| A | B |
|---|
| Christopher J. McCandless | main character of the story, traveled around US for two years, cut off communication with his family, died of starvation in Alaska in August 1992 |
| Alexander Supertramp, Alex McCandless | pseudonyms used by Chris during his travels |
| Walt McCandless | Chris' father, worked on space satellites, very smart, married to two women at the same time which Chris could not forgive |
| Billie McCandless | Chris' mother, handles the office side of the family business |
| Carine McCandless | Chris' sister, his closest family member, goes to Alaska to bring back Chris' remains |
| Jim Gallien | Fairbanks local, picks up Chris hitchhiking, drops Chris off at the head of the Stampede Trail, gives Chris his boots and his lunch, last person to see Chris alive |
| Wayne Westerberg | lives in Carthage, South Dakota, runs grain elevators, hires Chris to work for him, becomes Chris' closest friend, Chris stays in contact with him through postcards and letters, instrumental in identifying Chris because he has Chris' real social security number |
| Jan Burres | a "rubber tramp" who becomes fond of Chris because he reminds her of her son, Chris stays in contact with her through postcards and letters |
| Ronald Franz | elderly man befriended by Chris, leatherworker, lost his wife and son in a car accident, very fond of Chris and wants to adopt him as his grandson |
| Gaylord Stuckey | delivering an RV to Fairbanks, picks Chris up hitchhiking, initially reluctant to pick Chris up but agrees to take him halfway to Alaska and eventually decides to take him the whole way, gives Chris his credit card number to call his parents |
| Gene Rosellini | "Mayor of Hippie Cove" in Alaska, tried to live for a decade completely independent of modern technology and modern tools, found dead in his shack in 1991 with a knife through his heart, death ruled a suicide |
| John Waterman | mountain climber who completes a solo summit of Mt. Hunter's previously unclimbed southeast spur, disappeared on an attempted solo climb of Denali in 1981, assumed he fell into a crevasse |
| Carl McCunn | amateur photographer from Texas, spent the summer photographing wildlife in Alaska, forgot to arrange for a pilot to pick him up at the end of the summer, threw most of his shotgun shells into a lake because he thought he wouldn't need them, committed suicide by shotgun to prevent himself from starving to death in 1982 |
| Everett Ruess | 20-year old, very similar beliefs and attitudes to Chris, carved the pseudonym "Nemo" into the canyon walls near Davis Creek, different theories suggest he either fell to his death off a cliff, was murdered by cattle rustlers, or drowned trying to cross a river in 1934 |
| Jon Krakauer | author of Into the Wild, mountain climber, wrote original article about Chris for Outside Magazine in 1993, felt a kinship with Chris due to similarities in their childhoods, went to Alaska as a young man to try a solo climb of Devil's Thumb |
