I understand.
"Ain't life grand!"

Most people have no notion of what it's like to grow up in emotional turmoil. All you want to do is escape, get away. It's not about hurting your family. Your mind can get so "full" of thoughts and negative feelings that you feel that you will explode if you don't leave. It's sort of like a dam that is ready to burst after a long and sustained rain. He felt that his mind would burst if he didn't leave. He could no longer handle any additional negativity and stress.

Great post. I agree.
I do not think he felt he could contact his sister. He left his parents because they were abusive to each other and made the whole family apart of their fights and drama. He could not cope with this any longer he needed to break free and end this abusive relationship. He knew if he wrote his sister his parents would find out and find him. He needed to escape them. His parents were not good people at all. I do not think he owed them anything.
He was not being cruel. It was cruel of his parents to make their private personal matters a household affair. They were controlling of him to the point that he had to escape to have some freedom and sanity.

Excellent thread! I really appreciate the depth of thought and lack of insults - a breath of fresh air on IMDb.
Anyway, my take is that the distinction Chris made between independence and not was arbitrary, such as his interpretation of travel by means other than hitchhiking and train-hopping as "cheating".
A true "purist" and "aesthetic traveler" would have ridden his damn bicycle to Alaska before trotting off into the wilderness.
Now pardon moi whilst I adjust my derailleurs

I completely relate to Chris and went through a lot of the same struggles he did. In my 20's I did a lot of bumming around the world and intentionally put myself in a number of very dangerous situations. I could have easily never returned just like Chris. But, I did eventually find my way home. That was easily the best time of my life. Very few people get to experience that degree of freedom and immediacy. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have done so. Is it a way to live your entire life? I decided no. But, I do think everyone would benefit from trying it out when they are young and brave.

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. When people don't understand Chris or the reasons why he did what he did, it's usually because they don't grasp the logic behind it; they can't relate to it.
I think most "Chris condemners" believe that he was stupid or ignorant going into the Alaskan wilderness and dying, assuming that death was part of his plan. He wanted help in the end, we know that. He made a mistake. We're all human.
Maybe they don't understand why a kid of 22 years old would leave almost all earthly possessions behind, donate $24,000 to charity, lose contact with friends and family (to make new friends and family), and live a tramping existence. It's a breath of fresh air for me, really. We grow up with the idea that we constantly need stuff. And that we can only be happy when we have more and more. Status is a big part of it, too. I commend people like Chris who choose to distance themselves from that lifestyle. In all honesty, how does it benefit the world? How does it even benefit the person?!
The lesson Chris learned was a good one: lose stuff, but not the people. He should've contacted his family (or at least his sister) to tell them he was ok. But maybe he didn't know how or what to say. And, if I was in his shoes, I would've probably struggled w/ that as well.
"I must express myself." - Delia Deetz

Spot on. I agree. Good post.

Chris didn't leave to hurt anyone. He left to find himself. Anyone who grows up in a family like this (as you stated that you had, and I obviously had because Iam replying to your post), will have many of the same feelings Chris had. My life parallels Chris's in many ways.

I do think that he underestimated how much he neededsomeone. It's weird. So I watched this movie for first time on Christmas or the day after and I was so annoyed by it. I rolled my eyes constantly and I was justirritated. Then I watched it again the next day, and again a day later andyeah I've seen it 4 times since then. I usually don't watch movies that often and if I do I get tired of them and have to take a break for a while. I don't know what it is about this movie butyeah.
I do think that he did made some pretty stupid choices. One could say that burning your money is stupid, but I understand why he did that. I, however, do not understand why he didn't prepare himself better for his "Great Alaskan Adventure" I think that's what he called itso yeah, at first that really bothered me.
But I guess, ultimately, it just doesn't really matter. While I wish he had been smarter about it, he did what he wanted to do.
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

I don't know that he was arrogant so much as ignorant
Speaking of which

I think Chris was a rampant narcissist with a highly romanticized view of himself. He was an educated-but-stupid idealistic dreamer who, like all idealistic dreamers in this imperfect world, crashed and failed when he ran into reality. I don't know that he was arrogant so much as ignorant. Unfortunately, he didn't know enough to know that he didn't know everything, and he ended up paying a big price for it. I don't think
he
even knew what he thought most of the time; his writing was pretentious, poetic twaddle that really has no meaning when you analyze it at all; it, like all his other plans,
sounded
good but didn't really mean anything. It's a sad waste, but it was inevitable.

