Thursday, August 25, 2011

Word for word, what are three references to Henry David Thoreau in John Krakauer's book Into the Wild?

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer’s 1996
book about Christopher McCandless’s journey into the Alaskan wilderness (a journey that
ended in his death), contains numerous references to Henry David Thoreau. Some of these
references are actually long epigraphs from Thoreau’s own writings.  In the 2007 Anchor
Press paperback edition of the book, references to Thoreau appear on the following
pages: 28, 29, 39, 47, 66, 117, 123, 133, 162, 167, 172, and
183.


I can’t quote at great length, but here a number of
brief quotations:


readability="20">

McCandless could endeavor to explain that he
answered to statutes of a higher order – that as a latter-day adherent of Henry David
Thoreau, he took as gospel the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and thus
considered it his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state. (p.
28)


……………………………………….


Then, in
gesture that would have done both Thoreau and Tolstoy proud, he arranged all his paper
currency in a pile on the sand – a pathetic little stack of ones and fives and twenties
– and put a match to it. (p.
29)


……………………………………….


Shortly
after the moose episode McCandless began to read Thoreau’s Walden.
(p.
167)




……………………………………….

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