Chris McCandless had it all. He was raised by a supporting and wealthy family, and also obtained an education from one of the country's finest institutions. However, all of that wasn't what Chris wanted. Chris wanted to be alone and away from to commotion of an urban society. He wanted to be free from being ruled and live life in the wild. His decision to leave his family and reach his own nirvana is similar to what Siddhartha goes through in the book "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse. In the book, Siddhartha is also raised by a supporting and educated family. He lived through no struggles but yet he decided to leave his family in order to reach enlightenment. Like Chris, Siddhartha leaves behind a struggle free lifestyle and wanders off on his own, seeking minimal to no help from others. At the end, Siddhartha and Chris reach their enlightenment, however due to the uncontrollable conditions of the Alaskan frontier, Chris struggles to survive on his own and realizes being alone takes away the feeling of love.
In my opinion the idea of being alone is dumb. Even Chris realizes he made a mistake when he is dying without anyone there to help him and love him. I think reaching enlightenment is good, but is the sacrifice that is caused from achieving it worth it? To me it is not because we all only live once, so why should we sacrifice so much of our living lives to reach something that may be impossible to achieve in a lifetime. Although the book Siddhartha says that Siddhartha reaches enlightenment at the end, that book is fiction. When someone tried to achieve enlightenment on their own in real life the outcome wasn't as great.
While Siddhartha and Chris both went off on their own, I think that Siddhartha was more prepared. After leaving home, he became a Samana and was able to learn how to live with the bare minimum. Therefore, when he did go off on his own, at least he was somewhat prepared and capable of sustaining himself. Chris on the other hand, went from civilization to Alaska in a short period of time. He also did not have the adequate skills and supplies to survive; he was an amateur going on an expert's adventure. Had he been prepared, I think Chris's experiences would have been different and possibly more comparable to Siddhartha.
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