Previous
Chris’s Camera and Photographs
McCandless intently studies Priscilla Russell Kari’s An Ethnobotany of the Dena’ina Indians of Southcentral Alaska in order to forage for plants and seeds in the Alaskan bush. While a knowledgeable guide, it fails to warn Chris of a poisonous element in the potato seeds that kill him, thereby suggesting that wisdom can be as deadly as ignorance.
Get the entire Into the Wild LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chris’s Field Guide to Edible Plants Symbol Timeline in Into the Wild
The timeline below shows where the symbol Chris’s Field Guide to Edible Plants appears in Into the Wild. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2 - The Stampede Trail
...of exposed film, the SOS note, and a diary, written on the pages of a field guide to edible plants , are recovered along with the remains.
(full context)
Chapter 16 - The Alaska Interior
Preparing to head into the forest, McCandless picks up a guide to edible plants and purchases a rifle. He hitches a ride from Jim Gallien, then enters the Alaskan...
(full context)
Chapter 18 - The Stampede Trail
...in Outside magazine that a starving McCandless ate wild potato seeds at the recommendation of his edible plant guide , but mistook the wild potato for the similar-looking, yet poisonous sweet pea plant.
(full context)
...over the next four years, however, Krakauer concludes that McCandless, following the suggestions of his guidebook, unknowingly ate a plethora of edible potato seeds that happened to be laced with mold,...
(full context)
