Into The Wild TWISTT: Ch. 2

Title: This might be a bit of a stretch, but the word stampede carries with it a connotation of activity and energy—life. Krakauer is using sarcasm because, obviously, Chris is dead. Also, stampede means a sort of flow of creatures or beings, and because the trail is called Stampede Trail, it makes it sounds as if stampedes through these parts are frequent. The creatures stampeding are humans and they come through those parts a lot, so Chris was bound to be found.

Word Choice: "At eight-thirty the next morning, a police helicopter touched down noisily beside the bus in a blizzard of dust and swirling aspen leaves. The troopers made a cursory examination of the vehicle and its environs for signs of foul play and then departed" (13).

Imagery: "On the northern margin of the Alaska Range, just before the hulking ramparts of Mt. McKinley and its satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain, a series of lesser ridges, known as the Outer Range, sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed" (9).

Symbolism: Because this is the chapter that describes Chris's body being discovered, there isn't a lot of action from him. One thing that is a bit symbolic is that Chris's signature is at the bottom of all the pictures, paintings, and the SOS note. Chris wasn't out there to be crazy. He was out there to be himself and he still had the human necessity for acknowledgment of his skills from others. He knew that someday someone would find his art and he wanted people to know it was him. A good symbol for the chapter would be a hand holding on to a note that has a big SOS on it.

Tone: For me, the first parts of the chapter that contained the history of Stampede Trail has a relatively light and pleasantly informative feeling about it. Krakauer's sparkling word choice makes things a bit more upbeat. Later on in the chapter when things turn to Chris, the tone gets a little darker. The discovery of what was in the bus and the SOS note is a bit depressive. Krakauer's writing became a little less fun and little more serious and straight forward.

Theme: One theme that I can see in this chapter is that one cannot survive completely on his or her own. One can be unsocial and be just fine, but to bar one's self completely from other human contact is unsafe due to the vicissitudes of fate.