Into The Wild Lesson 8-End

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Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

Lessons 8-15
Author’s Note

I will read the first paragraph of the Author’s Note


aloud twice.
Write down questions that come to mind as I do the
first and second readings.
Share your questions with a partner.
Whole class discussion.
Author’s Note

Now that we have read the first three


paragraphs, I want to pause.
Write down what you have understood up to
this point.
Emory
University
Affluent
Washington,
D.C. suburb
Marginalized
Author’s Note

Write down your conclusions and questions


about what we just read.
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Copy these words:


● Congenial (5)
● Escarpments (10)
● Antimony (10)
● Anomaly (11)
● Contumacious (11)

With a partner, come up with a definition for each word.


Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Copy the following list of words.


You will determine the meaning of
the words based on the context.
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 1-3:
Amiable (16)
Plebeian (18)
Onerous (22)
Visage (16)
Convivial (18)
Mien (18)
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 4-5:

Egress (28) Tolstoy (29) Sedentary (44)

Saline (32) Indolently (32) Thoreau (29)

Bourgeois (39) Sere (32)

Itinerant (43) Lumpen (39)

Fatuous (44) Primordial (44)


Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 6-7:
Hegira (48) Creosote (48) Arroyo (49)
Desiccated (49) Phantasmal (49) Serape (51)
Indigent (50) Destitute (51) Unbidden (63)
Harangues (51) Fulminate (52)
Endemic (52) Unalloyed (55)
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 10-11:

Mercurial (105)

Incorrigible (115)

Wanderlust (108)
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 12-16:

Monomania (120) Perambulation (164)

Choler (122) Reverie (164)

Idiosyncratic (123) Sanctimonious (122)

Extemporaneous (124) Sullen (123)

Rubicon (163) Castigated (123)


Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapters 12-16:

Gloaming (161)

Aesthetic (163)

Taiga (164)

Obliquely (123)
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapter 17:

Ford (174) Descent sobriquet (181)

Malevolent (176) Modicum (184)

Ungulate (178) Posited (184)

Scabbard (178) Existential (184)

Hauteur (180) Miasma (175)


Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Chapter 17:

Massif (176) Feckless (184)

Moldering (178) Sojourn (179)

Maxillae (179)

Metis (180)

Ruminations (183)
Vocabulary: Chapters 1-18

Epilogue:

Munificence (188) Eloquence (189)

Precipitous (190) Decumbent (192)

Emetic (192) Insidiously (194)

Moniker (198) Conflagration (194)

Beatific (199)
Epigrams

Every chapter in Into The Wild begins


with an epigram.
An epigram is a device to focus the
reader on a concept or concepts
explored in a section of literature.
Chapter 1 epigram

What are the most important words,


phrases or concepts?
What can they tell you about what will
happen in the chapter?
Background information

April 27th, 1992: This time is early spring in central


Alaska.
“Break up” or the loss of the ice coverage on the
rivers has already happened, but the most
significant period of run-off from the snowpack
has not yet affected the rivers.
Chapters 2 & 3 epigrams

Identify words or phrases that seem significant.


Are there any ideas that seem to be repeated?
Are there any words or phrases that seem to be
emphasized by the way they are phrased or how
they are presented in the epigram?
Which words or phrases are difficult to
understand?
Write a story about ice break up

Elements of fiction
You are the protagonists
Sensory details (five senses)
Follow narrative writing template
Ice break up
story
Ice break up story

You will be the protagonists of your


stories.

Make sure to include sensory details


(hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch)
Quick write and discussion

To what extent is nature ‘good’?


To what extent is mankind ‘good’?
On what experiences or observations do you
base your positions? Use examples to support
your thinking.
Before we read “Self-Reliance”

How does (and should) a person define their


place in society?
What are the two major barriers to self-reliance
(in your own words)?
With a partner, put these into your
own words:
“We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that
divine idea which each of us represents.”
“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood
of every one of its members.”
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own
mind.”
“What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the
people think.”
Thoreau - “Civil Disobedience”

To what extent is Thoreau’s perspective toward


government similar to Chris McCandless’?

Identify three specific stories from McCandless’


experiences that overlap with or extend Thoreau’s ideas.

To what extent do you agree with Thoreau’s ideas? Why?


Use examples from your own life to support your points.
Group 1: Connecting “Nature” to Into the Wild

Free write about the relationship between adventure and comfort: To what
extent is being comfortable and happy a deterrent to risk-taking? Use examples
to support your points.

