Starting Into the WIld 1

Chris McCandless was a young man who set off on a journey to reinvent himself. He may have believed that he was not good enough as he was and where he was so he decided to go back to man's most primal roots. He was heavily influenced by Tolstoy, so much so that he took everything he said at heart. At the start of chapter three there was a reprinting of a passage from Tolstoy that Chris had highlighted. "I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life" (Leo Tolstoy, "Family Happiness", passage highlighted in one of the books found with Chris McCandless's remains, pg. 15). This quote begins the chapter about how Chris treated his family and what happened before he left. From what he wrote in a journal that he kept, they may be one reason he decided to leave and go off on this deadly adventure. "I'm going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect"(pg. 21). He obviously kept his feelings bottled up, and that sometimes leads a person to do crazy or irrational things. I am not saying what he did was either of those things, but they could be perceived that way. He left his family without any idea of where he was going. No hint or anything. They did not know where he went until they recieved his remains. Another reason why he could have left is that he was described as an overthinker and that got him into somje trouble. I myself have this problem, so I can understand how overthinking can lead to bad decisions. I have never thought about ditching everything and running off to Alaska however. Also, this venture would have most likely been succesful and no one would have thought he was crazy, if he had not died. According to the author, there were a few seemingly small mistakes that ended his life. I believe that leaving Carthage earlier that he would have if his friend had not been arrested was one of those mistakes, but that has yet to be confirmed. He was a brave man who decided to do what he thought was right.