Zachary Roberts

Professor I
UWRT 1102
Dec 9, 2015
Annotated Bibliography:
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. Thorndike, Me.: G.K. Hall, 1997. Print.
Jon Krakauer is a multi award-winning author with books like Into Thin
Air and Into the Wild. He also won the award of New York Times 10
Best Books of the Year. Krakauer is most famous for writing
biographies and autobiographies.
This is a secondary source: The book explains the life of Christopher
McCandless and his adventure to become Alex Supertramp. The book
describes in detail the life of Christopher McCandless and how that
affected his family. Krakauer was also an adventurer so be understood
how Chris felt and described his outdoor experiences in depth. This
book serves to teach readers how society impacts the young, and how
family upbringing can make a huge impact on the future of children.
This book relates to my topic because it explains to me in detail what
Chris was thinking when he went into the wilderness unprepared. It
gives me the insight to understand why he did what he did, and what
drove him into acting so recklessly.
REFLECTION:
This book focuses on three main issues. These are Survival, Nature
verse Nurture, and societal norms. I will focus the majority of my
paper on Survival, and how Chris eventually caused his own demise. If
I were to write an essay I would use this information to clarify that
some force whether it be hatred, self-actualization, or even down right
stupidity cause Chris to be unprepared for his excursion into the
Alaskan wilderness. The ideas outlined in this article appear to be
largely the opinions of family member, Chris writings, and personal
accounts of Chris from acquaintances. This book provides a specific
telling of Chris McCandless life and what he did. There are a few times

speculation was used, but the majority of information came from first
hand accounts. The intended audience would be someone with a
proficiency of the English language and can read mid level writing with
good information retention. The book throws a lot of information at
the reader so they have to be able to keep the information sorted to
retrieve the full comprehension of the novel. The text is how I came up
with my topic. I think I could understand why Chris did most things
except for when he went to Alaska. I think he had a fixation with
Alaska that was unhealthy and it eventually played a part in his abrupt
death.

Into The Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. By Jon Krakauer. Perf. Emile Hirsch and
Kristen Stewart. Paramount Vantage, 2007. DVD.
The movie Into the Wild thoroughly helped my paper because it gave
me visual representation of Christopher McCandless mistakes. It
showed me first hand the destructive climate he was walking into and
the limited supplies he brought with him.
This is a Film Source. Jon Krakauer wrote the book that the movie is
based on. He is known for his adventurous books and even wrote a
book about his clime to the top of Mount Everest. Sean Penn is a
renowned director of movie. He is most known for his acting in Milk
and Mystic River, but he is also a accomplished producer.
The film is very beneficial to my guide because it emphasizes that
being prepared is essential. I think the movie also did a lot to show
people that. I think it showed the viewers that if you go into harsh
climates unprepared that you are setting yourself up for failure.
REFLECTION:
The authors ideas of the book translate directly to the theme of the
movie. I think the movie represents the film very well. This movie
focuses on the theme of Chris McCandless life. I will use this
information by analyzing his mistake and correcting them in my guide.
The movie is a personal opinion based on a person opinion book that
the information was given by a family. Unfortunately Chris could not
write a book about his own story. But the book uses all the information
from those who met him and from those who knew him. Its a lot of
little stories mashed together. The film seems to be very largely based
on personal opinion and lacks a lot of facts about Chris. The film is
very generalized, but follows a very strict timeline. The film provides a
basic overview of Chris life and what he managed to learn about
himself along the way. At times the film becomes very specific
because there is very documented evidence from Chris himself. The
film is intended for teenagers and up. I would say it could be very
helpful to teenagers to help them learn about them selves. I think the
film is intended to tell about the life of Chris so that we can learn from
him and so history wont repeat itself. The film is very informal and
uses basic language so a lot of people can understand what is going
on. The text helped me understand the book and helped me with the
topic because it enlightened me to some of Chris mistakes and why he

made them. I dont think it changed my thinking on the topic, but it

did deepen my knowledge of the topic.

Nickens, T. Edward., and Philip Bourjaily. The Total Outdoorsman

Manual. San Francisco, CA: Weldon Owen, 2011. Print.

The source gives fantastic hints and teaches skills that are essential to
surviving in the wilderness. The book is broken up into 4 sections, and
I focused on the survival section. Its purpose is to educate the reader
on skills that should be known before and during a camping
experience.
This is a Primary Source. In this book T. Edward Nickens writes about
his first hand experiences in nature. T. Edward Nickens is a well-known
writer for Field & Stream. Field & Stream is a well-known magazine and
book publisher that most people have heard of. Its a very reputable
magazine for giving outdoor information from living to fishing to
camping and all the stops between.
The information given in this book is phenomenal to my essay. It
taught me new skills I have never even thought about as well as
explained new strategies to improve current ones.
REFLECTION:
The ideas presented in this book differ from other authors because
they have all been sourced from one person. Its his ideas and his
strategies. His strategies have been refined and sharpened over the
many years of outdoor experience he has. The section focuses on
Survival. It mentions anything and everything survival related. I will
use this information to strengthen my current tips and to add expert
advice because T. Edward Nickens is an expert in the field. There are
few, if any references to this book because they are all based on his
experiences. He does mention other people like family and friends, but
they are not writers or experts so they were not sourced. The text is
purely opinion. It is starts with what he learned as a kid and how he
bettered his knowledge through practice and experience. There is a
lack of supporting evidence and fact based information in his book
because most camping information is purely opinion. There are not
facts on how to do anything perfectly. The few facts that exist are from
man made inventions like how to set up a tent is on a tent-by-tent
basis. But when it comes to the nature aspect the topic is just
educated opinions. The book is very specific. It tells you exactly what

