# data[].attributes.body
As seen in the video, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin near Walden Pond so he could escape and focus on his writing. He not only focused on his skills as a writer, but he used this time to work on the aspect of self-discovery. Like Chris McCandless, Henry David Thoreau claims that he went to Walden Pond to focus on the essential facts of life. McCandless did the very same thing when he went to Alaska with nothing but his backpack. He wanted to live his life care free and start over. Their focus was to connect with nature and not have the distractions of money and other day-to-day distractions. They both discovered that you could live with very few essential items, and this was there way of living their life to the fullest.

# data[].attributes.body
In chapter twelve we learn that Chris and his parents did not have the best relationship shortly before he left and went MIA, so to speak. We learn that Chris' father, Walt, had two marriages during Chris' childhood, and when this caused an uproar in his anger towards his father. Although they all tried to put the affair and divorce with Marcia behind them, "Chris drove out to El Segundo, made the rounds of the old neighborhood, and learned about the episode in all its painful detail" (121). This shows how Chris wad fueled with anger, once again, by the situation. Krakauer then quotes that "children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris's case . . . he measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code" (122). This exemplifies the impact that Chris' family had on his walk into the wild because he was fueled with anger about his father's past, and he couldn't bring himself to forgive him.

# data[].attributes.body
As we know, Chris did not have any source of direction or guidance when he went on his walk into the wild, and that was his point. He wanted to make a life and area of his own, in a world where everything has already been claimed. The quote stated above reflects this because it is essentially saying that everything in our world has been claimed or industrialized, and the only way to make it your own is to wander upon it. And that is what Chris did, he wandered out West until he got to Alaska and he made it a life of his own.

# data[].attributes.body
Both Thoreau and McClandless did not agree with societies precised valuables such as money. What Thoreau and McClandless really cared about was finding their own freedom in the form of escaping from society.

# data[].attributes.body
The role that Chris's family played in his decision to walk into the wild is profound. This is mainly due to the fact that Chris finds out what a douche his dad is when he goes on his first walk about. This feelings are also intensified by the emotional and physical abuse Chris experienced.

# data[].attributes.body
The statement means that in today's day and age the only was to go on a true adventure is to get lost. Chris is connected to this as he came to this realization and he knew the only way he would properly enjoy his journey was if he got lost in the process.

# data[].attributes.body
Both Thoreau and McCandless truly wanted to escape from the ties civilization bound them with. Both lived by the philosophy of living with less they each tried to part ways with material things in life. McCandless burned his money and abandoned most of his material things on his journey into the wild and Thoreau believed, and lived his life in a way, that he lived on the smallest amount of "things" he could rather than filling his life with as much as he could. Both Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau were sort of lone wolfs in that they didn't feel the need to fill their lives with  permanent relationships and company, but  rather became their own company. They both valued independence and self sufficiency tremendously and had an awe for nature and what can be learned from it mentally, physically, and spiritually.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandless wanted a true adventure. He wanted to be submerged, completely surrounded by nature. Today, these places have been marked on a map and discovered by other people, but McCandless wanted to make it his own. It was not only a discovery of the world around him, but a discovery of himself. He wanted to make this adventure and time in the wilderness his own. His decision to not bring a map a long was intentional and important to his journey of discovery and adventure.

# data[].attributes.body
Though I don't think his family was the entirety of McCandless' decision, I think it definitely played into his decision. Chris' life had been filled with lies and cover up and buy outs, so in his experience, worldly things were corrupt and should be shed. in  Chapter 11, page 104, Krakauer details the expensive home and activities Chris' had in his childhood. Living in such affluence, Chris' realized it is not what made him happy and I think being raised in an environment where  nice things were shoved at him fueled his desire to live on as little as he could and truly seek self discovery and what mattered in the world. In another sense, Chris didn't have the best relationship with his family and  some of the turmoil is touched on in chapter 12, Walt was involved with two separate families and Chris' relationship "deteriorated significantly that summer (Krakauer 121)" after Chris learned more about the situation and the "lies [that] were told, and then exposed begetting more lies to explain away the initial deception(Krakauer 121)." Chris' was fed up with his parents and his childhood and needed an escape from that.

