It was an early morning when Arthur Heeler-Frood said goodbye to his parents as he was about to ride his bike to school. Or so his parents thought… Fifteen- year- old Arthur had a bigger idea. The following day the parents of Arthur received a handwritten letter from him reading, “I have run away because I am bored of my life. Please don’t try to find me or make me come home. I don’t know how long I will be away for, but it won’t be any longer than a year. You will find my school uniform in a bin bag in a small barn in the field on the green, down the road from Membury church. My bike is chained to the fence; there is a spare key to the lock on the window. Please can you apologize to the restaurant and tell them that I will no longer be able to work there. I know you will be upset, but understand I have to do this. From Arthur.”

The story of Arthur is very similar to the character Christopher Johnson McCandless the true story that inspired the film and book called Into the Wild. In the story Christopher McCandless is an academically inclined student who had just recently graduated from college when he felt the need to disappear. As far as the story of Arthur Heeler-Frood goes, he is also an academically savvy student although he was only age fifteen when he felt it was time for something new in his life. In his letter to home explaining his disappearance he had said, “I have run away because I am bored of my life.” Arthur seems to be experiencing very similar situations and problems Christopher faced before his disappearance for adventure. The two both even left behind a sister they were very close with in order to experience their new found sense of adventure. As to why Arthur finally pushed himself to leave home and find something new is unknown. Who knows?  Maybe it was the true story of Into the Wild that gave him the courage to finally break free from his day to day life to find something new.

Hopefully Arthur’s story of adventure has a happier ending then Christopher McCandless (spoiler alert). As far as the fate of Christopher McCandless went, he was found dead inside a small bus in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness; it is with high hopes that Arthur will be able to return home safely.