The Dynamics of Family

Quote- "The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything. [McCandless] had spent the previous four years, as he saw it, preparing to fulfill an absurd and onerous duty: to graduate from college. At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.(Krakauer 3)"

     This quote expresses to the extreme the background that Chris McCandless had with his family. As mentioned, the author writes that Chris living with his parents created an abstract world, which made him feel non-existent. This is common in most people when a majority of the time, parents are off at a tangent and not completely acknowledging their kids. Personally, I believe that a lot of the reason that Chris wanted to live the way that he did was because of his family dynamic. Chris states that once he began his trip, his life would be filled with wonder, security, and epic adventures. Living this way seemed like the only thing for Chris to do meaning his relationship with his family was not very strong.