Answer to Question #196477 in English for Makaia Hill

Question

In the epigraph for Chapter 1 from Into The Wild, Chris states in a postcard dated April 27, 1992 to Wayne Westerfield…”I now walk into the wild.”  In Chapter 1, he tells Jim Gallien, “ I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is or where I am.  None of that matters.” 

Write about the quotes and/or your assessment of Chris McCandless so far? An epigraph is a relevant quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc.  

Answer 1

Chris McCandless' postcard to Wayne Westerberg "I now walk into the wild" and his postcard to Jim Gallien, “ I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters,” give an accurate sense of his state of mind and his rationale for heading into the wild. The former shows Chris looked for adventure and freedom more than anything. He was getting away from his normal life and family in order to embark on a new adventure full of freedom and it excited him. The latter shows that Chris was completely self-reliant and all about non-conformity. He didn't care about time, days or his location, which are all normal standards in society. What mattered to him was nature and the new adventures he was seeking. Gallien had concerns that Chris was ill-prepared and not having enough stuff for survival in the Alaskan wild and tried talking him out of it but Chris was undeterred and claimed there wasn't anything that he couldn't deal with on his own.