McCandless embraced the teachings of others who had done what he was planning to do, he may have survived his Alaskan adventure. However, because he refused to take advice from others, he made many mistakes that lead to his death. Throughout his travels, Chris exhibited a very selfish desire to ignore the feelings of others by constantly putting himself in grave danger. All of these realizations point to one conclusion- Chris McCandless was a delusional, selfish young man with an exceptionally strong independent streak which eventually lead to his death. After graduating Emory University in 1990, McCandless left Atlanta planning to “wallow in unfiltered experience”. He decided to totally cut ties with his parents in the Washington D.C. area, …show more content…
McCandless seems to be a strange contradiction in that he was very charitable and routinely went into the slums of D.C. to hand out meals to the homeless. Additionally, he donated almost all of his money, $25,000, to a charity dedicated to feeding the hungry. Yet, he also disappeared for two years without ever contacting his family, putting them through terrible emotional turmoil. He also made a point of not allowing the people he met during his travels to become too close to him. “...relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship….” One person in particular, Ronald Franz, became particularly attached to Chris during the time he spent with him. During their last day together, Ron asked if he could adopt Chris as a grandson. Chris avoided answering the question by saying they would talk about it after he returned from Alaska. When Ron found out that Chris was dead, he began drinking again and had suicidal thoughts. McCandless was also selfish in his actions. During his journey, he put himself in dozens of potentially life threatening situations- entering a US Army base, riding on top of trains, camping in the desert for a month with almost no food etc. By taking these risks, he shows that he has no appreciation for anything anyone has done for him. He parents worked extremely long hours so that he could go to college and have a