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Never heard of Christopher McCandless till now

posted 7 years ago by Faridah (1363)
2 replies | jump to latest

I don’t remember hearing about Christopher McCandless when he died. I don’t even remember hearing about this movie till today. I came across an article about him on Facebook and the comments were full of people saying he deserved to die. I wondered what this young man could have done to deserve death. Did he kill his family or someone else family? I mean it had to be something awful for people who don’t even know someone personally to hate him so much. So I read the article which was short and not much detail. I did a Google search to learn more. He was described as a young man who wanted to leave the world behind. I think we all feel like that sometimes. We get lost in today’s fast paced world. I still didn’t see how he deserved death. I kept reading and see his own lack of knowledge of survival likely killed him. I’d hardly say that deserves death I mean many of us are quick to jump into something without reading instructions or figure we’d learn as we go.

I was glad to find this movie on Netflix and just started it. I get a sense this man was running from something and from his sisters words it seems and abusive childhood. I was abused as a kid can tell you many times in life I want to run away from life. So the fact he did that hardly seems he should have died.

Reading comments here about the movie seem to bring the same harsh judgments. I agree he should have slowed down to educate himself but he certainly isn’t the first person to make that mistake.

As for people saying he mooched off others again he isn’t the only one. I’ve met a lot of people like that and wouldn’t say they deserve to die. Some guy once wrote a blog about traveling across the USA on the kindness of strangers. It was a fascinating read and people were more glad to help him has his adventure. Many people are eager to help others. Sadly some do it when they can’t afford it and can easily be scammed but I wouldn’t say this is what Christopher was doing. I could be wrong.

So before viewing this movie I get the impression he’s running from something and just in the need to escape life and instead of struggling with bills and debt he struggles to just eat. Nothing wrong with that.

My views may change after watching the movie and I plan to read the book too. I’d like to read his sisters book also.

[–] wanton87 (934) 7 years ago

If you find this sort of thing interesting, then you would probably also like The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, also a true story. Though this tale didn’t end quite as tragically for the main character, as it did for Christopher McCandless.

Christopher Knight simply decided that he’d had enough of society one day, drove his car into the woods, and remained there…..for 27 years! There isn’t a movie based on this story (At least not to my knowledge?) but I read the book and enjoyed it. I might also pick up the into the wild book at some point.

[–] Faridah (1363) 7 years ago

Thanks for the suggestion. I will see if I can find any info on him.

I watched two shows today on Christopher McCandless and the full story is rather sad especially about his dad having two families. One sister said he was told all his life it was his fault his parents remained together so long. If he hadn’t have been born then his mom wouldn’t have suffered domestic abuse according to the sister. That would have a bad effect on anyone. So I still seem to think he just wanted to escape his life. He didn’t come across as a spoiled kid at all. His father and I think it was his stepmother seemed puzzled why he didn’t accept their gift of a new car. He seemed to want to get away from the rich lifestyle his parents lived.