# data[].attributes.body
Thoreau and McCandless have similar values and believe one should learn about life through experience. They both have no interest in the lies told by society. The way they live however leads Thoreau to success and McCandless to death.

# data[].attributes.body
Henry David Thoreau is truly Chris's inspiration for his journey into the woods. Thoreau's teachings of living a simple life and not being dependent on others or the government in order to achieve self Independence and truly become fulfilled in the soul. His book Walden describes this perfectly. Chris looked up to him as a role model and basically attempted to replicate what Henry David did in the 1840s. There were countless pieces of Throrueas work in Chris's possessions and his journey matched throeaus symbolically.

# data[].attributes.body
His family definitely played a huge role in Chris' decision. We find out in chapters 12-13 more about the family dynamic and how Chris was raised in a very comfortable lifestyle. He was constantly being lied to and having expensive things in his reach. His family was materialistic and Chris wanted to know what life was like beyond the easy artificial money.

# data[].attributes.body
The statement is saying that if you want to leave no mark on the wilderness and become completely self dependent you have to leave societies so called needs behind, for example a map. Chris thought like thi because he never broguht a map on his journey because he wanted to truly be apart of nature and find own way. This goes back to his starch following of Thoreau's principles. Ironically if he had a map he might of found the way out close to him and survived.

# data[].attributes.body
"Chris
would fixate on his father’s own less than sterling behavior many years earlier
and silently denounce him as a. sanctimonious hypocrite. Chris kept careful
score. And over time he worked himself into a choler of self-righteous
indignation that was impossible to keep bottled up." PG 122

Chris has an extreme resentment for his father as shown in this quote which help push him to walk into the wild and leave his society but also his family. He recently before the journey found out about his fathers second life and the massive amount of lies he told. Chris could no longer respect him as man and some of the good things he did and hear his wisdom, he truly denounced him in his brain and lost all respect. He no longer wanted anything to do with him. Its ironic because Chris could look past his role models wrongdoings but never his own fathers

# data[].attributes.body
Chris wants to engulf himself in nature and make this experience his own. He can't quite do that if he followed a map in this case. A map is from someone else's perspective, and Chris wants to do the discovering for himself. To truly connect and learn something from this he will make his own mark without the help of others.

# data[].attributes.body
Henry David Thoreau wanted to move out of his house and avoided taking the path that was set up for him, going to Harvard and graduating for medical or law etc. The exact same sort of situation that happened to Chris, avoiding the affluent lifestyle that has been presented to them since birth.

# data[].attributes.body
I would say that his family plays one of the most influential role in his journey to walk into the wild, choosing to leave the affluent lifestyle that has been presented to him, " I remember when he gave dad the telescope." boom right there evidence of expensive gear right there, done.

# data[].attributes.body
This quote is very important because it adds texture to the sub message of the story, how you have to go on your own path to make new discoveries, just like how Chris goes into the wild and makes new discoveries, and leaves his old map behind, which was his presented affluent lifestyle which he didn't like.

# data[].attributes.body
Just like McCandless, Thoreau valued removing himself from society. While Thoreau did not leave everything behind, he still removed himself from the nonsense and went to focus on his writing. McCandless and Thoraeu are alike because they both socially distanced themselves in order to expand there experience.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandless family trama drove him to venture into the wild. In chapter 12 McCandless discovers that his father had lived a double life for several years, when Chris McCandless was a child his father was married to another woman. When he was an adult Chris "learned about the episode in all its painful detail" (121). Discovering this led McCandless to distance himself from his family.

# data[].attributes.body
The statement above emphasizes that in-order to completely submerge yourself in the adventure you must "leave the map behind". Chris McCandless left everything behind so he could live his adventure.

