb the mountain for so long that "it seemed beyond the realm of possibility that some minor obstacle like the weather or crevasses or rime-covered rock might ultimately thwart [his] will" (Krakauer 151). McCandless was much the same, it did not seem apparent to anyone who interacted with him that he had any real concept that he could really be in significant danger and that one little mistake could lead to his death. Ironically, one little mistake ended up causing his death in the end. The comparison of Krakauer's thoughts with the events of McCandless's life give an additional insight to the possible thoughts that McCandless had without being able to conduct an interview.

Into the Wild is a film that starts off much like the book, in the middle of the action. The first shot that the viewer sees of McCandless is a bird's eye view of him getting out of a truck and walking into the woods and snow where there is nothing else. This shot does three things, it makes McCandless appear incredibly small and vulnerable; it sets up the wild that he is heading into as a giant, vast space, too large and cumbersome to be conquered, and it shows that McCandless is not afraid. He bravely walks into this unknown place, surefooted and without hesitation. The viewer is unable to see his face, or any defining features. Only his coat and giant backpack can be distinguished. The only two things that distinguish him also help to dwarf him on the screen. McCandless appears as just a little speck, beginning a trek into the wild by himself and ill-equipped. Showing McCandless so small right off the bat causes the viewer to automatically think of him as a victim; too small to do anything about his fate that they knew was coming. It almost seems as though he walks into the wild with his head held high and without hesitation because he knows what he wants to do with this next part of his life: be at peace in a place that he has dreamed about for years. Another instance of this wide angle shot of landscapes is when McCandless is training and exploring along the Grand Canyon and also while he is exploring in the forest. McCandless stands still in these shots as the camera zooms farther and farther out, until McCandless is just a stagnant dot among the beautiful, vast landscapes surrounding him. These scenes perpetuate the image of McCandless that is tiny and weak but the fact that he is training in the moments before show him attempting to survive and lead a life that will not only be healthy, but also active and long. 

An additional tool that Penn uses in his movie is the extremely close-up shots on the faces of the characters who talk to McCandless and of McCandless himself when the characters are feeling emotionally vulnerable. These shots bring the viewer into the eyes and feelings of each character. The camera is almost always shaky in these shots, and the shakiness is representative of all the emotions that are bubbling to the surface as they interact with McCandless. When McCandless leaves the slabs, the camera zooms in on the girl that he has befriended, and the audience sees her struggling with this pain of losing someone that she could have loved and knows that she may never see him again. Additionally a close shot of the face is used when Jan is telling McCandless about her son, Reno, and how he ran away from her and she had not heard from him in almost two years. The viewer is able to watch Jan's face and see through her eyes that her heart is breaking for her son. When the close shot switches over to McCandless, the viewer sees him deep in thought. He looks at Jan as if to search her, almost trying to detect any lies in her story. When Jan asks McCandless if his family knows where he is, McCandless's head drops and his face comes back into focus in a little bit of a smirk. McCandless was smart, he knew exactly how he had duped his parents, and in this shot it seems as though he is pleased knowing that they will be worried about him being gone. McCandless's home life was not perfect and often unhappy, so McCandless was happy to make his parents experience a similar pain he felt when he found out about his true family history. The close up shots in this movie were a deliberate choice to portray the characters' emotions clearly and overwhelmingly in the frame and to draw the viewer into these emotions as well. 

The book and the movie adaption of Into the Wild both tell the story of Chris McCandles, turned Alexander Supertramp, as he embarks on a journey across the United States and Mexico, all the way up to Alaska. The movie version of this story is told with many high-powered emotions that can be seen with the close up shots of characters' faces as they are faced with losing a friend and a confidant when McCandless leaves, and in McCandless when he is having an emotionally charged conversation with Jan. The book tells the same story, but in a different way. Krakauer puts being alone in Alaska in a new perspective for the reader so they can have a real reference as to what McCandless is going through. This creates the same illusion of McCandless being powerless to the natural things around him. Both the film and the book version of this story tell the facts of the life of Chris McCandles. Both versions make the claims that McCandless was loved, and well respected by everyone he met and got to know along his journey. And that he was alone and powerless no matter how much he trained for his time in Alaska. Chris McCandles will always be remembered as these books portray him: As a good person who made the wrong choice of going into the Alaskan bush alone.

