of which , beyond that of a daily kill record , is left mostly to the imagination of the receptor .
It took the authorities about two weeks to identify the body with certainty and the story was reported by Jon Krakauer in the magazine Outside . The piece was so enthusiastically received by the readers of the magazine that Krakauer set out to turn the tragic misadventure of Chris McCandless into a full-length book , Into the Wild , which became a best-seller and inspired Sean Penn ’ s eponymous film . By then , we were already into fiction .
Fictions
McCandless ’ original story doubtlessly deals with the most primordial issue of human condition – mere , elementary survival – in a more suggestive than explicit manner , which might explain in part its success in the media , for , as we identify almost instantaneously with what appears to be the rejection of an exceedingly structured and merchandised society , we feel free , almost obliged to fill in the blanks . It is exactly what Jon Krakauer does in his monograph , Into the Wild , where he chooses to represent a blend of the fictitious Alexander Supertramp and of the real Christopher McCandless , who emerges from his narrative as some type of romantic and profound hero , wise beyond his age , and whose death is only due to a tragic mistake rather than to a series of serious miscalculations and misplaced convictions that simply led to progressive and fatal starvation . Krakauer goes the distance in trying to prove McCandless ’ innocence regarding the vandalized cabins that summer , arguing that “ it ’ s difficult to imagine him destroying the buildings without boasting of the deed in his diary ,” ( 134-135 ) omitting the fact that the aforementioned “ diary ” is mostly composed of single word entries and does not enlighten us much regarding the activities of McCandless , especially towards the beginning of his stay , when he was apparently still quite mobile . Day 26 states “ Climb Mountain !” and day 28 , “ Vicinity bus moose :” both of these entries imply that McCandless explored the area around the bus , making perfectly plausible that he would have happened to find the cabins that were ransacked . There is simply not enough room in McCandless ’ so-called “ diary ,” written on the end papers of a book on native Alaskan edible plants , to boast about much : day 11 for instance only states “ Disaster ,” and day 14 , “ Misery ;” following Krakauer ’ s logic , McCandless could have come upon the neighboring cabins on either of these two days and refer to their presence by either “ disaster ” or “ misery ,” since his declared intent was to be truly alone in the wild , a feat difficult to achieve next
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