Christopher McCandless Characteristics

Christopher McCandless Characteristics All around the world, there are people who oppose a lot of societies’ modern routines and values. Some drop everything they have to go off into nature, most of the time with little to no gear for proper survival. This is the story of Christopher McCandless. Chris—a young, newly college graduate, angry with the upper-middle class life he had grown up in—left everything he had in the summer of 1990. Journalist, Jon Krakauer, dives into the story of Christopher McCandless and the events that led him to his death. At first, Krakauer was simply writing an article on Chris, but after finding more and more out about the young man, he proceeded to writing an expository, non-fiction piece titled Into the Wild. Throughout the book, Krakauer explains the many characteristics of Chris, some of which were what cost him his life such as being a man of principles, fearlessness, self-reliance and over-confidence. Christopher had shown signs of being a man of principles even before the start of his journey. “[Chris] was offered membership in Phi Beta Kappa but declined, insisting that titles and honors are irrelevant… he had announced… on principle, he would no longer give or accept gifts” (20). These are two examples of the many principles that Chris had set for himself. He lives life by his anti-materialism completely by giving away all of his life savings to charity, making the bare minimum of money that he needs to survive, and keeping as few possessions as he can to survive. In a letter Chris wrote to his sister Carine, he says, “I’m going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect” (21). Chris has always preached that his parents are too materialistic. He feels that receiving materialistic gifts from them is wrong, that he doesn’t need those things. “McCandless went into the wilderness… to explore the inner country of his own soul” (183). This explains how self-spiritual he was and that this is what the trip how started out as. He wanted to get closer with his natural state, closest to his personal principles. Throughout his life, McCandless had shown a sign of self-reliance. “How I feed myself is none of the government’s business” (6). Here, we see a rebellious, but independent Chris. He can do what he wants and does not need others to know what he is doing for himself. Perhaps this is a reason why he left in the first place, he doesn’t have others always trying to help him and he is not temped by any materialistic items to make him feel like more of a man. “And [Chris] didn’t have a phone, so Walt and Billie had no way of calling him” (22). He did not want to be bothered by many, especially his parents. It seemed that he was content with the independence. Even before he left for good, he seemed to want to be alone on his long travels. Chris had always seemed to be the fearless type, even before going out on his own. “Walt took Billie and his children… to climb Longs Peak in Colorado—at 14,256 feet, the highest summit in Rocky Mountain National Park. [They]… reached the 13,000 foot elevation… ‘but Chris wanted to keep going to the top’” (109). This shows that even at the young age of 12, Chris was fearless. His father had felt the altitude getting to him and the others, so he forced them to turn around, but Chris did not want to go. “’He was only twelve then, so all he could do was complain. If he’d been fourteen of fifteen, he would have simply gone without me” (109). Here, Walt continues about how if they had taken this trip when Chris was a little older—remembering how Chris was—he would of been fearless enough to go on a trip all on his own. Christopher had seemed over-confident of his knowledge of what he was getting himself into. When he walked into the Denali, he was unprepared. “His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions” (5). Here is the things McCandless brought along with him on the trip, much too little to stay in the Denali. A couple months in, McCandless realized that he was unprepared. He could not find enough food and eventually died from starvation. Although he did know a little about the small game of the forest, he was still over-confident in what trip he was actually making. Chris also seemed to be over-confident with the fact that he did need a little bit of money in order to live, but ended up burning the last of it all. Because of this, he almost ended up a slave to a rancher in northern California. It seems that Jon has a sort of soft spot for McCandless due to the surprising similarities in their lives. Jon Krakauer has done justice in cracking the puzzle of who Christopher “Alex” McCandless was. He opened up the idea that what Chris did and felt was not something unusual, that many before him have done similar things. In his book, Into the Wild, Jon describes many characteristics of Chris that had made him into an interesting man: being a man of principles, fearlessness, self-reliance and over-confidence.