# data[].attributes.body
Henry David Thoreau and Chris McCandless are very alike. Thoreau's transcendentalist ideas inspired Chris largely and pushed him to live the same lifestyle. Although Thoreau and McCandless valued the same ideas and practiced similar lifestyles, I would describe McCandless as an extremist when being compared to Thoreau. McCandless valued living off of as little materialistic items as possible, while Thoreau valued just a simplistic lifestyle in general. Both disagreed with modern society and desired to live without these new societal standards or practices.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandless was a largely unique individual. He was an extremist and strong supporter of transcendentalism. McCandless brought along no type of GPS or map on his journey in the wilderness of Alaska. McCandless believed that having a map was 'cheating' at truly roughing it. McCandless would have agreed with this quote, which means that if you want to truly discover a place for yourself and explore to the max, you must do it without a map in hand.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris' family (his parents) and the deep troubles that they encounter play a large, if not the largest role in persuading Chris to go off the grid. Chris had always been troubled by the fights of his parents and the strange relationship. After finding out about his father's continued relationship with his first BM and his attempts at hiding it, his rage heightens; "After Chris unearthed the particulars of Walt's divorce, two years passed before his anger began to leak to the surface, but leak it eventually did. The boy could not pardon the mistakes his father made as a young man, and he was even less willing to pardon the attempt at concealment. He later declared to Carine and others that the deception committed by Walt and Billie made his "entire childhood seem like fiction."" (122-123)

# data[].attributes.body
McCandless and Thoreau are alike in the what they valued. They both thought that society and material things were not essential for a good life. Chris based a lot of his ideas off of Thoreau's style of living. Both taking only a small amount of things to restart their lives in a remote place. Chris carried Thoreau's work with him as inspiration for what he wanted his journey to amount to.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris' family played a large role in his decision to go into the wild by himself because his father was this in and out character in his life, and he always felt his "entire childhood seem like fiction" (123) and even the good part, like him getting a dog that he would take on runs, were ultimately good because he was alone in them. He was not often argumentative "He'd just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted" (119). He loved his family, he just did not like certain things about them, therefore he detached from that lifestyle and created one where he was happy.

# data[].attributes.body
The statement means that if you want to restart and be new, you must leave the old behind. Chris wanted a new life that would make him happy, therefore he must leave his well established and known life behind him. The saying uses a map because often times when you want something new in your life you have to go into unknown places or ideas to find it, and to do that you have to leave the old places behind. Chris left is affluent family, and comfortable life, to find true happiness.

# data[].attributes.body
As we know from throughout the book, Chris's relationship with his parents had its rough patches. Chapter twelve really gives a good narrative and focus on it. his parents played a huge role on him leaving and going remote well, for the rest of his life. His father was back and forth for his whole life. He had a deep admiration and love for his family, but for as much love he had as much ill-will. Once he learned that his father has had several marriages, "Chris's smoldering anger it turns out, was fueled by a discovery he'd made two summers earlier, during his cross-country wanderings." (page 121). He called up some old friends in California and that's eventually when he put the pieces together and figured out the facts on his fathers previous marriages, facts to which he had no foreknowledge on.

# data[].attributes.body
this particular statement is emphasizing that in today’s world if you want something you have to find it on your own… So if you want to claim something to be yours then it couldn’t have Already been found. This relates to Chris as Chris wanders into the wild with no plan, only a purpose to discover himself and direct his own life which correlates well with this particular quote

# data[].attributes.body
As seen in the video, Chris and Henry David Thoreau share many similarities. They both feel like society and materialistic things aren't what shape a person and make a person whole, it's how you as an individual enjoy your life and how you live it. In a way, Chris looked up to Thoreau. He valued his style of living. McCandless valued how you live versus how society wants you to live.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris and Henry David Thoreau are alike in that they both carry philosophical beliefs and don’t focus on materialistic things. They both have a fascination with nature and focus on it. Henry David chooses to write about it whereas Chris lives in it but they both experience nature thing in a different way and share a love for it.

# data[].attributes.body
In chapter 11 the author lets us know that Chris grew up in somewhat of a luxurious lifestyle but he never really appreciated it. His parents introduced him to Wealth in his early childhood and he grew up wanting a less materialistic life. This led him to eventually want to escape that environment and walk with nature. Thus the final result was him living that life behind and starting his own journey apart from most of society.

