Into the Wild & Coming of Age

       
 After reading up to the halfway mark in the book Into the Wild,  I think that I can really see the roots of this book intertwined with "Coming of Age". Into the Wild is a book about a guy named Chris McCandles and his emotional and physical journey through life. The setting of the book is scattered between Alaska, Virginia and Mexico. At the beginning of this book there is a lot of retell and explanation that needs to be done about McCandles early life so the author goes on about McCandles journeys across basically the world  and his short journeys to places. Through the middle to the end of the book although the author mainly goes on about the alaska expedition that proved fatal for Chris. If theres really one thing this book is hitting at it's that coming of age can be really tough and hard and that the only person in charge of your coming of age is yourself.
             
The first example of this is just plainly Chris's relationship with his parents. His parents want him to basically follow along in there path and end up being a normal adult in civilized society(Who can blame them). They buy him a car even thought he says that he doesn't want one and is greatly angered when he has to give up his old car. They even send him checks of money and other things he doesn't wan't in order to try to ensure his path to be a normal adult. The problem with all of this is that he's decided what type of person he wants to be when he gets older and no one can change that. In some ways I think that this type of confidence is really important. The period of growing up is very long and hard journey that takes place through life.In this period there is a lot of questioning that goes on about who you are. It's so important in a time like this to have the confidence that Chris McCandles holds because it helps you get through this rough period.
           
  The second example of this is Chris McCandles and Ron Franz. Ron has almost the same opinion as Chris's parents and really believes that Chris should "make more out of his life" and get a good job and settle in a house with a wife rather than live on the streets and journey across the US with limited food and money. The problem with this is that Chris honestly does like this lifestyle and enjoys it a lot. This type of real care for something is really important just like confidence is in this period. No matter what people say you should always go by your own instinct rather than just follow the "rules" that may even make you regret that you went by them. This obviously doesn't apply to federal laws unless the laws are honestly unfair or discriminatory.


In conclusion Chris really had a great passion for a type of lifestyle that not many people agreed with. This still didn't change anything and he ignored the people telling him he should "make more out of his life" when this way of  life he really enjoyed and cherished. This passion for one thing really helped him grow as a person and discover new things he never knew. In the end he Chris died of starvation in the Alaska bush. People might think this was really sad and think of how great a life he would have had if he just followed his parents advice. I disagree completely with this and think that Chris definitely lived his life to the fullest and couldn't have been happier. Sure he could have just gone along with normal society and he probably wouldn't have went to Alaska in the first place; but he probably would have been very depressed for the rest of his life for doing this.