I felt a similar connection to this movie though I didn't grow up like you did, and I just wanted to say this was a very eloquent & well thought out post that I'm saving elsewhere for perspective on my own psychology.

I agree with some points about the character, but I view his motivation entirely different, I see him as a person who is fed up with the mundane natures of ordinary life and wants to experience the world around him, the real world, not the advertised world of civilization and people, but the world as it is.
The ending helps to solidify this belief for me as it shows him laughing and happy instead of cold and desperate, which he should've been, but he wasn't. He'd tested himself, but more than that, he experienced things that a majority of people would never experience in their entire lives. Doing what he did takes not just a lot of bravery, but a lot of intelligence too.
I can only dream of doing what he did. At most, I can hope to take a road-trip across the US.

"I don't know the book or the real story , but as this movie shows he showed some symptoms of a sociopath:"
You don't know so maybe you should inform yourself before posting. There is a lot of information about him available books written, movies., The one thing not really clearly explained in the movie is that Chris was seriously abused as a child. His parents would have major fights and make him witness them. He had a very abusive upbringing.
Your suggestion of Chris as a Sociopath is plain wrong and rude to post. I think it is terrible for you to write it with no research on him at all. We are talking about a real person who had a tragic death.
Chis rejected his parents and did not want to be like them. He did not reject people or society. He would make nature trips. He did not survive and live in nature. Many people enjoy getting off to nature for extended periods that is all Chis did. He had many friends and made friends easily. He also did not blame people, he rejected his parents because of their constant fighting and abuse to each other and to him. He had to escape them for his sanity and health.
He had jobs. He wanted the freedom to not work when he did not want to. He just did not want to be tied down. There are millions of people like that around the world and most are not sociopaths. Chris suffered a lot from his parents and was probably damaged by it but he realized it and his therapy was to get away from his abusers and to enjoy nature when he could.

I do not think you understand the movie or Chis the real person. Although he suffered an abusive childhood with his parents being abusive to each other and him. They made him watch them fight.
Chis rejected his parents and he did not want to be anything like them. He did not reject society. He rejected his fathers views. Chis did fit into society and made lots of friends, he was very social. He was private because he knew his parents would not let him go so he did not want them to find him. He worked and held jobs. He wanted the freedom to take long breaks from work so he could go on nature trips. He was an extraordinary person but many people would do what he did if they could or had the courage to. He did not need a huge bank account or need lots of possessions to make him happy. He obviously did enjoy people and having friends. It was clear in the film and from what I have researched was true about him.

Symptoms .. If many, many people seem to portray , then they for sure have to check if there is a bigger problem.A symptom is not a diagnose..
I want to be clear : a sociopath is not a schizoid or a psychopath. It's just someone who has problems being the "social animal" : some because of abuse, some genetic,education etc. .. This problem can evolve, or not .. But yes, this is a problem.

Rather what tendencies a sociopath has, not what is needed to be a sociopath.
What you describe, many, many people seem to portray. There is a lot more going in our heads then those basic concepts of emotion and actions.

Aloft,very interesting post.. you are talking about the lack of empathy and that's a lot worse than arrogance .. It's the beginning of a sociopath. And the special ability of this kind of people is exactly the "social chameleon", just because he can't feel emotions at the same level of others..
Sometimes, I feel like going into the woods, but the first thing that stops me are the ones I live for .. As someone said here, the guy never say a word about his family , sister , etc .. I don't know the book or the real story , but as this movie shows he showed some symptoms of a sociopath:
"
Callous unconcern for the feelings of others;
Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations;
Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them;
Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence;
Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment;
Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society.
" ..

