Into the Wild #2

After reading chapter one of “Into the Wild”, I do not get the impression that McCandless went off on his journey to never be seen from again. For that to be true, it seems like you would be talking about someone who was despondent and depressed. He does not seem that way to me. I think he naively thought he could survive with his own ingenuity, which is not only arrogant it definitely borders inappropriate.
    Maybe he felt that he had finished his degree at Emory, and he wanted to take a break. I do not mean, he just wanted a vacation. I think that maybe he wanted to break away from society.  There was an author, philosopher, and nature enthusiast Henry David Thoreau; who went off into woods and lived alone. He had an appreciation for nature, but also did not like government. He was a little “anti-establishment”; he went against the grain. Maybe McCandless arrogantly considered himself like a “Modern day Thoreau” . The only problem was McCandless, tried to survive in a very rough terrain and climate, and lacking tools and supplies.
    I think Krakauer wrote the book this way, because he did not want it to give the impression of a “suspense” novel. It is not, we know Chris did not succeed in his endeavor, well, maybe I should say he did not survive it. He may have gotten something out of it, but we will never know that. The entire time you are reading the book , it makes you more inquisitive into his mind. It makes you want to ask, “What would make someone do this/think it is possible?”
By the time I read the S.O.S, I became confused. Whom did he think he would find this? If he was “near death”, what condition was he in, to think he could go out for berries. Maybe by this point, he was losing it mentally. Whether from sensory deprivation from being alone, or having changes in his mental state from lack of food or dehydration. The note did not make much sense to me.