Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. In Into the Wild, food plays an important role in Chris’s interactions with others. What role does food as a social connection play in people’s lives? What foods do people reserve for specific occasions, and why? 

Teaching Suggestion: If students are struggling to answer these questions, you may want to provide suggestions around holidays. For example, turkey at Thanksgiving, gingerbread cookies at Christmas, etc. 

• This 13-minute video from TEDx explores the cultural and symbolic aspects of eating that we take for granted. Because of the length of the video, you may want to select the first 5:25 to show to your class.
• “Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating” This article from The National Library of Medicine uses data from a UK national stratified survey to test the hypothesis that eating with others provides both social and individual benefits.

2. Stepping away from society for a time to recharge or realign yourself is an increasingly popular form of self-care. Do you know anyone who has ever “taken a break” from society? What was the impact on that individual?