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Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is the true story of Chris McCandless, a young Emory University graduate from a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C. A gifted athlete and scholar, Chris documents his two-year adventure across the United States in photographs and a journal. Tragically, he is found dead at twenty-four inside a bus in the Alaskan wilderness.

After graduating from high school, Chris discovers that his father secretly had a second family during his childhood. He feels betrayed by and angry at his parents, Walt and Millie. His father tries to control Chris, who is fiercely independent, and Chris resents it deeply.

After graduating with honors from Emory University, in 1990, Chris tells his sister, Carine, that he intends to cut off all relations with his parents. He is disgusted by their attempts to control him and by what he sees as their immoral and materialistic lifestyle. Chris lets them think he is interested in law school, but instead, donates $24,000 of his life savings to a charity that fights poverty and hunger.

In June, Chris drives away in his beloved Datsun. He renames himself “Alexander Supertramp” and never contacts his family again. In July, Chris abandons his car in the Mojave Desert after a flash flood wets the engine. He burns the rest of his money, then hitchhikes around the Northwest, often living on the streets.
In August, a pair of “rubber tramps,” Jan Burress and Bob, spot Chris picking berries by the side of the road in Northern California. He camps with them on the beach for a week or so before continuing North along the coast to Seattle.

Chris soon meets Wayne Westerberg who picks him up hitchhiking in September. He is the owner of a grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota. He gives Chris a job and becomes close to him. Chris is an extremely hard worker, but he loses his job after Wayne gets arrested. Wayne had been illegally building and selling “black boxes,” which allowed people to watch cable programming without paying for it.

In October, Chris heads to Topock, Arizona, where he buys a canoe. He rows down the Colorado River, sneaking into Mexico. When the river splits into many small and confusing canals, he hitches a ride to the coast of the Gulf of California where he camps. In January 1991, he is almost carried out to sea in a bad storm, and decides to abandon the canoe and return north.

Chris is caught by immigration authorities when he tries to cross the U.S. border without identification. He convinces them to let him go, but they keep his gun. He spends the next six weeks moving around the Southwest.

In February, Chris goes to Los Angeles, then Las Vegas where he finds work in an Italian restaurant and lives on the streets. In May, he hits the road again, visiting the Oregon coast in July and August before turning back southeast to the desert.

In Bullhead City, Arizona, Chris works at McDonald’s, hiding from his coworkers that he is homeless and camping outside of town. He eventually meets an odd character named Charlie in a restroom, who shows him a semi-deserted mobile home where Chris ends up living.

In December, Chris leaves Bullhead City to visit Jan and Bob at a squatter community in California's Sonoran Desert, the Niland Slabs. There he helps Jan at a flea market, organizing and selling books, and especially pushing one of his favorite authors, Jack London. He asks Bob for survival advice and practices calisthenics to prepare for the challenging trek in Alaska.

Chris leaves in January 1992, setting up camp in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in California. There he gets a ride one day from eighty-year-old Ron Franz and they become friends. They spend time doing leather work together. Meanwhile, Wayne, now out of jail, has invited Chris back to South Dakota.

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