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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is Carine different from Chris?

2. What kind of business do Carine and her husband operate?

3. What shows Chris's attitude toward injustices that began when he was in college?

4. What emotional experience disturbed Chris while he is staying in the bus?

5. What is significant about the cloth belt Krakauer founds in the bus?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was Krakauer's Alaska experience different from Chris's?

2. Who was Sam McCandless, and why was he the one to notify Chris's parents?

3. Explain Jim Gillien's difficulty in contacting the Alaska police.

4. What defense does Krakauer make of Chris's ability to survive in the wild?

5. As Krakauer, visiting the site, stood on the banks of the raging Teklanika River, what advantage did he have that Chris did not have?

6. What discovery did Chris make the summer after his freshman year in college that drove a deeper wedge between him and his father?

7. What discovery about himself did Krakauer make after conquering Devil's Thumb?

8. Carine knew that Chris was leaving but she didn't know where he was going. Why?

9. What was the irony Krakauer thought about as he kept attempting to climb Devil's Thumb?

10. What indicates to Krakauer that there was a very close relationship between Carine and Chris?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about Walt and Billie as examples of people working hard to fulfill the American dream. Explain whether you think their ambition might have affected their children. Conclude with your opinion about making money and making a life.

Essay Topic 2

Write about hitchhiking. What are the dangers? Why do people not pick up hitchhikers very much? Include Gaylord Stuckey, who seldom picked up hitchhikers, and Jim Gallien who picked Chris up even though he was carrying a rifle.

Essay Topic 3

Given the amount of information Krakauer includes about Chris's abilities, write and OP-ED piece about another successful course Chris might have taken to realize his ideals. You might want to have him go into the Peace Corps or get involved in something like Habitat for Humanity.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 919 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample