Journey Over the Edge

"Walt grows quiet, staring absently into the distance. "Chris was fearless even when he was little," he says after a long pause. "He didn't think the odds applied to him. We were always trying to pull him back from the edge" (Krakauer 109).

Topic: The Dynamics of Family

By this I feel like Alex/Chris' parents never really let Chris experience the many things that could have been on the other side of the "edge". I say "edge" because this could be any type of edge. Whether it's the edge of a mountain or the edge of finding and experiencing new opportunities and chances to see the world, there was always a barrier between him and the edge created by his parents. However, Chris seemed to be a pretty rebellious child and rebelled against his parents instructions. Therefore, while his parents were so focused on "trying to pull him back from the edge," Chris' curiosity of the many things that could be on the other side of the edge grew bigger and bigger. In my opinion, the fact that his parents constantly kept him from the going over the edge, played a huge part in his curiosity to go over and beyond the edge. To do things that his parents would probably convince him not to do. To do his own thing and be his own person. His journey to Alaska was his example of going "off the edge."

One Step Further from Social Constructionism and One Step Closer to the Wild

"At one point Franz dared to make a special request of McCandless. "My mother was an only child," he explains. "So was my father. And I was their only child. Now that my own boy's dead, I'm the end of the line. When I'm gone, my family will be finished, gone forever. So I asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson." McCandless, uncomfortable with the request, dodged the question: "We'll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron." (Krakauer 55)

Topic: The Dynamics of Family

After this conversation between Franz and Alex we can see more clearly that Alex had a pretty rough past with his own family. Alex seems to not want any type of long lasting friendships or any type of close relationships with anyone to the point where they could possibly start considering him as family because he probably feels that he will end up ruining it somehow or they will start acting different towards him and start acting less like a friend. The whole point of this whole trip of his was to escape and free himself from personal ties to civilization and he felt that Franz' request would go against the reason of why he left and his beliefs of family and social construct. Alex constantly runs into people during his trip that he ends up creating friendly bonds with but after a week or so he withdraws himself from their lives and continues on his journey into the wild.