# data[].attributes.body
McCandless was always up for a good adventure. He found happiness in the wilderness, a sense of hope and love that he never really felt before. He had a connection with the great outdoors and wanted to see where it would take him. As we know, he went into the woods without a plan. He wanted to live freely. In today's world, if you want to do something, you most likely have to find that path that a bunch of other people have already taken. Chris was not about that life and wanted to start his own path in his own direction, which is exactly what he did.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris and Thoreau were similar in what I feel were what they soulfully believed the wanted in life of escaping in the wild and ignoring what the world wants you to live like. They both found this escape from society by isolating themselves in the wild and living through hard work true to oneself instead of working under society. Though i would still argue that Chris gav into society at times, he still relied on getting money from short term jobs and by people giving him items he needed but i think this is more of a product of a more modern society, you cannot survive by living without money, atleast without stealing it in some way or farming it, getting money was more of an essential to get to what he was aspiring for which was a life away in the woods relying solely on himself and his own work.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris' family plays more of a role of Chris deciding what he doesn't want, as said in Chapter 12, "he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." (Krakauer 122). Chris parents weren't trying to make an offense to Chris' moral code but they way they wanted him to make way into socciety and go to college and that become his life. But this turned instead to Chris becomming more polarized in his actions and beliefs, since they brought that option up and since it slightly went against his own way it polarizes his decision and sets his sights on what HE wants to do.

# data[].attributes.body
The quote is relevant because everywhere inthe world has been layed out on a map so you can always expect and plan out where you're going, so if you plan on discovering something new the experience is ruined because you always have something to hold your hand and tell you what to watch out for. Throwing away the map creates a new sense of the unknown, you may know what the terrain and climate and general experience of where you're going mya be like but you don't have everthing laid out for you, the new unknown becomes of what you'll experience along the way, relying only upon yourself and the work you produce in order to make a living.

# data[].attributes.body
"When Walt's double life came into light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds. All parties suffered terribly." (Krakauer 121)
Chris was shown to have a pretty unstable family throughout the book. This section talks about his fathers's separate affairs with another woman that was not his mother, and how this poorly affected the relationship between the family as a whole. Everyone was in a bad place during this time. this was a large reason for why Chris wanted to leave everyone behind. He was content with the idea that nobody would know where he was or what he was doing. It never explicitly said he thought they would deserve it, but I would personally have that mentality on top of the other motives that he had for his journey.

# data[].attributes.body
McCandless and Thoreau were very similar in their values. In the video that we watched, the idea that what we needed was much smaller than what we thought was just as prevalent in the book as in the lifestyle of both individuals. Both of these people completely went off of the face of the Earth to prove a point to themselves. Material belongings were of no use to them. The solitary life was a philosophical way to keep a lack of "things" and minimalism was a lifestyle that both men believed in fully and would argue that everyone should and could do.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris had this idea that he was going to leave everything behind and without a plan, he set off. This statement shows exactly what he was trying to accomplish. Obviously, things did not go as planned, but I think the whole idea was accompanied by this type of mentality revealed by that statement: Chris wanted to be off the grid for a reason, he wanted his own experience and his own existence on his terms. To do that, he thought that leaving everything behind would be the way.

# data[].attributes.body
We've been able to see in the reading how McCandless rejects the materialistic world. That is one of the most prevalent similarities to Thoreau. But what really jumps out at me is the connection to nature. They both have such a hunger for connection that it can't be satiated by people; they need to be closer to nature.

# data[].attributes.body
Its not so much the role of McCandless's family but his dad's family that sparks him to leave. "Walt's split from his first wife, Marcia, was not a clean or amicable parting. Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret, dividing his time between two households." Pg. 121. Chris didn't find this out until after high school and he figured it out on his own. This made him feel betrayed by his father and made him want to leave even more.

# data[].attributes.body
I love this quote! In humans' efforts to know everything, we've mapped out the entire earth down to the square foot. Chris is searching for an experience that doesn't require a map. He wants to be lost in the wild. He needs  to have no map to accomplish this.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau are similar because they both share the same transcendentalist ideologies. In the video lecture, we learn that Thoreau lived in a small cabin in the woods in order to better understand and appreciate nature and self reliance. This is also seen in Into The Wild when McCandless lived in the Alaskan wilderness. Both McCandless and Thoreau enjoyed living simply in nature with little belongings and no rules to restrict them.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris' family sort of drove him to going into the wild. He respected his parents in that they grew up poor and eventually made more successful lives for themselves but he resented them for pressuring him to go to college and conform to societal standards and rules. Chris was especially disturbed when he discovered that his father had a double-life. "When Walt's double life came to light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds. All parties suffered terribly" (121). This revelation caused Chris to not trust his family and drove him towards a life of self sufficiency.

