Into The Wild Chapter One
Dialog Rewrite:
Jim Gallien stops his truck off to the right of the road because he sees a hitchhiker.
Gallien: Hey what’s the matter son? What are you doing here? Trying to get a ride?
Alex: I am looking for a ride to the edge of Denali National Park.
Gallien: Okay, get in.
Alex gets into the Truck.
Gallien: My name is Jim Gallien. What’s yours?
Alex: My name is Alex.
Gallien: Ah Alex, its nice to meet you, so do you mind telling me what you plan on doing at the edge of Denali National Park?
Alex: Well I plan on hiking on the Stampede Trail. Do you know it?
Alex pulls out a map to show Gallien what he is talking about and points to the trail.
Gallien: Yes, I have heard of it.
Gallien then looks at Alex closely examining what he has on and what he has.
Alex: Yeah, its been my goal to explore Alaska’s wild and what better place to start than there.
Gallien: But my question to you is are you really prepared to go there like that?
Alex: I want to experience nature as it is.
Gallien: What are you bringing with you?
Alex: Just the things I need like a rifle and a ten-pound bag of rice in my bag.
Gallien: You need much than that to survive hiking on that trail. Why don’t we go back to Anchorage and I will get you some stuff?
Alex: No that’s okay I am fine how I am now. Really, I am fine.
Gallien: Well at least take these old boots of mine and also this bag of lunch.
Alex: okay, thanks.
Gallien: No problem. Here we are, okay be careful now Alex, good luck.
Alex takes the boots and the lunch as he thanks Gallien for the ride and heads off on the trailhead.
Rationale:
The reason why I wrote this dialog the way I did was to capture what I felt like Alex really talked. I tried to show him a simple guy who likes to keep it basic and mostly try to get to the point and try not to stay on the same subject. It would seem like Alex wouldn’t want to really express too much of him self when he first met Gallien. Alex has no problem meeting new people because he would always jump from place to place not really having a home. And his family would be mostly new people in every city. I made Gallien talk as if he cares about Alex, which he did because of how he offered to help this stranger, that he just met, in order to make sure that he is kept safe. Gallien really wanted to make sure that Alex knew what he was getting himself into by going to the Stampede Trail unprepared. Overall I tried to show how I think the conversation went between the two men based on the information I was given in the book.
