Kayann Luce
English 101
McCandless was inspired to take the risks he took in various journeys because of wanting to go against what his parents wanted him to do and prove that materialistic belongings that society believes we need to survive aren’t needed to live. He was seeking his true self, the true Chris McCandless and show how independent he could be.
Chris takes the risk of leaving his family completely because he is pissed at his parents and can’t forgive them for their wrong. “Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency and this was especially true in Chris’s case. More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white” (Krakauer 122) He had found out his parents weren’t married when they had him and his sister so they were bastard children. He also finds out his father has had an affair with his ex-wife while still being married to his current wife. All this pushes Chris to the point of not ever being around because he morally couldn’t look past it. Before completely disappearing he had wrote his to his sister and talked about how he couldn’t stand his parents. "I'm going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live." Chris leaving was a sign of the
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McCandless wanted to prove that belief wrong. Chris had read many books about leaving society and living a non-luxurious life, just living off the land which he decides to do when he goes to Alaska. In Alaska he spends two days at a library reading about all the edible plants you could eat out in the Alaskan wilderness. Leaving with just a .22 -caliber Remington, a bag of rice and the books he hitches a ride to the trail and hikes. He risks not having much to eat due to the snow fall which made many edible plants sparse and not knowing how to proper cure