When I went to the presentation of Chris McCandless I was struck by how much I related to him when I heard his story from his parent’s perspective. Reading Into the Wild I felt that what I was reading was merely a story. The story really came alive for me when they showed all the pictures and talked about Chris’s youth. I felt I could really relate. Chris’s road trip before college was exactly how I felt this summer. All I wanted to do is get in my car and drive as far as I could in any direction that wasn’t home.
Another thing that Chris’s parents said really changed my view about him in college. When I was reading the book, I felt as if Chris begrudgingly went to college and spent the whole time wanting to leave. During their discussion, though, I felt more like Chris always had a free spirit and college helped to harness his feelings in ideas.
I think that Chris knew what he was getting into when he left home to travel the country. He was a smart, intelligent boy from a wealthy area, but he was looking for something more than the idea of being secure. I believe this was his spiritual adventure, to find a meaning to life and find something greater than the everyday mundane. I also feel that he resented the unreality of the life people like his parents led. They were always getting their experiences through something else – through books or pictures or the internet, any means of gaining knowledge without actually experiencing it firsthand. He says he wants to have an unfiltered experience and I think that’s something everyone needs to experience.
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