What lessons can we take away from his journey as a college student? What emotions were evoked when reading this story?
McCandless describes what he is looking for on his odyssey, particularly on the Alaska trip, as “ultimate freedom.” It would seem that this largely represents, to him, freedom from other people’s rules and authority over him. Chris turned his back on the culture of consumption and greed. To Chris, college was just another mechanism for this. Chris was a free spirit and an idealist. Many people were drawn to his warm charisma. On the other hand, Chris emotionally wounded quite a few people, especially his family that constantly worried about him.