# data[].attributes.body
This quote emphasizes how practically every inch of the Earth's surface has been discovered and somehow influenced by people. Chris desires to be lost in the woods and to make something his own and in order to do that, he can't have a map. If you have a map, you aren't truly lost.

# data[].attributes.body
Both Thoreau and McCandless separated themselves from mainstream society to explore the grandness of nature and have complete independence from modern commodities or relationships with other people. They sought to find freedom and truth by being alone. Both individuals relished a lifestyle built upon hard work and having minimal possessions.

# data[].attributes.body
Even early on, Chris's home life "was a stressful existence. [His parents were] tightly wound, emotional, [and loathed] to give ground" (Krakauer 107). Chris himself developed some of these same traits from them, and thus communication was not an easy way to resolve his issues with them. "[He] just didn't like being told what to do" by anyone (Krakauer 115). Chris's views on wealth and education differed from his family's, and he saw all attempts by to advise or restrain him as annoying "meddling." All this, coupled with his discovery of Walt's lies, pushed Chris to completely walk out on his family.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris wanted to start his new life with a blank slate (or "map"), and to get the fullest experience he wanted to dive in with as little preparation as possible. He also knew this would not be possible without breaking away from his family and the rest of society, so he "leaves the map behind."

# data[].attributes.body
Both McCandless and Thoreau largely paralleled one another through not only their idea of a fulfilling life and similar detesting of a material life style, but also in their shared philosophy of politics and government. Thoreau primarily emphasized the importance of self reliance and simple living, at a point where the transcendentalist movement was greatly expanding. He spent a number of years living in a small cabins in the woods of Massachusetts, writing 'Walden,' growing his own food, and fundamentally, living off the grid of sorts. Similarly, McCandless ventures into the Alaskan wilderness in search of a life beyond materialism and these seemingly fetishized commodities. On the other hand, both Thoreau and McCandless share similar opinions of the government and the idea that 'government is best which governs least.'

# data[].attributes.body
It appears that Chis' family and his father's corruption and mother's lies parallel his perception of American politics as well as people in general. The entirety of the privileged life he grew up in becomes something he resents, as he complains "about all the rich kids at Emory" (123). Not only this, but his father's completely contrasting life that is seemingly hidden from Carine and Chris, becomes a major catalyst for his distaste for the injustice at large; his interests in socioeconomic and racial discrimination increase as well as his criticisms of profound politicians, such as 'Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden,' and voiced much of these concerns in 'The Emory Wheel' when he was at Emory University (123). Ultimately, many of these strong feelings contributed to his decision to venture into the west and Alaska.

# data[].attributes.body
This suggests McCandless's desire to be free of human contact and influence and his abundant need to completely abandon society in every way possible.

# data[].attributes.body
Both Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau left society in order to know what it was like to get out and depend only on themselves. They are alike because they both felt the need to leave society's norms and discover for themselves, what they think is truly important and valuable.

# data[].attributes.body
McCandless went to Alaska with just a backpack to practically start his life over and become more deeply connected to nature without the distraction of modern technology. Thoreau does the same thing by moving to a cabin with no tech to just focus on his writing and self-discovery.

# data[].attributes.body
He had a bad relationship with his father due to a childhood full of his dad's failed marriages. It seems to give him anger issues and more motivation to leave and restart.

# data[].attributes.body
He needed to create his own life instead of following a path. He went into his adventure with no guidance, so he needed to create his own map instead of using a "man made" one.

# data[].attributes.body
They are alike in that they both left the comfort of their ordinary life for a life they viewed as idealistic. McCandless sees him as a example of how one should live their life. McCandles bodies the ideas of Thoreau’s writings.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris' family played a large part in his decision to go into the Alaskan wilderness. Him and his father had a bad relationship and can be seen when Krakauer writes "When Walt's double life came to light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds. All parties suffered terribly (pg 121). This shows how his dad's actions had hurt him and so he didn't have a strong reason to stay home. This also shows that he didn't have a great relationship with his family.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris’s family plays a large role in his decision. Mainly through the faults of his father. While visiting his childhood home McCandless figures out his father lived an immoral lifestyle. It is discovered he fathered Chris while he was married to a women who is not Chris’s mother.

