McCandless seems to have been driven by a variety of lust that supplemented his sexual desire. His yearning, in a sense, was too powerful to be quenched by human contact. McCandless may have been tempted by the succor offered by women, but it paled beside the prospect of rough congress with nature, with the cosmos itself. And thus he was drawn north, to Alaska. (66)"

• Krakauer saw McCandless as having had his own free will. He was able to ignore what most people were doing to do what would make him happy.