When is Happiness Real?

“HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED. It is tempting to regard this latter notation as further evidence that McCandless’s long, lonely sabbatical had changed him in some significant way… he intended to abandon the life of a solitary vagabond, stop running s hard from intimacy… ”(Krakauer 189).

Travel Advice

The context of this quote is talking about how Chris McCandless wanted to return to society, he wanted to stop running away from his problems. He didn’t want to run from his family, he states that unshared happiness isn’t happiness; this specific quote was found in a book he had written in, Doctor Zhivago, by Krakauer, researchers and other doctors. They thought the meaning of the quote was that Chris had a change of heart of his want for isolation from society and in fact wanted to return. My travel advice for Chris or anyone wanting to take this journey would be to take his own advice, that he later learned, in his journey to find himself. I believe that when you’re traveling you should in fact do the opposite of what he did; you should surround yourself with those who love you so you can share your happiness. Happiness, as Chris states, is not meaningful unless shared. 

According to Chris McCandless, what do you actually get from college?

“The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything. [McCandless] had spent the previous four years, as he saw it, preparing to fulfill an absurd and onerous duty: to graduate from college. At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence”(Krakauer 22).

            Inspiration or fool?

 The context of this quote, Krakauer states Chris’s true motivation for leaving his home and going into the wilderness. This is relevant to the topic because it states how he felt that he was trapped and his past four years of college were of no use. He felt as if he was not getting his full potential of life, as if he wasn’t changing anything or making a change in the world like he wanted to, to be satisfied in his life.  People believed that he was foolish for throwing his life away. Alternatively, I believe that this quote demonstrates how he wanted to leave a mark on the world, something people have and still do learn from and grow in. He believed that life should be spent living your happiest life and living to your fullest potential. People considered him an inspiration from the lasting impact he continues to leave in people’s lives all over the world.