# data[].attributes.body
This quote connects with Cris because he believed people should leave possessions and comforts behind in search of unordinary “ideal” lifestyles. This rejection of comfort would extend to maps he wants to do what none have done before going off a map would be walking the path someone has taken.

# data[].attributes.body
This quote is saying that you have to get lost to find something new. History has shown that you have to go out and explore places nobody has been to truly find something new. Chris has no guidance when he goes out into the woods, he doesn't have a map, watch, compass or anything to help him navigate through the woods. Chris wants to go out and discover himself and he thinks he can only do that if he does it by himself.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris was obsessed with getting lost in the wild, getting completely absorbed by nature, he wanted to be somewhere completely apart from the wrest of the world, or some could say a blank spot on the map, he wanted to be completely absent from the "real world" or what we consider to be the real world, and a map is never going to take you to a spot that's completely off the grid, in fact if its on a map, its literally on the grid, therefore, if you want to escape, using a map makes no sense, he had to leave the map behind and wonder off on his own if he ever intended to get where he wanted to be.

# data[].attributes.body
both seem to be really obsessed with like nature and stuff, both chill hippies who i could vibe with

# data[].attributes.body
chris doesnt have a good relationship with his family, which makes it easy for him to just dip

# data[].attributes.body
chris also left the map behind

# data[].attributes.body
Thoreau and McCandless' philosophies were strikingly similar, they were both minimalists who believed that the government should screw off and did their own thing. they even lived in similar ways, as the video described, McCandless' dorm was very minimally furnished (and not from lack of money) just like Thoreau's house, they both wanted to live simple lives, with minimal to no government involvement and they both wanted to be strongly involved in nature

# data[].attributes.body
In chapter 12 we learn that Chris' father hid a lot of things from his family and since the beginning, we have learned that Chris is fundamentally against lying, he hates it, as the book meantions, "More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." it frustrated him that his own parents didn't follow the same moral code, and not only that they didn't follow it, but that his father lied and hurt so many people, I think that (Chris) McCandless as a person would've ended up going on his own journey wether or not his father had lied to him and his family, but that just drove him further away. I don't think McCandless ever understood lying to begin with, he didn't see the reason, especially when it hurt others, making his father's lies about the affair cut even deeper.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau are similar because of their mindsets. In the lecture, it is mentioned that Henry preferred simplicity, as well as "wanting to front only the essential facts of life." This is similar to Chris because Chris wanted to engage in unconventional living as well. Both men wander beyond security.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris's bad relationship with his family made it easier for him to walk into the wild and leave everything behind. Chris found out about his fathers previous marriage and other details he did not know about, which caused anger and resentment. On page 122, it says "The boy could not pardon the mistakes his father made as a young man" which supports his resentment and reasons behind leaving in silence.

# data[].attributes.body
This quote connects to Chris because he wanted to wander on his own and not follow in other peoples footsteps. Leaving the map behind keeps you from knowing what everyone else is doing and creates room for nature to take its course.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris McCandles and Henry David Thoreau shared many similar aspirations, character traits, and behavioral tendencies. All of which pulled them towards the Idea of Seclusion and self reliance. Although Henry David Thoreau was seen as more of a philosophical pioneer and Chris as more of a low level wanna be they both shared similar values when it came to how men ought to live their lives. Both very unconventional in their lifestyles. They perused tight bonds with nature and seeking its natural beauty. They often pushed their comfort zones to new levels.

# data[].attributes.body
I believe that Chris upbringing shaped him into a highly independent and free spirited person and this motivated him to take such extreme and what many may refer to as reckless actions. In
Chapter twelve we get more context and a more in depth understanding of his childhood and an explanation of his poor and broken relationship with his father. He felt betrayed by his own father and he realized that he didn't want to pursue the life his father wanted for him.

# data[].attributes.body
What Chris is saying in his quote is that the only way to have a truly free adventure is to get completely lost in nature because then you cant back down from the challenge. He was seeking true independence, self reliance and solitude.