Rochelle Wade

UWRT 1102-007

The Essay
Children are said to be sponges at a young age; they simply absorb what is taught to them and
what they see around their environment. At their impressionable age, children more often than
not, accept the values and norms taught to them by their parents and society. This is usually
because they dont have a reason to question the teachings and reasoning of their parents. They
see mommy and daddy as their superheroes; the two people that have all the answers in the
world. It is only when the child begins to grow up and is exposed to different values and views
in society that they start to question the values and beliefs that they were taught at home. At the
age of adolescence, the child may either hold the beliefs that they grew up with as truth or
neglect them or pursue the values and beliefs that they connect with.
This essay will focus on those children that disagree and neglect the values and beliefs of their
parents and the resulting relationship between that child and his/her parents. This essay will also
try to find evidence that concludes whether or not the decisions the child makes as an adult are
affected by the relationships with their parents.
In the movie Into the Wild, Chris McCandless isolates himself from his family and society to
live in the forests of Alaska. Chris did not have an ideal relationship with his parents. He didnt
agree with the values and norms that his parents believed in, or the norms of society. Because of
the type of relationship that Chris had with his family he decided to be a hitchhiker and live by
his own means of survival. The dysfunctional relationship he had with his family, shaped the
decisions he made as an adult.

Rochelle Wade
UWRT 1102-007

The type of relationship that parents and children develop from the young age of the child is
very important. These relationships either can make the child feel secure and protected or
unassured and neglected. The authors of Different Types of Parent-Child Relationships;
Lynette Magana and Judith Myers-Walls, state that there are different categories that can explain
the relationship between parents and children. These categories include secure relationships,
avoidant relationship, ambivalent relationship and disorganized relationship. Each category has
characteristic behavioral traits from both parents and child that distinguish them from the others.
Using Chris and his family as an example, they would fit in the disorganized relationship
category. This particular category is characterized by children who are tend to do things without
any particular reason. These children do not have a structured relationship with their parents,
thus they do not know what to expect from them. Disorganized children are hard to understand
and may appear different on a day to day basis. Children who are categorized to have a
disorganized relationship usually come from families where there is some sort of neglect or
mistreatment going on. They also can come from a family where one of the parents is suffering
from depression.
This relates to Chris and his family dynamic. His family did not understand some of the things
he would do, especially him giving his savings to a charity that feeds starving children in Africa.
His behavior would change around them, where one minute he is able to get along with both his
parents, then the next he seems to be offended by them. Chris also expressed feeling neglect
from his father due to his job and the mistreatment he felt with his fathers abusive nature. Due to
the abuse Chris mother showed signs of depression which did affect Chris and his sister.
Growing up in such an environment causes a child to either crave for a structured relationship
with their parents or live life without regard for their parents attention. Because of his

Rochelle Wade
UWRT 1102-007

relationship with his parents, Chris decided to live a life without them; secluding himself from
his family and disregarding their values.
From the basis of the previously stated theory, it proves that the relationships a child has with
his/her parents from a young age, can indeed affect the decisions they make as an adult.
Reflection:
At the beginning of the semester when I had to come up with a research topic, I felt
overwhelmed. I had no clue what I would do my research on and I was unfamiliar with the
format of creating my own topic to research, instead of a topic being given to me. After watching
and reading Into the Wild and observing the estranged relationship between Chris and his
parents, I was inspired to do my research on how parent-child relationships affect the childs
decision making as an adult. The proposal process required rough ideas; it was really the
epitome of a shitty first draft. But with the help of my small group critiques, I was able to
narrow my research and find a clear direction that I wanted to go in.
Towards the mid-point of choosing my topic I decided to narrow my research. It was evident
that my topic was very qualitative in nature, thus it was difficult to find statistics for my research.
Finding a primary source was also a problem, therefore I decided to use the movie Into the Wild
as my primary source, since it was a close as possible representation of the experiences of Chris
McCandless that I could obtain. My research was mainly composed of online case studies done
by persons who either studied or work in the field of family development. The information found
on the topic was very intriguing. The research did not give me a clear cut answer on whether
these family relationships affect a child decisions as an adult or not; or even examples of what
those decisions may look like, but it did give insight on behavioral patterns. My research showed

Rochelle Wade
UWRT 1102-007

me that certain behavioral patterns for children in a family speak volumes on how that family
dynamic works. It highlighted that children respond to the environment that they are in. If it is a
dysfunctional environment, then the childs behavior will mirror such. I used that information
and the experiences of Chris and his family to extrapolate that a childs decisions as an adult are
connected in some way to their family environment as a child.
For the essay I chose to go the formal route and make it an academic essay. I propose a thesis
and try to prove it with the information from my research. At the end of the essay I decided to
add my personal experiences, in order to make the topic more relatable and connect with the
experiences of Chris McCandless.
The journey of completing this portion of the extended inquiry came with its challenges, but it
was a good learning experience. I was able to find information that was helpful for my research
topic that I didnt know before and was able to increase my research skills which will be helpful
for future projects.