Why Does Chris Mccandless Have Gone Into The Wild

In this unit, my classmates and I read Into the Wild and discussed on the few reasons why Chris McCandless may have gone to Alaska. I have developed an understanding on why he may have gone into the wild and I believe that the reason is because of his family situation. McCandless never had a trustworthy family and with his father hiding secrets behind their back made the situation worse. Going into the wild was his only escape from the disgrace of the world. Despite his reference to Tolstoy, Emerson, Thoreau, and London, it is only reasonable to believe that the actions he took for going into the wild was because of his personal life with his family issues.

Chris McCandless lived a wealthy lifestyle but he did not approve of it. He was a simple

In a documentary, it stated that the father of Chris McCandless was with his mother, who was the father’s second wife, at the same as he was with his first wife. Walt McCandless, Chris’s father, was basically living a double life; he would pay visits to his first wife who he was still not divorced from and would sometimes stay there for some time even though he had Chris and his wife about 30 minutes away. As Chris and his sister were growing up, they witnessed violence between their parents. So I believe that was the start of his anger towards his parents. He just wanted sanity for once in his life. That’s why he went to Alaska so he could get away from all the unstableness in his household. It did not matter “about specific risks”, he was “focused on the possible rewards” he could get out of the

Reading some of the writer's books, you notice how it inspired McCandless to drive himself into the wild. For instance, in an excerpt from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson he writes, “In the woods too, a man casts off his years...In the woods, is perpetual youth...In the woods, we return to reason and faith”; this must have been an push for McCandless to go on his Alaskan adventure (Emerson 5). He never had any reasoning between his parents and him, never no faith with Walt being disconnected from the family, and especially wasting all his childhood years just existing and not living life like he should have. Another example comes from an excerpt from Walden by Henry Thoreau and it states, “I wanted to live deep...to live so sturdily and Spartan-like…” and this is relatable to Chris because he wanted to live disciplined--like throwing out his money and having limited items in his backpack for survival-- and face challenges that would take time to complete but knew he could overcome. The woods cannot disappoint. Everything is truthful