Chris Mccandless Rebellion

One day in July of 1990, Chris McCandless severed all contact with his family and set out West and started his two year long journey that would ultimately end with his untimely death in the frozen, unforgiving landscape of Alaska. Something drove McCandless to venture out of the secure lifestyle his future had become and do the unexpected thing and journey across the Western hemisphere. Many people speculate that McCandless left because of simple rebellion and a penchant for risk-taking. While rebellion and risk-taking might have played a small role, I believe that McCandless’s family issues and philosophical beliefs were the true reasons he left to explore the vast and wild north.
The McCandless family suffered from many problems; such as the father’s infidelity and abusive nature. An author Chris admired, Leo Tolstoy, once wrote, “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger… I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life” (Krakauer 15). McCandless had highlighted this passage in a book that was found with his remains. Tolstoy speaks of his need for a life different from
It was all about the adrenaline rush for Chris and he didn’t care if it meant his death as long as he felt alive beforehand. His life had become something he could no longer suffer through quietly, so he decided to extricate himself from the horror his life had transformed into and created a whole new life and identity as Alexander Supertramp: a wanderer with no ties to society, no social obligations, and most importantly no expectations to be something he could force himself to