[TABLE="class: tborder, width: 100%, align: center"] [TD="class: alt2, width: 175, bgcolor: #F4F2ED"]Vui lòng đăng nhập hoặc đăng ký để xem link Viện sĩ Tham gia ngày: Jun 2008 Bài gởi: 828 Xin cảm ơn: 9 Được cảm ơn 16,466 lần trong 820 bài [/TD] [TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #F8F7F4"] Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer [HR][/HR]Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer Summary: The book begins with the discovery of McCandless's body inside an abandoned bus in Alaska (63°52′06.23″N 149°46′09.49″W / 63.8683972°N 149.7693028°W / 63.8683972; -149.7693028Coordinates: 63°52′06.23″N 149°46′09.49″W / 63.8683972°N 149.7693028°W / 63.8683972; -149.7693028)[2][3] and retraces his travels during the two years he was missing. McCandless shed his real name early in his journey, adopting the moniker "Alexander". He spent time in Carthage, South Dakota with a man named Wayne Westerberg. Krakauer interprets McCandless's intensely ascetic personality as possibly influenced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, and perhaps McCandless's favorite writer, Jack London. He explores the similarities between McCandless's experiences and motivations and his own as a young man, recounting in detail his own attempt to climb Devils Thumb in Alaska. He also relates the stories of some other young men who vanished into the wilderness, such as Everett Ruess, an artist and wanderer who went missing in the Utah desert during 1934 at age 20. In addition, he describes at some length the grief and puzzlement of McCandless's family and friends. McCandless survived for approximately 112 days in the Alaskan wilderness, foraging for edible roots and berries, shooting an assortment of game—including a caribou—and keeping a journal. Although he planned to hike to the coast, the boggy terrain of summer proved too difficult and he decided instead to camp in a derelict bus. In July, he tried to leave, only to find the route blocked by a melted river. On July 30, McCandless wrote a journal entry which reads, EXTREMLY WEAK. FAULT OF POT. SEED... [4][5] Krakauer hypothesized that McCandless had been eating the roots of Hedysarum alpinum, a historically edible plant commonly known as wild potato (also "Eskimo potato"), which are sweet and nourishing in the spring but later become too tough to eat. When this happened, McCandless may have attempted to eat the seeds instead. Krakauer suggests that the seeds contained a poisonous alkaloid, possibly swainsonine (the toxic chemical in locoweed) or something similar. In addition to neurological symptoms such as weakness and loss of coordination, the poison causes starvation by blocking nutrient metabolism in the body. In the film adapation by Sean Penn in 2007 it shows Chris confusing two different plants, and he chooses the wrong one. According to Krakauer, a well-nourished person might consume the seeds and survive because the body can use its stores of glucose and amino acids to rid itself of the poison. Since McCandless lived on a diet of rice, lean meat, and wild plants and had less than 10% body fat when he died, Krakauer theorized he was likely unable to fend off the toxins. However, when the Eskimo potatoes from the area around the bus were later tested in a laboratory of the University of Alaska Fairbanks by Dr. Thomas Clausen, toxins were not found. Krakauer later modified his hypothesis, suggesting that mold of the variety Rhizoctonia leguminicola may have caused McCandless's death. Rhizoctonia leguminicola is known to cause digestion problems in livestock, and may have aided McCandless's impending starvation. The exact cause of the young man's death remains open to question. McCandless may simply have starved to death, a theory backed by the fact that McCandless's body weighed an estimated 67 pounds (30 kg) at the time he was found. [/TD] [/TABLE]
