Chris Mccandless Characteristics

In a society where people tend to follow the trend, money and possession are all valuable, but to McCandless, a twenty two year old hitchhiker, nothing is more important than freedom. Jon Krakauer wrote the novel Into The Wild because McCandless’s life fascinated him. Through Krakauer’s guidance, we are able to see McCandless’s characteristics, his point of view towards life, his reasons for leaving home, and similar cases to his.

In some people’s eyes, Chris McCandless may seem as an impulsive and reckless twenty two year old who has done damage to his family. Though this is true to an extent, McCandless is also characterized as naturalist, philosophical, and hubristic(proud). At a young age, McCandless was capable of accomplishing many tasks. When his father, Walt McCandless took him on a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, Chris McCandless wanted to continue forward to the famous notch. However, because “the route above looked slabby, exposed, [and] dangerous” Walt refused to move on. Walt McCandless hints that “ If he’d been fourteen..he would have simply gone on without me”, which later gets confirmed. Besides climbing, McCandless excelled in many activities too. However, he refuses to be taught by anyone and is skeptical about technique and strategy. His father states that “if you tried to touch him.. .to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up,”. McCandless prefers to tackle challenges head on with all the energy, but often result in frustration. This shows
The people there loved him. In their eyes, he “did a lot of socializing...was playful, like a little kid...had a way with animals...and was musical”. Yet, when asked about his family or to stay behind, he was persistent on leaving and not talking about his family. Chris McCandless had the perfect life, a life anyone would desire. Yet, this was the reason for his trip to