Into the Wild and Evolutionary Process of Literary Journalism

By Eric Joel Rodriguez

How does Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer relate to the many ethical concerns in literary journalism? How does it showcase the latter part of literary journalism’s evolution? Into the Wild is a newly released book about a young man named Chris McCandless and his journey. He went off to Alaskan to become one with nature and escape from the materialistic and stressful reality of everyday life. However, his journey ended up costing him his life. Consequently, journalists cannot interview him or get any information from him on a first-hand level. The absence of McCandless may bring about some ethical concerns, such as the reliance on omniscient narration and fabricating certain events to make them more captivating than they were, skewing them away from the truth. However, Krakauer refrained from relying on these as he utilized interviews with McCandless’s family, people he crossed paths with, and McCandless’s diary entries. Krakauer’s book has similarities to both early and newer literary journalism writings, it has some of the literary elements found in early literary journalism pieces, and its investigation was similar to that of Hiroshima. However, unlike the earlier writings, Krakauer refrains from meeting some of the ethical dilemmas that the earlier writers faced, such as omniscient narration and fabrication. These ethical dilemmas decreased as literary journalism evolved. This is where Into the Wild stands in the context of literary journalism’s evolution

            First off, while Into the Wild is undoubtedly at the end of literary journalism’s evolution thus far, it does not go without saying that it still contains some elements of literary journalism from its earlier developments. In his anthology titled, The New Journalism, new journalist Tom Wolfe describes how literary journalists “[combine] in-depth reporting with literary ambition: they wanted to make the nonfiction story shimmer ‘like a novel’ with the pleasures of detailed realism” (Kerrane 17). This is one of the aspects that many of the early writers had, and while literary journalism has evolved significantly since Tom Wolfe’s time, it still possesses this one aspect. It is very apparent in Into the Wild as it is seen as a novel rather than a simple news story; the book uses literary devices such as descriptive language many times. A prominent example is when Krakauer describes the Devils Thumb’s appearance: “Vast and labyrinthine, the ice cap rides the spine of the Boundary Ranges like a carapace, from which the long blue tongues of numerous glaciers inch down toward the sea under the weight of the ages” (137). This is not the type of writing one would regularly see in a traditional news story; rather, it is like that of what novels have. It contains literary devices such as similes to captivate the reader.

            In addition to having some of the literary journalism elements, Into the Wild shares similarities with some of the earlier works. One example is John Hersey’s Hiroshima; it is similar inthe way in which the investigation was conducted was like that of Hiroshima. This is because John Hersey was not there to witness the explosion. Likewise, Jon Krakauer was not there when McCandless when on his expedition. While the two stories share this similarity, there are prominent differences that should not go unnoticed. While both relied on the same type of resources to create a narrative, the way that they went about it differs. Unlike Krakauer, Hersey also relied on omniscient narration, which is where the author assumes the subjects’ minds. An example is when he writes about Mrs. Nakamura’s emotions the night before the bombing of Hiroshima:

Mrs. Nakamura went back into the kitchen, looked at the rice, and began watching the man next door. At first, she was annoyed with him for making so much noise, but then she was moved almost to tears by pity. Her emotion was specifically directed toward her neighbor, tearing down his home, board by board, at a time when there was so much unavoidable destruction, but undoubtedly she also felt a generalized, community pity, to say nothing of self-pity. (11)

This creates the ethical dilemma of omniscient narration because Hersey is assuming her emotions without relying on an actual interview to confirm this. This is not necessarily wrong but can cause some readers to distrust the author since it does not explicitly indicate that he got it via interview. Krakauer had the same issue as he could not interview McCandless, but he refrained from relying on the omniscient narrator and assuming McCandless’s thoughts by instead utilizing other people who knew him, his family, and his documentations, such as his diary excerpts.

To add to the previous paragraph, Krakauer uses his own personal experience to speak on behalf of McCandless; this allowed him to enter McCandless’s mind without using omniscient narration. Furthermore, it was his way of compensating for his inability to interview him. In his book, Krakauer describes how his personality was very similar to that of McCandless: “As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, moody… Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused me in a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” (134). This was one of the more prominent strategies that he used to reveal his subject’s mind without crossing any ethical barriers. Hersey did not use this strategy for a few reasons, the most prominent ones being that he did not identify as many parallels with the subjects and that use of the omniscient narrator was not disliked as much. This is one of the differences that indicates the evolution of literary journalism and how it has evolved. Hiroshima represents an earlier piece of literary journalism since it was written in 1946; Into the Wild would not be written for another 50 years. One of the most notable differences between the two is their respective use or lack of use of omniscient narration. The loss of omniscient narration in stories is one of the ways that it has progressed, and this loss is clearly seen in Into the Wild and other newer forms of literary journalism.

A further notable difference between Into the Wild and earlier works of literary journalism is that Into the Wild does not fabricate certain instances. Fabrication is when an author adds supplemental and non-existent details to entice the reader. An example of a story that does is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the most notable example being the cemetery scene at the very end. This was a scene that Capote completely made up for the sake of enhancing the story. In part, it talks about how a character named Dewey “had spent several hours at Valley View weeding his father’s grave” (341) and “stopped at a tombstone marked with a recently carved named: Tate” (342). It goes on to describe the graves of the Clutter family: “four graves gathered under a single gray stone, lie in a far corner of the cemetery – beyond the trees, out in the sun, almost at the wheat field’s bright edge” (342). Some readers may interpret this as an ethical dilemma since Capote is adding details that were not originally there, thus skewing the story from the truth. However, in the early stages of literary journalism’s evolution, these supposed ethical dilemmas had more toleration since people simply wanted a story to be interesting.

