Unable to cross the Teklanika River, Christopher McCandless heads back to the bus. He hunts. He also underlines several key passages in Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago that address the prospect of living a modest life of service to others. He leaves an enthusiastic note beside a passage saying that happiness is only real when shared with other people. Krakauer interprets this to mean that he may have had an epiphany because of his journey. McCandless’s diary also suggests that he was planning to go back to society. In his diary, McCandless left a note that he had been sickened by wild potato or Hedysarum alpinum seeds. But this leads Krakauer to more questions. H. alpinum seeds contain a toxin when they begin to sprout, but why would McCandless have eaten so many sprouted seeds? McCandless could have confused wild potato with wild sweet pea, a similar-looking species.
