Into the Wild

1. My first impression of the novel is that it is a very interesting story and Chris McCandless was a very interesting person. I like how the author opens each chapter with a quote from one of the books that inspired Chris to go to Alaska. The fact that we know that Chris dies on the cover of the book is good in my opinion because then we are not disappointed at the end of the book.
2. I don't think that Chris can be described with only one word. The words that come to mind are intelligent and independant. He is a well educated guy, he was smart enough to stay under the radar. Clearly he is independant because he is all alone traveling across the country.
3. I think that the author is saying that individuality is good, but Chris took it to the extreme and ended up paying for it, along with his family. I think that when people try to be too indivudual they don't think how their actions will impact others and people end up getting hurt.
4. This book reminds me of the movie "Wild America." It is a movie about three brothers that go out on their own to film a movie. They meet lots of interesting people and encounter lots a danger, fortunatly they all made it out alive.
5. The only connection that I personally can make to this novel is that sometimes I just want to disappear and not deal with the stresses and expectations that society has placed on us.
6. A connection to the greater society is like I said above; people sometimes want to escape the pressures and stresses that society puts on us.