You remind me of my best friend . He's loved by everyone he meets, he truly sees people and can tune into them, and in many cases meeting him is a life changing experience for them, but never for him. I worry about his " inability" to lose himself to someone else. To fall in love and let someone love him.. But he restlessly moves on , and I can see in his eyes that he loves us , but doesn't need us or depends un us. I worry that he'll be lost to me and those who love him someday..

Actually, I have IMDB set to email any responses so I did get it. Yay!
Thanks for the info. I did not know all of this about him. Makes a huge difference.
Rachel

Rachel, you posted years ago so I am not sure if you will get this at all. This movie did not include a lot of information that is needed to understand Chis. Maybe you have researched him and know now what am going to write. Chis was raised in a very abusive home. His father and mother always fought and forced him to watch. His father had two families and lots of other children. You would need to research the truth about his life.
Chris had a minimum of post traumatic stress disorder. His parents caused him serious mental and physical distress his whole life with them. He had to escape. Many people in life have to escape this. Mental health professionals will tell victims like he was to escape the situation. I know from being told this by Mental health professionals (I am not saying the course he took would be approved by the AMA. I am saying he was suffering from the constant abuse he was subjected to since he was born. Every person who suffers abuse handles it differently some become drunks, some become abusers themselves.etc..) It is impossible to live life in an environment where you never get a moments peace. His parents were abusive and very controlling. The only way for him to escape was to leave his whole family.
Chis was seriously damaged and he was getting his therapy through nature.

I believe you are correct about arrogance, which is why I questioned my use of the word. I do think, however, that he possibly felt superior to his parents - he felt morally superior, and he may have been correct, but it's distasteful.
Suffering is an interesting notion because we really do not have a way to measure one person's suffering over another's. Mental health has a LOT to do with this. Why do some folks with seemingly ok lives kill themselves? They are no longer able to bear a mental pain. Others can go thru unimaginable situations and carry on.
I think my opinions have more to do with "waste" than anything else. It didn't occur to me until I re-read my post and read yours. My grandmother felt that waste was an actual sin - if you wasted something that could have been used by someone else in need, you were being selfish. I tend to agree. I did not remember the car scenes in enough detail apparently - I didn't think of the situation as a "dead" car.
I do see that immaturity probably played a part. Teens and young adults make the dumbest mistakes, all the while believing themselves to be smarter than the entire rest of the world. But this is why such extreme independence should not be encouraged, especially in someone with no experience in the outside world, pardon the pun. And I will always have a problem with the pain he caused his family. The one scene I will never forget is Hurt falling in the street, which probably speaks more to his acting than the story, but there it is. Random phone calls to let them know he was alive would have been enough. I believe that no one has the right to willingly cause that amount of grief and anxiety in others who care about them.
Rachel

