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Chris Mccandless A Romantic Hero In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

Decent Essays

The novel Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer revealed the true identity of Chris McCandless, or as one might say, Alex Supertramp who was his alter ego when he left home to start a new adventure. Chris did not know his long journey to Alaska would end up taking his life. There are many different opinions about Chris, but the question is “Is Chris McCandless a hero?” While Chris, by definition is a Romantic Hero, he was not a hero using the traditional definition because he hurt everyone that loved him. What is a Romantic Hero? A Romantic Hero is a person that is self - centered, rejects authority, loves nature, and is haunted by the past. While Chris does show all the characteristics of being a Romantic Hero, the one that stands out is …show more content…

He is self-centered because he does not care about hurting others along the way. He only cares about getting what he wants, for example, he was offered a plane ticket but he did not accept it and choose to walk to his destination. Being offered a free ticket and turning it down, shows that he wants to do things his own way at the risk of hurting others. There are many reasons why Chris was not a hero, but the most significant reason is that he hurt everyone that got close to him. For instance, he hurt his family by packing up and leaving without telling them. Chris’s parents found out that he was gone “When they arrived to his apartment, it was empty and a FOR RENT sign was taped to the window. The manager said that Chris had moved out at the end of June” (Krakauer 22). It took his parents two months to realize that he had just up and left. His family was the first set of victims Chris hurt but they were not the last. Throughout the story, Chris met many people who became his adopted family. By far, one of the most important people Chris ended up hurting was an eighty-one year old craftsman named Franz. When Chris met Franz they immediately became

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