"Driving west out of Atlanta, he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, me in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience. To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny."
-Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, page 23
This quote is the one that shows the difference between Thoreau and McCandless. They were both very into nature. So deep into it that they almost liked being with nature more than people. However, Thoreau did not change, and did not have reasons to change his identity. He was simply just in love with nature that he wanted to live in it.On the other hand, McCandless actually changed his name, and decided to live as a different person, and delete the past. McCandless had a past that he was not satisfied with, and that he does not want to remember unlike Thoreau who just accepted himself, and just tried to be more "clean" as he lived in the woods.
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