During this essay, I will be discussing the similarities and differences between the film and novel of Into the wild. A brief explanation of the story would be about a young man (Chris McCandless) , who is exhausted by focusing on appearances, money and material possessions. Due to his beliefs, he decides to begin travelling so he can experience nature and gain a better knowledge of life overall, and survival. Both copies of the story pay attention to other reasons for making this decision, for example his family life. His parents made a major impact towards his life from an early age, which were mainly negative memories and this caused Chris to gradually become more and more against his parents and their priorities.

The film presents Walt McCandless (father of Chris McCandless) as a world apart from his son. For example, the entrance of the sports team into formal dining hall and an over the shoulder shot of Walt’s reaction compared with similar shot of Chris. When this moment occurred in the scene, the camera angles proved that Chris rated the excitement of the football team, and wished he was in the same atmosphere, as we notice a very large smile on his face. On the other hand, his father has a complete opposite reaction. We notice his frustration of being in the same environment as the football players, due to his angry face, which justifies how different the characteristics are of Walt and Chris. This proves that the parents always want to maintain their high status, whereas Chris isn’t bothered, he just wants to do what he enjoys. However, the novel presents Walt and Chris as sharing similar core characteristics. For example, colleagues refer to him (Walt) as brilliant, while Chris ‘came into this world with unusual gifts’. Other peoples comments prove that the father and son both have their own gifts and talents, despite Chris’ being ‘unusual’. This could suggest that Walt is more likeable than his son, however I believe it is simply because of Chris’ minor worries about other peoples thoughts. The phrase ‘unusual gifts’ could also suggest that Chris has a personality that isn’t very common and could potentially link to him being ‘one of a kind’. If this was the case, this would be proof that Walt and Chris both include a piece of brilliance within their personalities and tend to be adored by the majority of people they come across in life. Based on these parts of the story, it is obvious that the McCandless family is presented differently in Penn’s and Krakauer’s versions of Into the wild as the film highlights the differences between Walt and Chris, whereas the novel shows the similarities.