The Stranger in the Woods

Christopher Knight presents a strange dilemma to law enforcement agencies and residents of North Pond. His burglaries number 1,080, including raiding the same households and a camp for disabled people multiple times. Knight hates stealing and believes his actions were shameful to his family: “I stole. I was a thief. I repeatedly stole over many years. I knew it was wrong” (41). He continues anyway under an internal logic. He only breaks into seasonal homes, avoids damage to the premises, and focuses on supplies that are inexpensive and replaceable. These methods garner sympathy from those who sees him as a quirky eccentric in a state filled with them, and even authorities are impressed with Knight’s technical skill.

Knight’s actions, however, are not completely benign. Knight’s lifestyle is of his own choosing and is unsustainable without stealing. He studies residents to learn their habits when his own privacy is absolute. Some stolen items are considerably expensive (the car batteries), unnecessary for survival (the portable TV), or personal mementos (the watches). The thefts have a chilling effect on the town, as some neighbors feel personally violated and install expensive security systems. A few people blame loved ones for the thefts, and one went to the length of nailing his doors shut.

While the lenient sentence is better for someone with emotional issues, and the support that Knight’s family and Albion citizens provide him is positive, it is rarely shared with others who are not homeless by choice or rationalize stealing for survival. The book does not delve into race issues—Knight and 95% of Kennebec County is white—but many people of color suffer long prison sentences or die before trial for suspicion alone.

From the moment of his arrest, it’s clear that Knight has extreme introversion as he is “visibly suffering, his arms shaking” (15) when surrounded by people. Finkel treats Knight as a rational person, but he does discuss the potential biological causes of introversion and the conditions that the state suggests he has: Asperger’s disorder, depression, and schizoid personality disorder. Knight rejects the idea that he has a condition and jokes about appearing on Jerry Lewis telethons, but he also is afraid of an insanity diagnosis and the possibility of forced medication.

Regardless of Knight’s mental health, he is held the same as any other prisoner during his half-year stay in Kennebec County Correctional Facility. For an isolated man of the woods, living in crowded conditions where the lights never go off is hell. He claims to even prefer solitary confinement, the second-worst punishment next to execution. Prison life changes Knight as well: He grows the long hermit beard that he never did in the woods (save wintertime), loses weight, and suffers crippling stress. Eventually, Knight receives a probation sentence that, while lenient, still reflects the one-size-fits-all nature of the correctional system. For example, he must claim he’s an alcoholic and take drug tests when his crimes aren’t drug related.

Despite the support from his family and the Albion community, Knight longs to return to the woods and shares his plan to kill himself over the winter. Finkel feels that his woodland disappearance from the beginning has “elements of a suicide” (78), and one expert notes that suicide can feel like freedom to someone with mental health issues. Knight ultimately does not carry out his plan, and at this point Finkel, is too much out of the loop to know whether his letters or the state-mandated counseling changed his mind. The writer is happy that Knight is taking positive steps but feels sad that conformity means abandoning the defiance that Finkel found to be admirable.

Both hermit and author have an unspoken conflict with their families based on their desire for isolation. Knight’s family are the closest people in his life, yet he chooses to head for the woods without telling them and even leaves them responsible for unnecessary bills. He had a strict upbringing with an emphasis on repressing emotions, but he is still protective of his parents and refuses to blame them for his behavior.

For Finkel, his job as a writer and outdoor hobbies fulfill his need for solitude, but the added responsibility that comes from having three children in three years stresses him to the point of taking an impromptu excursion to India. He becomes interested in the Knight case because Knight seemed like someone who truly escaped the demands of life, and Finkel’s multiple trips from Montana to Maine to document the hermit have the side effect of taking him away from his family.

Despite his preference for isolation, Knight still understands the value of family. The closest he gets to coming home is when he imagines how his sister with Down syndrome is doing. While discussing Ken Burns’s The Civil War, he says that he wept over the letter that a Union army major wrote to his wife and children just before he dies in combat. He criticizes National Geographic for publishing a photo of a crying Peruvian boy after a truck ran over his sheep, as Knight feels the magazine is exploiting a boy who “failed his family” (106). He also berates Finkel for spending so much time on him instead of his own family, and it isn’t until Knight admits to suicidal thoughts that Finkel understands the true weight of isolation.