Chris Mccandless Essay

Words: 390
Pages: 2

The story of McCandless’s life has been told many times and is a book that a lot of people admire. Leaving his family and his personal belongings, McCandless goes through a journey most people wouldn’t have gone on, starting his life over to survive in Alaska. He didn’t want any equipment given to him and he uses many different resources to help him survive and he was doing pretty well surviving in the wild. McCandless, however, made a fatal mistake by eating a poisonous plant that he had mistaken for another plant and died in the bus that he was taking shelter upon. What motivated McCandless’s actions were due to family problems from his parents, literature, and maybe he had a small mental disorder.
Chris McCandless’s parents weren’t abusive, but his parents did have a lack of communication of how he felt. This poor relationship was mostly between him and his father, Walt McCandless. His Father was stubborn and wanted McCandless to do what he wanted him to do as a career and Chris was also stubborn but he was independent, resulting in him arguing a lot with his father. Soon McCandless was fed up with his parents and he had decided to “divorce them as [his]
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In his journal, he would write and write about his life story, using quotes from many different books that he has read from many great writers. In page 9, McCandless writes “Jack London is King, Alexander Super-tramp, May 1992. McCandless compares his life with different quotes from the writers such as Leo Tolstoy, a Russian writer. He states, “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others” (krakauer 168). McCandless believed that he found happiness where no one else did, and he died happy in a sense that he has finally found out how it feels to really live a life of his own. He continues the quote with “ I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness” (krakauer