Documentary Reveals Domestic Violence in the McCandless Family Home

After I read "Into the Wild" and saw the movie, I wasn’t all that impressed with Chris McCandless. For me, he came across as a spoiled, selfish, sanctimonious rich kid who thought he knew it all at age 23. He seemed like someone who’d lived an easy, pampered life, but because his parents weren’t 100 percent perfect, he cruelly disappeared from their lives without a care about how it would devastate them
Chris sister Carine had originally asked the book’s author not to mention any of the incidents of domestic violence that occurred in their home when they were growing up because she wanted to give his parents a chance to learn from his death without hurting them.

The movie, if I remember right, shows one fight, but for the most part his parents come across as normal, relatively nice people. Because of the sanitized portrayals of Chris’s home life, the viewer and reader are left not knowing why he’d just cut off all contact and do something so arrogantly stupid as go alone into such forbidding territory.
When their parents refused to even admit there ever was a problem, Carine decided to reveal the family secrets that she’d previously withheld.

The documentary “Return to the Wild” fills in some of the blanks about Chris’s childhood and gives us a better understanding of why he chose to do what he did. Apparently, there was a lot of domestic violence in the home and although they had financial security and material comforts, Chris and his sister lived in a house that was devoid of peace and security. This is likely the reason that Chris was contemptuous of his parent’s money and material possessions. It’s also why he went into nature seeking the harmony he couldn’t find at home.
I would recommend this documentary to everyone who is interested in finding out more about his life and his motivations. Especially if you feel like I originally did and think he was just a selfish, narcissistic fool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fTSXvhMl88&ab_channel=DocuhdengsubTk4ForEducation