Chris McCandless

Chris McCandless was a bright guy, certain about the direction he wanted to take and focused solely on what he thought was important. He had a strong life and even though it unfortunately short, I think he managed to live a fulfilling, at least much more than other people did. Because of his desire and hunger to leave his civilized life and to embrace a raw and challenging lifestyle where he would explore himself, McCandless threw away and left behind his responsibilities to his family and friends and, according to his parents, to himself: responsibilities of being a son, a brother, a friend. McCandless treated the very idea of relationships kind of like a secondary, rather than a centered, part of his life. During the long period when he was wandering and travelling, he sent occasional letters and postcards to friends, and hardly ever to his parents. I think he was big on privacy and individualism; he seemed to think that he was responsible for himself, and he was responsible enough to claim to be solely responsible for himself, and so therefore he disregarded the efforts of many to form a long-lasting relationship with him in order to be with him or to be updated throughout his journey that he wanted to take alone. Some may say that McCandless was a rash and unwise man for leaving his old life and pushing away his family and friends, but I think that what he did wasn’t condemnable. I agree that a person’s responsibility and choice of relationships are up to them, and even though McCandless took this to the extreme, he wanted a life of self-exploration for happiness and contentment, and if that life did not include his family and other people, then that’s that.