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As soon as I saw the movie (directed by Sean Penn), I read the book. This is one of the rare times where I enjoyed the film better than the book.

The story is about Christopher McCandless who graduated from college and disappeared. He didn't just disappear... he left with a strong message, do not look for him. He abandoned his car, supposedly burned his license, social security card, and whatever money he had on him.

The journey was to live off the grid and hopefully make it to Alaska, where he ventured during a road trip one summer. He wanted to be unattached to a world where everything was materialistic. He wanted to disassociate himself from a place where your level of happiness or success was based on materialistic things like homes, cars, money and jobs.

He traveled through the country for two years, doing odd jobs, meeting various people and not staying stationary for too long. When he did make it to Alaska, it was winter and he crossed a small river to find an abandoned bus that hunters used when they were in the area. Spring/Summer rolled around he decided it was time to leave. But the snow had melted and the river was three times as big, and the current too strong to cross. So he went back to the bus.

He died at the bus, from starvation. Whether it was the inability to find food or from eating a poisonous plant that disabled the body from processing the food is still a question. But the result is still the same.

There was a lot of negative comments on his actions. A lot of people called him a self-martyr or careless idiot, for putting himself through this "journey" and not going into it prepared. Like, why didn't he bring a topographical map. If he had brought a map then he would've seen the river wasn't as wide further up north. Or that there was a ranger's station somewhere close by. Why would he just go into an unknown region without knowing where he was going?

THAT WAS THE POINT!

He didn't want to know where he was going. Didn't want to know where he would end up. He wasn't afraid of death. He was more afraid of what would happen if he stayed along the predetermined path that was set up for him, before he was even born:
Birth> School> Career> Marriage> Death.

He did not want that schedule. He did not want that course. He wanted to go off to Alaska without a plan. That's why he didn't go straight to Alaska. He traveled around for 2 years just existing without a purpose. Just being human. Not conforming to the 9 to 5 and the marriage with the two kids and white picketed fenced house.

He went through life without a map that told him where he was and what he could do. He wanted to be uncharted. And he was.



There was a moment in the movie where he finally made it to Alaska, and he looks out into the open. The mountains are in the background and the snow is just covering everything. Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, looks out into the open and just tears up with a smile, that even made me get choked up. This was his element.