The idea of escape from the endless amounts of subdivisions and strip malls, where not only is your future premeditated by others but is assiduously planned out to a horrifying degree, has almost a lustrous appeal to some people. To completely eradicate that former life to exchange for one where lush greenery envelopes you, where sleep takes place under the myriad of shining stars, where the bright spots of glistening, fresh dew rest in the morning, where home is the road can at points seem more tantalizing than day-to-day life in suburbia. Although it may seem like a lovely proposition to go and frolic in the wild to the average, aesthetic voyager looking for philosophical guidance, many do not do said frolicking. Chris McCandless was one of the few who chose this type of life: to live completely off the land and test himself in ways, "that mattered," and as Krakauer's friend Roman points out, "very few, if any, of the people who call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either." Through his journalistic approach in his long form feature piece, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer is able to piece together the chilling story of Chris McCandless and give a better understanding of this self-made vagabond through extensive research and Krakauer's own personal connection with McCandless.
Krakauer carries over his journalistic style from his article in Outside to the long form feature Into the Wild in the way he presents his highly thorough investigation. Rather than attempting to construct the story in the form of a narrative like some writers would, Krakauer takes a more straightforward approach, creating a less wordy and easy to swallow story. Throughout the book Krakauer regularly refers to different mediums of his investigation, predominantly McCandless's journal entries and interviews with people McCandless encountered on his journeys, in order to give shape to the tramp's long trek.