The fact that Chris McCandless goes by the name “Alexander Supertramp” while on the road is very telling. It gives us a clear indication that he does not want to be associated with his family, or his family name, while on this journey of discovery. He was incredibly angry with his father, who, as Chris had discovered the summer before, had an entire second family that had been kept a secret from him and his siblings.

While it is arguable that Chris loved one of his sisters, Carine, I would argue that he intentionally dissociated himself from his entire family. The fact that Chris made absolutely no contact in the two years that followed his departure “into the wild”—not so much as a postcard or a call home for anyone’s birthday—sends a strong statement that, at least for that period of his life, he wanted nothing to do with anyone in his family.

Chris’s family, on the other hand, show over time that they are very worried about their missing son and brother. They go as far as to hire a private investigator to try and track him down, which, in Alexander Supertramp’s mind, would doubtless have just been one more trick to try and control him. In the aftermath of Chris’s death, his sister Carine builds a career out of telling her brother’s story in the hope of motivating others.

Chris McCandless experiences deep feelings of contempt and anger towards his parents and a strong need to ruthlessly sever relations with them. While he gets along well with his sister Carine, he feels he must cut her off too in order to successfully separate from his parents.

Chris resents the way his father has tried to control him, especially through using money. Although this is never explicitly stated, it becomes clear in the narrative that Chris's father expected to call the shots in Chris's life because he was paying the bills, not an unusual attitude but one that Chris resents. Chris tells Carine that his father is trying to "buy" him by offering him a new car. Chris no longer wants to take anything from his father because he doesn't want to owe him. In fact, his revulsion against his parents' tendency to evaluate their worth in terms of how much money they have has turned him against materialism. Chris burns his cash, a sign of his anger at his parents' material values.

Chris also feels betrayed because his father had a second family he never revealed, causing Chris to feel his childhood was a lie. Like many young people, Chris is trying to break away from his parents and forge his own identity. This kind of separation is a natural impulse as a person matures.

Chris's family doesn't feel the same anger towards him. They feel love and concern. His parents even go so far as to hire a private detective to try to find him, a controlling act but also one that reveals their caring for their son.

In the book, “Into the Wild”, by American writer Jon Krakauer, it is shown that Chris McCandless is essentially indifferent to his family, except possibly for his sister, Carine, one of nine children in the family. His parents were Walt and Billie McCandless.

What is notable, concerning his feelings for his family, is that Chris never really spoke of them. In addition, it is an indication of his thoughts on his family that he concocted a new moniker for himself, “Alexander Supertramp”, deciding to no longer go with the family name as he traveled.

As stated in the first answer above, it is revealed in the book that Chris believed his parents were too controlling. Chris, like his father, had a stubborn streak in him and a penchant for losing his temper. Quite revealing, regarding his feelings about his family is that they held to and practiced middle-class traditional values, while Chris became increasingly antagonistic to these values his family held dear. This is a prime example of a major difference between him and his family. Chris McCandless began to put away materialism and eventually virtually dispensed with it altogetherwhen he hitchhiked to Alaska and walked unaccompanied into its vast wilderness.

Walt and Billie McCandless had high hopes for their son. They believed he would further his life ambitions through enrolling in law school. They wanted the best for their son and no doubt were positive about this hope. Eventually, as Chris’ journey went on and he was not heard of, or to be found, Walt and Billie did engage the services of a private investigator to find Chris. They loved him. Chris, deep down, may have loved them, but did not ascribe to their traditional way of life any longer.

The major difference between Chris and his family was philosophical and based on different world views of what one needs to do to be happy in life.

Chris McCandless was deeply bitter toward his parents, calling their behavior toward him "irrational...oppressive...disrespectful and insulting" (Chapter 7).  He thought they were controlling, and was scornful of their adherence to traditional values and life goals.  Although his father did have an intense, authoritarian personality, he and Chris's mother did seem to genuinely care about him, and the general concensus of the author and those he interviewed seems to be surprise that Chris's anger at them was so extremely virulent.  Chris baffled and frustrated his parents, finally shutting them out of his life completely.

Although he had a number of siblings, Chris was close to only one, his sister Carine.  He confided in her through occasional letters, telling her his feelings about his family and a little about his wanderings.

In Into the Wild, how did Chris McCandless feel about his family of origin?

Chris was disgusted with his parents’ materialism and moral hypocrisy. He felt that his father used money to manipulate people, and he himself felt manipulated to achieve and excel in high school and college. He was outraged to learn the truth about the end of his father’s first marriage, and the fact that for years his father had, in effect, been the head of two households—he continued his relationship with his first wife even after Chris had been born.