Despite the differences between Into the Wild and the mentioned earlier pieces, Lillian Ross’s “Portrait of Hemingway” is an example of early literary journalism that it shares similarities with. Ross and Krakauer are similar since they both utilize the “fly-on-the-wall” approach, which means that they simply observe and do not use omniscient narration. In Ross’s piece, she lets the characters be as they are and does not interfere with the narrative; “Ross observes Hemingway as he has lunch in his hotel room, buys a coat, looks at paintings, and meets with his publisher” (From “Portrait of Hemingway” 129). The same is true with Into the Wild as Krakauer simply documents McCandless’s journey. The author’s note clearly indicates that Krakauer was not to interfere with the story and wanted to “minimize [his] authorial presence” (Into the Wild author’s note). In addition to being distant in the story, Ross’s purpose was to allow the reader to learn more about Hemingway, much like how Krakauer allowed the reader to learn more about McCandless. She taught the readers about Hemingway by simply showing how he naturally acts without judging. An example is when she is transparent in how she describes his demeanor: “By the time we reached Abercrombie’s, Hemingway was moody again. He got out of the taxi reluctantly, and reluctantly entered the store” (Ross 131). Ross was known for writing people “as they are,” which is a stark contrast from the earlier forms of literary journalism, such as those from Tom Wolfe. Although this story was written not long after Hersey’s story, it already shows some form of evolution taking place in literary journalism. Hersey’s story did not utilize the fly-on-the-wall approach; Ross’s did. This shows one step of progression between the two stories, and Krakauer continued it by using Ross’s method.

While Into the Wild has similarities and differences with earlier works of literary journalism and represents how literary journalism has evolved, it also shares similarities with newer forms of literary journalism. An example of a newer piece is The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm. This is mainly because it brings up the concept of writer-subject relationships and indicates that the subject is more dominant: “The subject, like the patient, dominates the relationship and calls the shots. The journalist cannot create his subjects any more than the analyst can create his patients” (99). This same idea is seen in Krakauer since he is simply using McCandless’s notes to write about his journey; besides his own personal anecdote about Devils Thumb, he is only basing his writing off McCandless. He even described himself as an “impartial biographer,” which means that he has no bias over the person whom he is writing about. With this in mind, Krakauer simply wanted to tell McCandless’s story as objectively as possible. Also, each chapter started off with a map showcasing McCandless’s whereabouts in each moment. Krakauer did not come up with this; he simply followed McCandless’s footsteps, which, in a way, made McCandless the so-called leader and Krakauer the follower. This is a demonstration of the concept covered in Malcolm’s book. It is also another example that marks a progression in literary journalism’s evolution as the earlier writings did not cover this topic, yet Krakauer and Malcolm’s writings – two newer stories – did.

So far, this has covered the similarities and differences that Into the Wild shares with both older and newer forms of literary journalism. It will now transition into discussion about the ethical dilemmas that Krakauer faced. As mentioned in the beginning, Krakauer was not there to witness McCandless on his journey. Furthermore, McCandless did not survive, which eliminated the option of having him interviewed. This makes Krakauer decide whether to rely on omniscient narration and assume everything that McCandless knew. A previous paragraph mentioned how Krakauer’s anecdote served to get into McCandless’s mind without using omniscient narration. It also forces him to decide whether he will fabricate and skew the truth or simply reconstruct the story so that it is as congruent with it as possible. As mentioned, one of the differences between Krakauer’s book and earlier novels is that Krakauer did not fabricate; rather, he reconstructed. Reconstruction simply takes pre-existing data to support the narrative. Krakauer chose to refrain from using these ethical dilemmas by reconstructing McCandless’s journey by interviewing McCandless’s family, those he crossed paths with, and reading his diary. An example of reconstruction is how McCandless’s “diary entries following his return to the bus catalog a bounty of wild meat. May 28: ‘Gourmet Duck!’ June 1: 5 Squirrel.’ June 2: ‘Porcupine, Ptarmigan, 4 Squirrel, Grey Bird’” (166). These details allowed Krakauer to put isolated facts together to make a narrative, which correlates to the definition of reconstruction. It is not fabrication since it does not add anything new to the equation. Because of this, Krakauer’s narrative ended up being more authentic and truthful. This shows how literary journalism has evolved since earlier writers, such as Hersey and Capote, did rely on these elements but more recent writers such as Krakauer did not.

Into the Wild is a more recent form of literary journalism and represents the current timeframe in literary journalism’s evolution. It shares both similarities and differences with earlier works that preceded it. In regard to similarities with the earlier works, it contains some of the literary journalism elements spelled out by Tom Wolfe, such as how it reads like a novel. It also utilizes some of the early methods that are still used, such as “fly-on-the-wall” reporting. In regard to differences, it does not rely on ethical dilemmas such as omniscient narration and fabrication. As literary journalism evolved, the use of some of these ethical dilemmas decreased. Into the Wild also shares similarities with newer works, such as Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer as they both cover the concept of writer-subject relationships. To correlate with this concept, McCandless was dominant over Krakauer as Krakauer’s job was to simply follow his footsteps and reconstruct – not fabricate – his journey. Even though Krakauer could not interview McCandless, he managed to refrain from using these ethical dilemmas as he simply relied on McCandless’s family, acquaintances, and diary entries. These resources allowed him to meticulously reconstruct his journey; thus, he did not need to rely on these ethical dilemmas. Into the Wild shows how literary journalism has evolved by losing some of the elements that some might interpret as untrustworthy and keeping the original craft that makes a news story read like a novel. This is done to make the facts dance.

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