Character Analysis: Chris Mccandless

Overall, Chris McCandless was a smart young boy who was raised into the wrong society and he chose to be the way he was. Going into the wild was what Chris needed in order to get away from everybody and find his reality. By the end of his journey he did just that and was ready to come back and experience life from a different point of view. Unfortunately, Chris was unable to come back and show everyone the person he found himself to

In society, people tend to follow the people's footsteps and apply new characteristic or methods that they obtain from there person. In the story, Into the Wild, Chris McCandless was a boy who favors several literacy heroes. He was able to understand each hero and apply there knowledge that they obtain from other people. He was favoriting Henry David Thoreau, Jack London, Leo Tolstoy and much more. Henry David Thoreau was an American poet and an essayist and wrote numerous books based on his philosophy. However, in the book, he plays a crucial role in giving Chris McCandless life lesson throughout his journey. Jack London is a worldwide celebrity and a famous novelist and journalist. He also has some characteristics that Chris has also obtained from him. In addition, Leo Tolstoy was one of the greatest Russian authors of all times. He has inspired Chris with some of his quotes which reflects him during his journey. There are more heroes that Chris mentions in the story but these are three which he tends to reflect more on.

We all change whether good or bad. It is in us to make decisions that shape the way we act towards everyday occurrences. In this cases Chris Theodorakis changed immensely. Chris went from a unconfident recluse to an outgoing professor. This just shows how fast you can change to become a better person for yourself.

Chris knew that it could be fatal but he still did it as stated “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild”. Chris was a risk taker he knew that the things he did could be fatal to him but he still decided to take those risks and go to the wilderness. Chris’ s nature wasn’t that he was noble or arrogant but that he was free spirited so much that he could dead because of it and he did with a cause of death by

Chris McCandless, also known as Alex Supertramp, was an ignorant and blatantly stupid child trapped in his own reality, and he used his traumatic childhood to try and justify the poor decisions that would eventually lead to his untimely demise. Chris McCandless was just an ordinary guttersnipe that John Krakauer wrongfully glorified in his obsession called Into The Wild. In April 1992, Chris ran from all of his problems and heads into the brutal Alaskan wilderness unequipped and alone. Before he wandered into Alaska, he donated twenty four thousand dollars to charity and left everything else behind. Four months later, the inevitable happened and he died. He starved to death after he thought it was a good idea to bring only a ten pound bag of rice to nourish him for one hundred days. Chris had a book on what plants to eat and not to eat, yet he still ate one of the plants with poisonous seeds that would prevent digestion. Chris’s lack of intelligence, selfishness, and cowardice is what makes him thickheaded.

On page 71 it says ”Entering the wilderness purposefully ill-unprepared, and surviving a near death experience does not make you a better human, it makes you damn lucky.” Therefore if his way of going about things were different he might have been able to actually survive. So it is clear that Chris is foolish for not being more prepared and accepting of help when offered, it maybe could’ve changed his

One of the most admirable characteristics about Chris was his determination to do whatever he wanted to. He didn’t believe in the government or their rules, logically influencing his new life in the wild where he could be alone and do as he wanted, not taking advice from anyone who tried talking him out of it. Until the last day of his life, Chris had worked the hardest he could to survive in the wild and continued living the life that he had desired. Also, Chris was a very social man and enjoyed conversing with others that he had met along the way to Alaska. “He was intensely private but could be convivial and gregarious in the extreme” (pg. 115).

The author, Tim O’brien of the book The Things They Carried uses events and characters from the memoir in place of some experiences him and the narrator shares. Fictionalizing many emotions and events that happened to Tim through other characters usually that he wouldn’t feel or do. For example Tim talks about how at a point he wanted to run away to canada when he received his draft notice. This feeling of discontent and the thought of war sickened him to the point he was just yards away from Canada but felt as though that would be a coward move. The author and character shared similar ideas however the author Tim didn’t attempt to run away but his character did. O’Brien informs his audience on the difference of the war from the stereotypical

Christopher McCandless was an adventurer no doubt. He spent the last few years of his life living purely off the land and exploring, doing what he felt called to do. However, to venture off on such an intense, dangerous, and wild journey, a person most likely has some deeply thought out reason as to why he or she is embarking on the mission. Chris himself seems to have had some reasons, besides his curiosity, as to why he explored. However, he made a decision to leave without truly thinking about just how dangerous his journey was going to be. Due to his rash actions, Chris eventually died in an abandoned bus out in the wild. Now, some folks today think that Chris was a hero for doing what interested him and for doing his own thing without worrying about the trivial things in life. However, I have reason to believe that Chris was indeed not a hero. Instead, I believe that Chris McCandless’s journey into the wild was rash, ludicrous and foolish.

