Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Bibliographic Information:

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Random House, 1996.

Plot Description: The story of Chris McCandless’s short life and tragic death is legend to some and foolish error to others, but this narrative nonfiction book is nonetheless engaging and informative, especially for older teenagers.  Chris McCandless, or Alexander Supertramp as he named himself later in life, left a life of affluence in order to experience the wonders of life on the road.  He abandoned the material comforts he had always known on a quest of self discovery that led him through the Southwestern U.S., South Dakota, and finally Alaska.  Along the way he took in the beauty of these places and made a handful of devoted friends, including one man who was determined to adopt Chris as his own son someday.  While he was successful in taking care of himself for most of this journey, he made several key errors in his final months in Alaska that would cost him his life.  The author interweaves with Chris’s story the stories of other idealistic adventurers, including himself, suggesting that Chris might be a hero to those who’ve ever found a bit of wanderlust in their hearts.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile 1270; GL 11

Qualitative Reading Analysis: Falling within the eleventh grade text complexity band, this book proves to be a significantly challenging read.  There are multiple story lines and characters as well as time shifts that follow no distinct pattern.  The author’s narrative at times feels objective while at others is clearly emotionally involved in the story.  The language demands are also significant in terms of new vocabulary and regular use of irony, metaphor and idiom.  Likewise sentence structure is also complex, often containing multiple concepts. The themes implicit in Chris’s beliefs are many – human freedom, the value of money, family, appreciation for nature and life in general, independence, etc.  It is this multiplicity of ideas that make the book so stimulating, and overall it is very intellectually demanding.

Content Area: English Language Arts

Content Area Standard(s):

CCSS for Reading Informational Text, Grades 11-12: 3) Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text; 10) By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Curriculum Suggestions:  This is a great class book for a junior or senior class, in part because of the many themes to explore, and as a means to inspire students to consider their own values and perhaps desire to see the world.  There is also potential for lively, critical debate about the decisions of this young man – readers are often polarized in their appreciation or lack of as they get to know the details of his story.  I would also recommend this for independent reading to any student expressing interest in philosophy, nature or traveling.

Supporting Digital Content: Krakauer and Sean Penn discuss Chris and the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9tjqblawHA

Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California by Jerry Stanley

Bibliographic Information:

Stanley, Jerry. Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California. New York: Random House, 2000. Print.

Plot Description: Hurry Freedom chronicles the African American experience of the California Gold Rush, from free Northerners to slaves brought by their masters.  It centers on the life of Mifflin Gibbs, a friend of Frederick Douglass who arrived in California with almost nothing but over time built himself a successful shoe business.  Historical data about the two thousand blacks who lived from the Bay Area up to the foothills reveal deep inequity in the judicial system and society despite the fact that slavery was illegal.  Gibbs and his partners started an Underground Railroad in California, educating slaves and assisting them to acquire their freedom.

Quantitative Reading Level: GL 7.3; Lexile 1090

Qualitative Reading Analysis: This book is moderately complex for a middle school reader, mostly for the vocabulary which balances familiar and some abstract, historical language.  Sentence structure is clear with only minor complexity in compound sentences. Pictures and drawings serve are supplementary for understanding the text.  The purpose is twofold; to portray the life of a key historical figure as well as to profile the conditions of all black living in California at that time.  Finally, the knowledge demands of the text are moderate in that students will likely benefit from having some background in history, specifically slavery, race relations and civil rights movements and leaders.

Content Area: California History, Reading for Information

Content Area Standard(s):

CA State History Standards Grade 8: 8) Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.

CCSS for Literacy in History, Grades 6-8: 4) Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies. 5) Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally). 6) Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts). 7) Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

Curriculum Suggestions:  This book should play a prominent role in any study of the settling of California and the Gold Rush, offering students a more balanced perspective of the social atmosphere of the west at that time.  Although the text is written at an upper middle school level, e  Although the text is written at an upper middle school level, excerpts could be used as supplementary curriculum at the fourth grade study of California history as well.

Supporting Digital Content:

Primary Source photos: http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/calcultures/ethnic_groups/subtopic1a.html

Personal Thoughts: Having grown up in northern California, I am very familiar with the classically told history of the gold Rush era, of pioneers and their families travelling west to “manifest destiny.” This book offers a much-needed voice to the history of just one of the oft ignored minority groups that played a very formative role in the settling west – the voice of African Americans who worked thanklessly to support white gold hunters as they sought their fortunes.