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative
to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity,
and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality
nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.
The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure” (57).
Group 2: Words to live by

Free write about ideals and our ability to live up to them: What is the purpose
of ideals in terms of how we live our lives? Are we truly hypocrites when we fall
short of our ideals? Why or why not?
Read and consider the following:

Before McCandless leaves for Alaska, Wayne Westerberg offers to buy him a
plane ticket. McCandless refuses, however, claiming, “flying would be cheating.
It would wreck the whole trip” (67). Find and explain two quotes from this
chapter that demonstrates whether or not McCandless actually lives by his
words.
Group 3: Fathers and Sons
Free write about the ideal relationship between fathers and sons: What ideals
do fathers represent in global cultures? To what extent are those ideals realistic?

Read and consider the following:

Ronald Franz and McCandless establish a father-son type of relationship.


Identify one benefit or drawback (using a quote) that each gets out of the
relationship.
Chapters 1-5: Literary postcards
1. Make a list of five images or scenes that stand out to you from the text so far. Record a
brief description of the scene and the page upon which it appears. The scenes might come
from anyplace in the reading.
2. You will be crafting postcards that reflect the journey recorded in Into the Wild so far.
3. Choose ONE scene from the list you have generated, then turn to the passage in the
text and record all of the imagery that pertains to the scene.
4. Once you have all your ideas about imagery, select one passage from the text that might
serve as a descriptive “legend” for the postcard.
5. Begin the rough draft of the postcard, laying out the imagery and text to suit the scene
you have selected.
Reflect, write, discuss

We have read stories featuring the experiences of men in


the wilderness.

Do women experience the natural world differently


today?

Do you think that the way men and women experienced


the wilderness was different forty-five years ago than it is
today? How? Why?
Arlene Blum

https://www.arleneblum.com/mountaineer/
Reflect, write, discuss
Imagine your parents take your family on vacation for two weeks. You are dropped off at a cabin in
the remote wilderness.

There is no cell phone reception, no wireless connection, no internet, no mail delivery, no


newspaper delivery. Your relatives will be coming back to pick you up at the end of your two week
stay.

By the end of the third day, you have read the two books you brought along, and you are
completely without ways to entertain yourself.

What do you imagine you will do during the next week and four days? How will you keep yourself
occupied? What aspects of your stay will be difficult?
Henry David Thoreau and Walden pond

By early 1845 Thoreau felt more restless than ever, until he


decided to take up an idea of a Harvard classmate who had
once built a waterside hut in which one could read and
contemplate. In the spring Thoreau picked a spot by
Walden Pond, a small glacial lake located 2 miles (3 km)
south of Concord on land Emerson owned.
Early in the spring of 1845,
Thoreau, then 27 years old,
began to chop down tall
pines with which to build the
foundations of his home on
the shores of Walden Pond.
From the outset the move
gave him profound
satisfaction. Once settled, he
restricted his diet for the
most part to the fruits and
vegetables he found growing
wild and the beans he
planted.
When not busy weeding his
bean rows and trying to
protect them from hungry
groundhogs or occupied with
fishing, swimming, or rowing,
he spent long hours observing
and recording the local flora
and fauna, reading, and
writing A Week on the Concord
and Merrimack Rivers (1849).
He also made entries in his
journals, which he later
polished and included in
Walden. Much time, too, was
spent in meditation.
McCandless and Thoreau

Compare Thoreau’s cabin and McCandless’


bus: in what ways were they similar?

In what ways were they different?


Chapters 6-18: Literary postcards
● Pick ONE scene from the book. Make a list of all the sensory details present in the scene.
List in your journal the details that are in print and those that are in your mind as you read.
● Use a passage from the text as a “legend” for your postcard. You may place the legend on
the top or bottom of one side of your card. Include the page number from the book in
parentheses.
● On one side of your card, write a postcard from one character in the scene to another, one
character to you, or from yourself to a character. The writing should cover the back of the
card. It should be “in character”—in other words, try to use the voice and personality of the
character when you write. Make sure to embed one passage from the text into the
postcard.
● On the blank side of your card, draw and color the scene you selected. Review your list of
sensory details before you begin to draw. Be sure to fill the whole space. You don’t have to
make the picture realistic, like a photo; rather, make sure you communicate the feeling of
the scene.
Into the Wild RAFT project

A RAFT is a culminating activity that allows you to


choose how to show your learning. For this project,
you will choose a role (a character or entity you will
“be”), an intended audience (the person or group
your piece will address or “talk to”), a format, and a
theme or topic. You may add to any of the columns
as you begin to plan your piece.

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