to do in specific situations. It separates every different situation and

explains, in detail, exactly what to do for each. The intended audience
is new to slightly experienced outdoorsmen. It goes over a lot of
information that most campers need to know, but then goes in detail
so that even experienced campers can still learn.

Nickens, T. Edward. The Total Outdoorsman Skills & Tools: 324 Tips. San
Francisco, CA: Weldon Owen, 2014. Print.
The source gives fantastic hints and teaches skills that are essential to
surviving in the wilderness. The book is broken up into 4 sections, and
I focused on the survival section. Its purpose is to educate the reader
on skills that should be known before and during a camping
experience. This book has even more tips and tricks of the trade that
the original.
This is a Primary Source. In this book T. Edward Nickens writes about
his first hand experiences in nature. T. Edward Nickens is a well-known
writer for Field & Stream. Field & Stream is a well-known magazine and
book publisher that most people have heard of. Its a very reputable
magazine for giving outdoor information from living to fishing to
camping and all the stops between.
The information given in this book is phenomenal to my essay. It
taught me new skills I have never even thought about as well as
explained new strategies to improve current ones. It adds to skills in
the original book as well as teaches new skills.
REFLECTION:
The ideas presented in this book differ from other authors because
they have all been sourced from one person. Its his ideas and his
strategies. His strategies have been refined and sharpened over the
many years of outdoor experience he has. The section focuses on
Survival. It mentions anything and everything survival related. I will
use this information to strengthen my current tips and to add expert
advice because T. Edward Nickens is an expert in the field. There are
few, if any references to this book because they are all based on his
experiences. He does mention other people like family and friends, but
they are not writers or experts so they were not sourced. The text is
purely opinion. It is starts with what he learned as a kid and how he
bettered his knowledge through practice and experience. There is a
lack of supporting evidence and fact based information in his book
because most camping information is purely opinion. There are not
facts on how to do anything perfectly. The few facts that exist are from
man made inventions like how to set up a tent is on a tent-by-tent
basis. But when it comes to the nature aspect the topic is just

educated opinions. The book is very specific. It tells you exactly what
to do in specific situations. It separates every different situation and
explains, in detail, exactly what to do for each. The intended audience
is new to slightly experienced outdoorsmen. It goes over a lot of
information that most campers need to know, but then goes in detail
so that even experienced campers can still learn.

Bultena, Gordon L., and Lowell L. Klessig. "Satisfaction in camping: A

conceptualization and guide to social research." Journal of Leisure
Research 1.4 (1969): 348.
This article explains why people go camping. It says that the
majorities of people who go camping are middle to upper class and go
camping to seek out or find something within them.
This is a secondary source. The article explains why people want to go
camping and what they hope to gain from it. Dr. Gordon Bultena
received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He focuses on
public values and conflicts in nature. He received an Excellence in
Research Award from the Rural Sociological Society.
The usefulness of this article is to deepen my knowledge of why people
go camping and what they hoped to gain. It also helped me put
Christopher McCandless ideas into perspective. It helped me
understand why Chris did what he did, which was to gain masculinity
and to gain further insight into the meaning of life. (Bultena, Pg. 348,
1969)
REFLECTION:
I think the ideas in this brief excerpt are similar to the research of other
authors. I think the general idea as to gain masculinity and to learn
the meaning of life and to be one with nature. This excerpt focuses on
why people go camping. It explains in depth that people dont always
leave with additional knowledge, but that they always feel different or
changed. That adds to my knowledge for logic and reason. What
drives people to return to their primal instincts? The references are to
the whole book, which is quite large. I think it could be worth looking
into if it focused on the actual outdoors aspect, but I think it changes
into the psychological aspect, which does not help me with my tips.
The information is not fact, but has been thoroughly researched and
hypothesized. I dont think we will ever know why people do what they
can do but this article makes strong educated guesses. The excerpt is
very specific to the specific topic. There isnt much writing on the
subject so it makes the information very specific. The article provides
specific examples as to who and why people go camping. The

intended audience would be other scholars in the field. I dont think

this book was meant to be read by the everyday citizen. It was
intended to further the research on human behavior. The article
helped me change my thinking on why people go camping. Not just for
leisure, but to learn.

