Many people face problems throughout their life and take different approaches as to how to deal with them. A well-known way to deal with problems is to run away from home or to live life on the road. For most people, running away from their problems creates the idea of freedom and the excitement of creating a new life for themselves. Many take this approach but only a few fully go through with it. A novel that explores this further is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Krakauer retells the true story of Chris McCandless about his life on the road and why he decided to go through with it. It follows McCandless’s journey in a nonconventional way beginning with the final moments of his life and progressively unveiling what led up to that moment of
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This is demonstrated through the disappearance of McCandless from his family. McCandless lived a prosperous life growing up with his family believing that society was just like his mother and father. He believed that everyone in society helped one another become successful and everyone worked hard for their goals. The image of society he created based on his parents’ financial success became destroyed the moment he found out about his father’s affair with his previous wife during the marriage of his now wife. After unearthing this information, McCandless declares to his sister Carine, “the deception committed by Walt and Billie made his ‘entire childhood seem like a fiction.’ [...] He chose instead to make a secret of his dark knowledge and express his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal” (123). McCandless states how his parents made his “entire childhood seem like a fiction.” This means that with the information he found it destroyed his whole memory of his childhood. The image of society that he created for himself as a child had been violated and desecrated because of the betrayal of his father. Being the image of how society works, his father’s secret led him to believe all of that was a lie and that no matter how successful one may be, there is always some form of corruption from them. With this, McCandless gradually cut ties from his family to get away from the lie he had been living with. McCandless’s choice to run away to a new life on the road is justified because of the emotional damage he has been subjected to. When one is as emotionally damaged as McCandless was, it would be the best course of action to leave the situation. McCandless lives life on the road to escape his problems initially but results in an adventure to find himself. He decided to leave the confines of his old life to pursue a new one despite the dangers
This is demonstrated through the disappearance of McCandless from his family. McCandless lived a prosperous life growing up with his family believing that society was just like his mother and father. He believed that everyone in society helped one another become successful and everyone worked hard for their goals. The image of society he created based on his parents’ financial success became destroyed the moment he found out about his father’s affair with his previous wife during the marriage of his now wife. After unearthing this information, McCandless declares to his sister Carine, “the deception committed by Walt and Billie made his ‘entire childhood seem like a fiction.’ [...] He chose instead to make a secret of his dark knowledge and express his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal” (123). McCandless states how his parents made his “entire childhood seem like a fiction.” This means that with the information he found it destroyed his whole memory of his childhood. The image of society that he created for himself as a child had been violated and desecrated because of the betrayal of his father. Being the image of how society works, his father’s secret led him to believe all of that was a lie and that no matter how successful one may be, there is always some form of corruption from them. With this, McCandless gradually cut ties from his family to get away from the lie he had been living with. McCandless’s choice to run away to a new life on the road is justified because of the emotional damage he has been subjected to. When one is as emotionally damaged as McCandless was, it would be the best course of action to leave the situation. McCandless lives life on the road to escape his problems initially but results in an adventure to find himself. He decided to leave the confines of his old life to pursue a new one despite the dangers