"Oh how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!         

     McCandless starred and bracketed the paragraph and circled 'refuge in nature' in black ink. 

     Next to 'And so it turned out that only a life similar to a life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness. . .And this was most vexing of all.' he noted, 'HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.' (189)"

• When he started his trip, McCandless thought you should live with what you needed and avoided companionship.  He saw the relationships and emotions that most other people are accustomed to as unnecessary and and meaningless.  He thought that closeness with others was boring and that living on your own in nature was more exiting. Towards the end of his life he began to see that even if you have what you enjoy, which for him was nature, that it is more enjoyable if you have that companionship and someone to share it with.