The story of Chris McCandless has become a pop culture phenomenon. Many are fascinated by his desire to abandon his family and society and “walk into the wild” (Krakauer 69). Newscasts, magazine articles, movies, and books have tried to define what motivated him to give up everything for his Alaskan odyssey; however, the answers died with McCandless. People make assumptions about him without knowing his entire story. McCandless chose to do the unconventional, making people think he was either foolish or brave and determined, but ultimately he was justified for doing what he did.
Over the course of Chris’s life, he suffered many abuses at the hands of his family, like many others across the world; however Chris had no interest in being told what to do with his life, wanting to live life “freely” he wanted to live life making his own choices and not having anyone telling him what he can and can’t do. Just because he chooses to live his life differently doesn 't mean he was dumb or reckless. No one from Chris’s family had any idea what “his plans were” he has not spoken to his family in a couple years (Jon Krakauer 6). McCandless choose to no speak to his family because of they way they acted, they always fought, they always told their kids look at what your mother and or father is doing, Chris had a really hard time in forgiving his parents and he way they always talked about money just made Chris feel like money ruled the world; Chris wanted a whole different lifestyle