It's always seemed to me that he was driven more by a desire to die than a desire for an adventure. He seemed too intelligent for extreme sports or other forms of death-daring to not be completely transparent, so he had to construct an elaborate ruse in order to deceive himself. I don't doubt that when it became clear that he WAS going to (finally) die, he took to his bed with the first real peace he'd experienced in many years.
shareIt was the complete opposite, he wanted to live, really live, to him everyone was already dead and had forgotten the purpose of life. Possessions accrued over 50 years of toiling do not equal happiness, they equal possessions.
You could see in his face how infuriated he was when he learned that he had eaten the wrong plant, it was as though he had survived nature but inadvertantly killed himself and he was annoyed. He even wrote a note stating that "if you find me, help me - I've eaten bad seeds, I'm dying and need help", but it was only found two weeks after his death.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov
It's unlikely that eating the wrong plant was what killed him--in real life.
shareHe even wrote a note stating that "if you find me, help me - I've eaten bad seeds, I'm dying and need help", but it was only found two weeks after his death.
ATTENTION POSSIBLE VISITORS
S. O. S.
I need your help.
I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here.
I am all alone, this is NO JOKE. In the name of God, please remain and save me.
I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening.
Thank You.
Chris McCandless
August ?
I see it that he wanted to live to the nth degree even if that meant probable life expectancy cut into shards.
He never seems scared, nor would trekking into Alaskan wilderness alone be something to not be fearful of. He probably would've wanted to endure a full season alone outdoors, & then perhaps wander east through northern Canada or back south eventually towards contact with ppl he knew.
...my essential 50 http://www.imdb.com/list/ls056413299/
No. Suicide is a deathwish. At no point he showed a desire to die.
shareI think his main issues were no different to many people's, he did react to them in more extreme ways than most do but I don't agree suicide was a conscious decision. He came to the conclusion that "happiness is only real when shared" and this was a fact from his own writing found in the bus. I think he would have put this in to action and lead a more normal life if he had returned from the bus. He died by accident, which was the result of some naivety and lack of preparedness. The idealised movie is not the complete story, nobody will ever know that except Chris himself so it can only ever be conjecture, but you can learn more that wasn't shown in the film from the books and documentaries about him too, which helps to get more of an idea. For instance, a local ranger found money in his back pack after he died, he did not destroy it all.
share"He died by accident"
He was a romantic kid who'd mapped out his entire adventure in his head, beforehand. Poisoning may have been the ultimate cause of death, and his eating that toxic whatever may have been an accident, but he surrendered to dying in a way only a person with a genuine desire to die can.
He was unhappy, and he wanted to die. His death was by his own design, for sure.