Previous
Boots
As the site where McCandless’s body is discovered, the bus alludes to death, but also symbolizes Chris’s good fortune and search for solitude. That he stumbles upon the old Fairbanks City bus in the middle of Alaskan bush is an amazing stroke of luck that not only helps Chris to survive in the wild for 113 days, but also gives him a place to contemplate his life and beliefs, as the philosophical inscriptions he writes on the bus’s walls reiterate.
The Bus Quotes in Into the Wild
The Into the Wild quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Bus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 16
Quotes
Two years he walks the earth…an aesthetic voyager whose home is the road….After two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventures. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution….Ten days bring…him to the great white north. No longer poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Into the Wild LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Bus Symbol Timeline in Into the Wild
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Bus appears in Into the Wild. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2 - The Stampede Trail
In September 1992, six people in three separate parties happen upon a refurbished city bus off the Stampede Trail in Denali National Park. Moose hunters, Ken Thompson, Gordon Samel and...
(full context)
Chapter 16 - The Alaska Interior
On the Stampede Trail, McCandless crosses the unseasonably low Teklanika River waters and discovers the bus, where he makes camp.
(full context)
Chapter 17 - The Stampede Trail
In search of clues at Chris’ bus, Krakauer and two friends zip line across the Teklanika River. Had Chris known about this...
(full context)
Examining McCandless’ possessions in the bus, Krakauer notices that Chris lacked some essential equipment for surviving in the wild. Krakauer is...
(full context)
Making camp near the bus site, Krakauer and his friends talk about McCandless late into the night, but refuse to...
(full context)
Chapter 18 - The Stampede Trail
Back at the bus, where nature flourishes in the summer heat, McCandless continues with his routine of hunting and...
(full context)
...that had Chris carried a map, he would have known that four cabins circled the bus site. Chris could have sought them out for help, though in fact they were unoccupied...
(full context)
...a goodbye in his journal, thanking God for a happy life, before crawling into the bus for his final rest. In one of his last acts, Chris photographs himself. In the...
(full context)
Epilogue
At the site, Walt and Billie inspect the bus and assemble a memorial to Chris inside the its door with flowers, a plaque, a...
(full context)