In part, his decision to to go into the wild was motivated by a desire to get away from them. While he was close to his sister, Carine, he was a harsh critic of his parents. His parents, for their part, saw Chris as a an extremely gifted child who lacked the discipline to truly excel. They did not understand their son’s attitude toward wealth, for one thing, but more than that they did not understand Chris’s independent spirit and need for freedom. Even though they were family, Chris and his parents were unable to connect.

In Into the Wild, how did Chris McCandless feel about his family of origin?

McCandless was close to his sister, Carine. However, Krakauer sums up his relationship in one simple paragraph:

Children tend to be harsh judges when it comes to their parents...and this was especially true in Chris's case. More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." (p. 122)

Chris held a deep contempt for his father as he learned he particulars of Walt's divorce from his first wife, which involved an affair between them while dating Chris's mother.

There was more to his judgement of his parents, however. The more he learned about the rich, and those who were not, the more disgust he developed for money and people who possessed a lot of it.  He felt he could not respect his parents and their wealth.

In a letter to his sister, Carine, he wrote:

I'm going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect." (p. 21)

He assumed, whether rightly or wrongly, that his parents used materialistic means to earn their children's respect, and he refused to respect that.  Therefore, he felt he could not love his parents unless they changed who they were.  Once again, this goes back to Krakauer's comment about Chris's world being black and white.  His parents were rich, and rich people were disgusting and undeserving of respect, so he could not respect his parents.

In Into the Wild, how does McCandless's relationship with his family effect his relationship with the people he meets throughout his journey?

Other readers might feel differently, but I think that McCandless's relationship with his father is what ultimately caused McCandless to distance himself so much from people in general. One of McCandless's elementary school teachers said that he definitely marched to the beat of his own drum.

"Chris marches to a different drummer." She just shook her head.

Despite his individualism, McCandless didn't hide from relationships with his classmates or his family. That didn't really start until McCandless found out about his father's affair. Krakauer doesn't have the ability to interview McCandless and ask about how that effected him, but I think an argument can be made that McCandless's trust and faith in his father was destroyed. As a consequence, McCandless distanced himself from his father and the rest of the family, but he also distanced himself from additional close relationships. I think it's possible that McCandless figured that he couldn't be hurt and disappointed by people close to him if he didn't allow anybody to be emotionally close to him. I think McCandless figured that time alone in nature could bring him happiness without potential disappointment in the way that people can.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience.

In Into the Wild, how does McCandless's relationship with his family effect his relationship with the people he meets throughout his journey?

I think this question can most succinctly be answered by refering to Chapter Six, which details the relationship that Chris McCandless formed with Ron Franz. What is notable about this relationship is the profound way in which it impacted Ron Franz, and how as a result he left the security of his life and did what Chris recommended he did, and lived out in the wilderness by himself. In addition, Ron Franz also asked Chris if he could adopt him as his grandson. This is key because Chris's silence about this topic and the way that he refuses to give him a negative, but also the way that he leaves Ron's life, indicates the way that the relationship with his family has made him a commitment-phobe. Note what the author says regarding this aspect of Chris and how happy he was to be finally heading for Alaska:

McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well--relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He'd successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm's length, flitting out of their lives beofre anything was expected of him. And now he'd slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz's life as well.

In addition, note what Chris writes to Ron in the final letter Ron receives from Chris:

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships... My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light into your life.

Clearly, for Chris, attachments and relationships were the kind of things that he had rejected, and we can perhaps infer that this decision to spurn human closeness came from his initial decision to walk away from his family.

From Into the Wild, how does the McCandless family's view of Chris differ from that of others who met him?

There are generally two major views of Chris McCandless: one holds that he was a progressive thinker who wanted to relive the adventures of naturalists and transcendentalists in a modern age, improving his mind and becoming a classic American Individualist; the other holds that he was a pampered rich kid who never took the time to prepare for the hardships of the wilderness, and his death was the result of simple stupidity.

Chris's family shares aspects of both these views. They loved Chris dearly and were devastated at the news of his death, but also showed concern that he seemingly had taken no precautions. His relationship with his family, before he disappeared on his nomadic journey, was rocky, and he seemed to only connect with his sister Carine. He often clashed with his father over trivial things, and his parents were often bewildered with his ideals and conclusions. Perhaps the best summation comes from Chris's mother, Billie:

"I just don't understand why he had to take those kind of chances," Billie proteststhrough her tears. "I just don't understand it at all."
(Krakauer, Into the Wild, Amazon.com)

They loved Chris and wanted him to succeed, but never understood the ideals that he had voluntarily accepted on himself. Even Chris's sister Carine doesn't fully understand, although Chris believed that she was more in tune with his thinking than were their parents. Either way, their continuing view of Chris remains as love and loss, inextricably intertwined in the memory of a beloved family member.