Chris Mccandless's story is one that shows people can rebel and rise against the norms, to go

against the tide and do what they love doing instead of doing what people want them to do and what
they have to do because of the situations they were born in and the expectations of the people. Before
Chris mustered the courage to begin his nomadic odyssey of asceticism, he had to conform to what
society expected of him lie how he shaved and trimmed his hair!""#$ and adopted the clean cut
loo !""#$. But it was obvious from the start that Chris Mccandless is on a different level from
everyone when he went to %mory College and made the dean's list!""#$ while his preppy roommate
dropped out !""#$ within #& days even though he came in looing lie a hobo with a machete and
hunting rifle. 'is cognitive schema of the world attributes value to different ob(ects and experiences.
)ome people might never understand his uni*ue perception of the world because their opinions are
crystalli+ed and aren't as malleable and fluid to accommodate to something as uni*ue as Chris
Mccandless's view of the world. Chris, with the traits he was born with !nature$ and his upbringing
!nurture$ only made his odyssey inevitable. 'owever, humans are also born to be communal which
maes social conformity one of the strongest forms of influence to people. ,his includes Chris
Mccandless. -n fact, it got so bad that he experienced a whole range of emotions such as enthusiasm
and boastful confidence to being cold and withdrawn in his time at %mory College. ,he significance of
this is that it shows an internal conflict that Chris Mccandless experiences around people, an experience
that we have all been through and become accustomed to. )o much so that people are becoming
desensiti+ed to it to the point where they aren't aware of it anymore. Chris's defense mechanism,
ac*uired from lac of nurturing from his parents in his early childhood, is repression and learned
helplesness. ,his is when he started to become introverted, almost cold !".&$ and got more heavily
into himself !".&$. ,his was the turning point for Mccandless. 'is whole life he has remained helpless
and *uiet, all his emotions internali+ed and only showed themselves through his conversations with his
sister Carine. ,he /lasan 0dyssey is his way of final doing something about his problem and his
solution is to sublimate and focus his energy on something that will help him feel accomplished. ,his
self proclaimed movement to self actuali+ation was not without it's share of drama but in the end, Chris
overcame his demons and went to tae what he valued in life and died doing so. 'e died doing what he
loved instead of living a long and boring life that he wouldn't want. ,his part of Chris's story is more
easily understood and it's something people lose sight of in their lives.