Clifford, Chad. "Bonding to nature: Through the practice of primitive

wilderness skills." Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor
Education 15.2 (2003): 22-24.
The purpose of this article is to compare primitive to modern camping.
This article talks about camping with and without modern technology.
It also hints on some of the emotional aspects that come along with
each.
This is a secondary source. It talks about the differences between
primitive and modern camping with technology. Chad Clifford is a wellseasoned outdoorsman who has written numerous articles and papers
for Wilderness Rhythms for over 2 decades.
This article is valuable to me because it highlights the differences of
modern and primitive camping. I have learned a lot of primitive skills
over the years and sometimes it is hard to think that there is a simpler
way to do something using technology. It does a great job of
identifying what is modern and what is primitive. It also helped show
me that we are very dependent on modern technology.
REFLECTION:
I think this author brings up new points that most others dont. He
seems to favor the old ways of doing things and staying true to nature.
Most articles I have found tend to strongly favor new technology, which
can be very expensive. I plan to use this information to distinguish
what is modern and what is primitive. I found that a lot of my
knowledge merges the two quite nicely, but I think it will be helpful to
readers to know which is which. The article has a lot of sources and
unfortunately I was not able to look into all of them. Most of them
seemed to just reiterate what this article is already talking about, with
slightly opinion changes. I think the majority of good information is in
this article and looking into the other sources would just overlap the
current information. The ideas outlined in this article are very general
opinions, based on common sense facts. I think most of the
distinguishing facts between modern and primitive are common sense,
but the reason that the author provides is purely opinion based. I think
the article provides a good mix of general and broad. When talking
about nature he brings up mining and smelting as modern aspects

effecting nature. Conversely he talks about the emotional connection

to nature in a very broad sense. The intended audience would be
anyone who is looking to emotionally connect to nature and be one
with it. This article helps me understand the emotional connection
people have to nature. I think its a strong driving force as to why
people seek to be in nature.

Krakauer, Jon. "Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless lost

his way in the wilds." Outside Magazine Jan (1993).
This article explains the life of Chris McCandless. It is the authors
views on the subject and goes in depth about what other thought of
Chris. The biggest thing about this article is that it goes into depth
about how unprepared Chris was for his excursion. It explains that all
he brought was one ten-pound bag of rice with him and his gear was
not good enough for the journey he had ahead of himself.
This is a secondary source: The article explains the final events of
Christopher McCandless life and what others though of him. Krakauer
was also an adventurer so be understood how Chris felt and described
his outdoor experiences in depth. This article serves to teach readers
how important it is to be prepared for the situations you decide to
embark on.
This article is huge for me because it broke down the exact items that
Chris brought with him on his excursion to the final frontier. This is
useful to me because I can explain what he didnt bring, and why he
should have. It also helps to explain what he did bring and why that
was good.
REFLECTION:
The ideas presented match the ideas of the author because they are
his own words and opinions. The only things that could differ would be
opinions given to him by others. This article focuses on everything
about Chris life that we know about. Its mostly first hand opinions but
there are a few concrete facts. The references are just the people who
are noted in the article. I dont think they are worth researching
because all the information I need is already in this article. The text is
mostly authors opinions and other first hand opinions of people who
knew Chris. I would have preferred factual information but that is
difficult because he did not survive the excursion. The ideas outlined
in this article appear to be largely the authors personal opinion as
there is a lack of supporting evidence presented from research, so the
author filled in the information with educated guesses. The topic is
specific to Chris. There isnt much talk about anything except Chris.
There is a little bit about how this could be learned from but the
majority is just explaining Chris life. The intended audience is very

broad. I dont think it is specifically written for anyone. The language

is basic so intermediate readers can understand. The tone seems to
imply that people can learn from Chris and his mistakes. I learned a lot
about Chris from this writing.

"Christopher McCandless." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Oct.

2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.
This site explains everything about Christopher McCandless. It goes in
deep detail about his life, the book written on him, and anything else
you want to know about it. It has first hand accounts from all those
who meet him, but then it also fills in the gaps.
This is a purely online source. It is a basic webpage were most of the
information comes from reputable sources, but it can be altered by
random people. I only used this source to get rough information about
Chris, and I didnt cite anything from it.
This article helped me to put a timeline on Chris life. It gave me dates
on where and when he did things. I used this information to gain a
basic understanding of Chris life as Alexander Supertramp.
REFLECTION:
Seeing that there is no author its very difficult to speculate on his
opinions. The site is just a bunch of facts written down in chronological
format. There are very few leading paragraphs or inferences made.
The site just explains everything on a very basic level that they have
come to with facts. I think some of the sources could have been
beneficial to my paper, but that was very difficult because there are so
many cited sources. It was difficult to know which source said what
and which sources were worth looking into. The language in this article
is very basic. The sentences are simple and very broken. It served its
purpose of just adding lots of information with very little opinion. I
think its something most intermediate readers could understand and
perhaps evaluate themselves.