Into the wild
jon krakauer
“it’s comforting to know chris was here,” billie explains, “to know for certain that he spent time beside this river, that he stood on this patch of ground. so many places we’ve visited in the past three years—we’d wonder if possibly chris had been there. it was terrible not knowing—not knowing anything at all.
“many people have told me that they admire chris for what he was trying to do. if he’d lived, i would agree with them. but he didn’t, and there’s no way to bring him back. you can’t fix it. most things you can fix, but not that. i don’t know that you ever get over this kind of loss. the fact that chris is gone is a sharp hurt i feel every single day. it’s really hard. some days are better than others, but it’s going to be hard every day for the rest of my life.”
abruptly, the quiet is shattered by the percussive racket of the helicopter, which spirals down from the clouds and lands in a patch of fireweed. we climb inside; the chopper shoulders into the sky and then hovers for a moment before banking steeply to the southeast. for a few minutes the roof of the bus remains visible among the stunted trees, a tiny white gleam in a wild green sea, growing smaller and smaller, and then it’s gone. (203)
these are the final three paragraphs of the book. which of the following statements explains why krakauer may have chosen to end his book this way?
i. he wanted the final perspective to be from chris’ parents because he
feels they deserve to have the final word on chris.
ii. he wanted to draw in the reader emotionally by touching upon something
universal, such as the love of parents for their child.
iii. he wanted to acknowledge the fact that chris had deserted his family and
had hurt them badly to satisfy his own selfish motives.
a. i only
b. ii only
c. iii only
d. i and ii
e. i and iii