As just a young man, Christopher McCandless embarked on an adventure that eventually became the subject of both a non-fiction text and a film. Originally pieced together by Jon Krakauer for a news article, McCandless's story sparked the interest of not only Krakauer who later wrote the nonfictional text titled Into the Wild, but also film director Sean Penn.  Christopher McCandless had recently graduated from college when he decided to go on an adventure of discovery.  Leaving his entire life behind him, cutting ties with all friends and family, and ridding himself of all nonessential material belongings except the few that he could carry on his back, McCandless began his journey to the Alaskan wilderness where he intended to live off of the land in isolation.  Gaining many acquaintances along the way, McCandless made it to Alaska where he lived in an abandoned bus in the middle of nowhere. After about four months, McCandless's dead body was discovered by a group of hikers.  Completely unaware of who the body was, how it got there or why it was there, Krakauer, a news reporter, made it his mission to figure it out.  After much investigation, Krakauer eventually unveiled the motives behind and details of Christopher McCandless's journey and published it in his book Into the Wild.  Sean Penn, inspired by the book, then made a film adaptation of the story.  Penn and Krakauer use first-hand accounts as well as McCandless's markings and graffiti to explain that McCandless's conflict with his parents and difficult home life was what led him to seek isolation and turn to the serene Alaskan wilderness to find his true identity.

Krakauer explains that McCandless viewed his parent's deceit as an ultimate betrayal that can only be forgotten by removing them from his life completely by using McCandless's highlighted passages.  McCandless placed a high value on morals, but most importantly, he placed a high value on honesty.  Krakauer displays McCandless value of trust by including an epigraph from Henry David Thoreau's Walden, of Life in the Woods which states that "rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth" (Krakauer 117).  McCandless highlighted this passage in his book and wrote "truth" in the margins.  The attention this passage got from McCandless showed how important truth was to him.  After all of the truth is forced out of his life by his parents, McCandless essentially lost all respect for them and therefore ruined any relationship he once had with them.  McCandless's parent's dishonesty affected him so deeply that he felt as though he had been betrayed to a point of no return.  Due to the severity of the situation Christopher McCandless was unable to forgive his parents and believed the only way to separate himself from his negative emotions surrounding the situation was to remove himself from it completely.  In removing himself from the situation he is also inherently removing his parents from his life.  The extreme negative change in McCandless relationship with his parents motivated him to abandon all personal relationships to live in isolation.

In the film, a voiceover given from the perspective of Christopher McCandless's younger sister, Carine McCandless, explains, the same point, that the bad relationship between her brother and their parents that motivated him to seek a life of isolation.  After placing his trust in his parents, Chris McCandless discovered that his parent's story of how they met and fell in love was in reality completely fictional and that he and his sister were in fact bastard children of their father and of his mistress at the time, their mother.  This discovery changed McCandless's backstory, making him feel illegitimate, and therefore changed him.  McCandless felt as though he no longer knew who he was because the home life that shaped him in to person he thought he was, was in fact a lie.  Carine reasons this change in McCandless by explaining that to McCandless this one lie was "a murder of every day's truth. He felt his whole life turn, like a river suddenly reversing the direction of its flow, suddenly running uphill. These revelations struck at the core of Chris' sense of identity" (Penn).  Everything Chris McCandless was once told to believe about his family and his past was all a lie forcing him to question his entire life and identity.  McCandless felt the need to start over his life and the only way to do so was to abandon all the negatives surrounding from his old life. Focusing on himself and rejecting his past, McCandless needed to reinvent himself.  This newfound need made him leave his old life behind, which to him now meant nothing, and embark on a journey of discovery.  

Krakauer uses McCandless's journal and graffiti to reveal why McCandless decided to begin a new life in the wilderness as his escape.  As publicized in the story, McCandless was haunted by a troubled childhood and was desperate to forget it and the stress and worry that it entailed in hopes for a better life.  McCandless revealed his desire to leave his home life behind in his journal. In that journal he writes that he has "Escaped from Atlanta" (Krakauer 163).   This need for escape, was what motivated Christopher McCandless to voyage to the peaceful Alaskan wilderness.  Krakauer revealed that McCandless viewed nature as his sanctuary by including a passage from one of McCandless inspirational authors.  As revealed by his carving found at the site of his death, McCandless admired Jack London in writing "Jack London is King" (Krakauer 9).  McCandless clearly enjoyed the works of the author Jack London and naturally drew inspiration from his work.  Kraukauer included a passage in his book from a novel written by Jack London that he believed to have inspired Christopher McCandless.  In this passage London discusses nature in that it "[is] the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life" (Krakauer 9).  This passage is essentially saying that nature is reality.  Jack London is essentially personifying nature and making the claim that nature is all knowing and can settle all problems.  Inspired by London's point of view, McCandless looked to experience nature on his own and to escape the pressure around him.  McCandless felt the only way to escape this pressure was by going to a place that London believed cannot be harmed by any life. In need of a lifestyle completely separate from that of his old, McCandless saw nature as his pathway to find piece and ultimately satisfaction.

Penn uses voiceovers to reveal that Christopher McCandless's troubled home life created his attraction to the serenity of nature.  The voice of the actress portraying Carine McCandless, reveals that her and her brother had a difficult childhood.  Having similar experiences and having to deal with their childhood is what brought Carine McCandless and Chris McCandless close together making her the best person to reveal McCandless belief and reasoning.  Carine explains she understands her brothers reasoning because "now he was emancipated from the world of abstraction, false security, parents, and material excess" (Penn).  Carine McCandless's understanding of Christopher McCandless's actions justifies his need to leave their parents and past behind.  Her telling of the story coupled with the dark flash backs into their past, indicates that their parents frequently fought and became violent with one another.  As a result, the environment in which McCandless and Carine were raised was extremely stressful and chaotic.  McCandless's rough childhood makes it easy for him to want to leave his old life behind.  During McCandless journey, Penn shows the contrast between McCandless old life and that in which he lived in the wilderness.  Throughout McCandless journey, Penn reveals glorious panoramic views displaying vast lands of the peaceful wilderness. In the film, McCandless's glorified view of nature is revealed through the beautiful images of the wilderness.  Penn creates the image of the wilderness in the film to be similar to how McCandless views it.  The positive tone that is created surrounding nature versus the negative tone surrounding McCandless past explains why McCandless would feel a pull away from his old life of stress to a new life of peace.  McCandless troubled childhood explains why his need for change created his attraction contrasting to the Alaskan wilderness.

In both the book and film interpretation of Christopher McCandless's story, he was driven the live a life of isolation in the wild by his difficult childhood and his bad relationship with his parents.  Penn and Krakauer reveal that McCandless's poor relationship with his parents and feeling of betrayal they caused are what motivated him to go on a journey of self-discovery in isolation.  His troubled childhood is what drew McCandless to a final destination in the peaceful and untouchable Alaskan wilderness.  The combination of McCandless's need for self-discovery and isolation with his allure to nature is what motivated him to actually go on a journey to Alaska.  With an impending disconnect with himself and his family, McCandless needed to separate himself from his life and start fresh.  When he was in need of change in his life, McCandless was drawn to nature for his salvation.  Although his methods were alternative and ended in him dying, McCandless was able to find some liberation and meaning in his life and learn from his experiences.  

