Into the Wild Comparison Essay

In this essay, I will be comparing the ways in which the McCandless family are presented in Sean Penn’s (film) and Jon Krakauer’s (book) ‘Into the Wild’. The McCandless family are portrayed very differently to the audience and to the reader. We will also see that in the film, there is a more negative view of them which is totally different from the book.

In the ‘Into the Wild’ film, Walt McCandless (the father) is presented as being a world apart from his son, whereas the novel presents Walt and Chris McCandless as sharing similar core characteristics. There is a scene in the film when the sports team enters into the bar. Sean Penn uses an over the shoulder shot to show Walt’s reaction so we can compare with a similar shot of Chris McCandless. This shows Walt’s reaction as being disgusted when the sports team enters into the bar, but Chris is smirking. This means that he would rather be with the sports team than in this environment therefore, draws attention to the fact that Chris and Walt have different values from their reactions. However one example from the novel which shows a different side to McCandless is that the Colleagues refer to his father as ‘brilliant’ while Chris ‘came into this world with unusual gifts’. Jon Krakauer uses a metaphor and an adjective here which are techniques that Jon Kakauer uses to explain how Chris McCandless is unique and has different types of skills while his father Walt McCandless’ brilliant personality suggests that he is perfect at almost everything. This proves that Chris inherited his gifts from his father. One can blatantly see that they are portrayed very differently in the novel and film through these examples.

Secondly, in Sean Penn’s film, Billie McCandless (the mother) is seen as a fake person. But in the novel, Billie McCandless is presented as a loving caring mother. In the film, Billie McCandless pushes Christopher McCandless to get a new car. Sean Penn creates an argument with his mother about the car being very old and cheap. In this way, he is pointing out the fact that Billie is embarrassed because the car that Chris purchases doesn’t reflect the family’s wealth. Something that Billie wants everyone to know. Whereas Chris McCandless doesn’t feel that life is all about wealth and status. Billie is someone different in the novel. We are told that she handmakes a blanket for Chris McCandless to take on his journey, proving that she is a caring person because she cared a lot for Chris as she made something for him rather than buying it. Jon Krakauer shows us that she is affectionate towards Chris as she made him a gift. We understand that she made him a blanket because she was worried that her son might be cold therefore cares about his well being.

Furthermore, Sean Penn presents Chris McCandless behaving negatively towards his parents. Whereas in Jon Krakauer’s novel, it presents Chris as more caring. One of the main parts which stood out would be when Chris’ voice over was talking negatively while showing positive flashbacks of his parents when they were in school. He criticises his parent’s actions and how they lead to a huge mistake resulting to a depressing future. He then goes on talking about how he would like to stop them from going on just so he can avoid being born. This shows the negativeness of Chris McCandless as he talks about his attitude towards his parents. The fact that Sean Penn uses a voice over technique, shows the viewer the events leading up to the present time. We’ve learned about Chris’ opinion on what has happened and therefore are informed on Chris’ thoughts and overall behaviour towards his parents. But as for the novel, Chris’ relationship with his mother is fairly different as he buys his Billie a gift for mother’s day although he does not believe in gifts and presents. This shows Chris’ tight bond with his parents especially with his mother because he has gone against his beliefs just to make her happy. I believe Krakauer has included this tiny detail to show the tight bond Chris shares with his parents in order to try and portray Chris as a positive Character to the reader. This proves how Chris is being described in two different sides of the film and the novel.

Lastly, Carine (sister) shares an extremely tight bond with Chris in the film. However in the novel, it demonstrates the rivalry with each other. In the film when they are together, they are always smiling and have free flowing conversations which suggests how they share a very close bond. One specific example is when Chris’ parents are arguing and he hugs Carine telling her it is going to be alright. This shows how Chris really cares for his sister and he does not want her feelings to be hurt. Chris is portrayed as a loving, caring character as he looks out for his sister, even though he may not be particularly happy himself. An example of their rivalry in the novel is when it says ‘there was no way he was going to sit behind his damn sister’. This shows a competitive rivalry between Chris and Carine as Chris was unable to cope with the fact that his younger sister was better than him at playing the French horn, therefore he stopped playing it. But the novel also shows the love that they have for each other when Carine found out about Chris’ death,mentioning how she could not get through a day without crying. Their sibling relationship are descibed differently in the novel and the film.

In conclusion, I think that the book and the novel have a lot of differences but also there are some similarities which gives the reader very mixed opinions. In my opinion, I think the book gives a more precise story on Chris McCandless and his family than the film so I think the book is better.