Well there is no doubt that as long as humans fester, there will be a long and gradual gradient between the human that suffers the most in any given instant and the human that suffers least, and more complexly, the humans of similar age that can be said to have suffered more or less than one another throughout the summation of their lives thus far. I do think that most of us are aware of that. The question is: to what degree should be shape our lives around the knowledge of that? Do we judge those who shape their lives less (or more) negatively? Just hold that thought for a moment.
What is arrogance, is when you look at your station in life, and view those of different contexts from you as being
inferior
to youand then, on top of that, use or manifest that sense of superiority in a way which directly impinges upon the rights, values, or preferences of others.
Upon that definition, feeling dissatisfied with your life and wanting to change it (however you set out to do so), is not enough to qualify as arrogance. I dont think you are arguing for calling it that. I dont honestly see how much of human activity in
general
could be defined as anything
but
all of us trying to change something, day to day. Chris just took it a little further than most people do.
Perhaps it is best to look at his philosophy? Was he not, after all, rebelling against these stratums that separate the human condition? He believed that the accumulation of wealth was an unhealthy component of society, deplored to its very roots the way he had been brought up for that reason, and felt the only
just
and right thing to do was to stop taking advantage of the support system that is built by poorer people so that wealthy people like him could live easy. He was stepping out of that, boycotting it you might say. He was keenly aware of what we are discussing, and trying to not only condemn it but take action against it with his own life. I dont see how this could be decreed as arrogance or selfishness. Wasnt he, in a sense, doing what I was just referring to above
actually
living his life in accordance with a great spectrum of condition by donating and then giving up his expensive way of life?
One of the moments that jumped out at me was his walking away from the car.
I got the impression that the car was irreparably damaged, or least not to a level that could be repaired right then and there. It had been damaged by the flood. Why else would he leave it, at that point, right after a flood? I think that would be a pretty good motivator to continue using it until you are out of the flash flood area, if you could. It seems more likely to me that the car was totalled, and that sparked the idea to just get rid of everything except for the essentials, even money. Up until that point he was driving and carrying cash around. What changed? The car broke. It triggered a response.
This is, after all, a guy that just dropped a $23,000 check on a charity ($37,500 adjusted for inflation)a check that is not, lets be clear, a shaving off of the side of his ledger, but much of what he had left to his name and his future along the path of success. Im sure, if he was planning to give the car away, he would have done so if he could have.
Instead, like I say, I think he just had a flash of inspiration triggered by a disaster. He decided to make lemonaide out of losing his car and take his journey to the next level. Once he did that, he found that he liked that way of living and kept on with it.
And I disagreed that it was ok to cause his family such distress, especially his sister. That is a huge example of selfishness.
I cant disagree with that, but again this strikes me as being more within the innocence of youth. The rebellious borderland where the mind goes through its last, and necessary, spurts of total-questioning. Some people take that further than others. Some people disappear and never return. Other people wear black shirts and lipstick. Some people commit the scandalous act of skipping church for the first and last time in their entire life.
Yeah, the harsher end of that rebellious phase can be tough on a family, but its got to happen however that individual needs it to happen, and its in the same realm as a child striking another child on the playground. Its wrong, but its not a
character flaw
at that point, not yet. It may become one, if it persists, but its too early to say. Thats all we mean when we refer to the innocence of youth. Its not that young people are innocent, we just dont know yet if their normal human feisty behaviour is going to be a part of who they are, we cant separate the natural patterns in the growing process, with who they are yet.
For all we know, if he had survived his ordeal, he would have gradually come to the realisation that pulling away from life wasnt the answer to the worlds problems, and perhaps one day he would have ended up a loving member of the familymaybe even the one that allows it to finally fully heal? That wouldnt

Thank you for the thought provoking post. I'm one of the viewers who sat watching and thinking the character was arrogant and nearly unlikable. I believe that viewers are seeing him from their own particular places in the world - upbringings, values, etc.
I found him "arrogant", if that is the right word, for the following reason: I grew up in a poor rural area bordering on Appalachia. I knew families with dirt floors. Presently, I work with many inner city African Americans, who experience a similar pain. If they don't heroically rise above their circumstances and get out of Dodge, they are judged harshly. Even if they have a job - getting to work every day to do a crap job - they are still referred to "shiftless and lazy" and "on welfare". My heart goes out to both sets of people and it irritates me to no end for people who had basically decent lives to act as if they must escape some sort of horror and pain. Just having a nice home and good food is a huge jump over many people in this world.
Everyone has problems and poor folks don't have a lock on "pain". But I found this guy self centered. One of the moments that jumped out at me was his walking away from the car. All I could think was that someone could have used that car. A person with ill health who can no longer work.a single mother who has been abandoned by her man..an elderly widow who must walk to a bus stop to get anywhere.
And I disagreed that it was ok to cause his family such distress, especially his sister. That is a huge example of selfishness. I can't imagine anything worse than not knowing what has happened to a family member. His family was flawed, but isn't everyone? They did care about him whether he thought they deserved caring in reverse.
In any case, it's a compelling story. It's interesting that this person pushes different buttons in different people.
Rachel