Chris Mccandless’s motivation was for staying in the woods was for the excitement and rush. Chris is known for many of his specific traits as a person. His stubborn nature or arrogant personality but, one of his very apparent attributes were his self-reliance and his love for nature. He found nature to be an unknown. An unknown that he would turn into a familiar territory. According to Chris, “Tramping is too easy with all of this money. When I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal.” (Into The Wild 33). Christopher enjoyed the wild because you had to take risks and you always had an adventure every day. Christopher Mccandless stayed in the woods for the excitement and the daily adventure of the woods

Chris McCandless was possessed by a nomadic existence and was trying to share his principle of life to his friend by telling that the truth about life was to explore the nature. Chris McCandless's last letter to Wayne revealed his true passion of nature. "This is the last you shall hear from me...I now walk into the wild"(pg 69). Some people concluded that it was Chris McCandless's suicide letter. However, in my opinion, Chris McCandless was just a victim of his own ego, pride and confidence that made him to neglect basic precautions that keep one person alive. He was controlled by his own delusions and that made him eager to test himself into strenuousness which proved fatal to him.

Christopher Johnson McCandless graduated from Emory University in 1990. The son of well-to-do parents, it appeared that Chris was prepared to embark on the next chapter of his life. He had been editor of the student newspaper, earned honors with a double major in history and anthropology, and seemed destined for law school. Determined to rewrite his story, Chris eschewed conventional expectations. He divested himself of money and possessions and immersed himself in a new identity: Alexander Supertramp, Alaskan Adventurer. Four months after beginning his trek into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley, Chris's decomposed body was found. When the details of his story emerged, many people thought Chris was mentally disturbed, calling him a "kook," a "nut," and "a half-cocked greenhorn," among other things (Krakauer, 1996, pp. 71-72). Had Chris's story had a happy ending, he would probably be described differently. He brought the tragic ending on himself, and people called him crazy. "Crazy" is a non-clinical word often used to describe someone with an underlying pathology. In this sense, there was nothing wrong with Chris McCandless. What he did suffer from was the enthusiasm and over-confidence of youth. Combined with poor planning and insufficient skills and experience in the outdoors, his "affliction" became fatal. McCandless made bad decisions, but he was not crazy.

I think he just wanted to pursue life in a different way. Chris was not seeing life the way anyone else was so he decided to brush off into the wild and be free on his own. Though he did not survive he was still a very bright, arrogant human being. Shaun Callarman states, “He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Chris knew going into the wild that he did not have much survival skills but that did not stop him from doing what he wanted to do because he did not care about society and was just completely over everything which was why he made the move to the wilderness. This clearly shows us that Chris did not have much common sense. If he had better survival skills and common sense he probably would have known not to eat that poisonous berry. It was his dream to be in the wild and he decided to pursue it. I respect his decisions and i personally believe it was a good decision other than the fact of him dying. He made the infinitive decision to do all of this so why stop

There was just something about Alistair Crosner that seemed to set people on edge. He'd always been the sort to keep to himself, and though that did not mean anything in and of itself, his lack of contribution in some things led to suspicion. Cross, for that is what he went by, had immersed himself instead into more scholarly pursuits. The man was a dreamer, a thinker, and he often thought of giving grand lectures on various topics before audiences paying rapt attention to what he had to say. Accolades would follow and his reputation would soar, bringing him riches and adoration.

If you attempted to talk him out of something, he wouldn’t argue. He would just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted” (Krakauer 182). Chris did exactly as Carine stated he would when someone tried to stop his trip to Alaska. Chris understood what the trip to Alaska would entail but decided to continue anyway. He was confident in his abilities and constantly felt the need to challenge those abilities. According to Jon Krakauer, “He had a need to test himself in ways, as he was fond of saying ‘that mattered’. He possessed grand- some would say grandiose- spiritual ambitions” (Krakauer 182). Although Chris’s ambition is surely admirable it also could be credited as his tragic flaw. Chris strived for perfection in everything he set his mind to. He refused to listen to individuals who were trying to help him when saying he was ill prepared; instead he ignored their efforts and went into the wild. Chris’s unpreparedness could later be identified as the cause of his death but in his mind, his supporters would like to believe, it did not matter. Chris died doing what he loved, living in isolation with nature being his only companion.