Chapter 4-7: The Journey

The epigraph in Chapter 4 compares the environment of the desert to others, such as the countryside and forest. Chapter 5 starts off with a quote from Jack London about the "dominant primordial beast." In Chapter 6, there's a quote from Walden, or Life in the Woods. Chapter 7's epigraph includes a quote from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a quote about how many creative people prefer to live solitary lives.

Chapter 4 starts off with a map of the western border of Arizona, where the Colorado river runs.

A list of people McCandless met along the way in these chapters: Crazy Ernie, Jan Burres and her boyfriend Bob, Wayne Westerberg, people in Mexico, Thomas and Karin, Charlie, Tracy, and Ronald Franz.

McCandless was very friendly and easily got along with people. He had amazing stories from all the places he traveled to, and people always remembered them. He also had a lot of ideas and extreme views against laws and the government, which other people found interesting.

I think Alex wrote his journal in the third person because he wanted his journal to sound more like a story. Or, maybe he considered Alex to be his sort of alter-ego, so he wrote as if Alex was a separate person.

The purpose of Chapter 4 was to give more insight as to what Chris was like, who he met during his travels, and where he was during the time between when he left Atlanta, and when he traveled to Alaska.

Ronald Franz was a very kind old man. He definitely had my sympathy because his wife and only child were killed while he was fighting overseas. He became so lonely after that incident that he began taking in orphans and raising them. I think he was truly a good man who had been through a lot and just wanted company.
Since Alex and his dad were both stubborn and high-strung, it makes sense that they butt heads. Since Alex was very independent, he hated his dad's need to control him. He thought his parent's lifestyle was hypocritical and that they wouldn't ever let him do his own thing. I can understand why Alex was angry after all those years, but at the same time, I think he failed to realize how much worse it could have been. I think that Alex got caught-up in something that happened between him and his dad, and that he was unable to let go of his anger after that.