Into the Wild-- Response

After reading Jon Krakauer's  Into the Wild and his article "How Chris McCandless Died," it seems very evident that Krakauer had some sort of obsession with McCandless.  Even after first publishing his book, the debate continued over McCandless's cause of death.  Whether it was starvation or severe food poisoning, there was so much controversy over the COD that Krakauer demanded research that would prove his theory right. After a hasty first edition release, Krakauer received scrutiny for his assumption that it was the alkines in the seeds that killed McCandless, when all previous research had proved the wild potato to be harmless if consumed. Krakauer talked to several experts to try and validate his assumption. It wasn’t until much later, however, that Ronald Hamilton came upon World War II records from a concentration camps, stating that the Nazis used these seeds in bread, which soon killed tons of prisoners after they consumed it. 

In my opinion, it was very noble of Krakauer to pursue the correct cause of death.  In his mind, I am sure that he not only needed to figure everything out so that the scrutiny and debate would stop, but also just for his own piece of mind. As McCandless’s note was extremely cryptic and not very clear, the debate over his COD is still not cleared. In his weakened state, he was not able to properly convey what was happening to him and what was he feeling.