Chris Mccandless Trait Analysis Essay

Character Analysis Essay

With a wealthy and successful family, would you ditch virtually everything for a new life? Christopher McCandless made that decision and many others on his two year journey to Alaska. He made these decisions with certain traits that he possesses, whether they were strengths that helped him or weaknesses that lead to his unfortunate death by starvation. Of these traits that he has, three are independence, over-confidence, and maturity. These traits have majorly affected how he acted in each situation.
To start off, Chris McCandless was very independent. He especially proved this by going into the wild. He made a new lifestyle for himself with only some help from other people, such as getting a ride in a truck to a town or getting a part-time job, but had no contact with his parents because he wanted to remain alone. While he was settled at the old bus near Denali Park, Alaska, he left numerous supplies in their positions, pictures of things that he has done or animals he has killed, and left a diary. All of those things told a story about his independence. He had daily chores for himself and searched, hunted, cooked, and preserved food. A picture of Chris next to a dead moose proved that he indeed did kill a moose because Jon Krakauer's crew doubted this by studying the remains of the animal.
Secondly, over-confidence was a major weakness for Chris. On his trip to Alaska, he donated all $25,000 to charity, ditched his vehicle and most of his possessions, and burned all of the cash in his wallet. He was so over-confident that he could do without all of these things that he did not really plan things out well. He studied for his trip, but it was extremely different than actually being in the harsh environment. For example, he knew that he could eat certain berries even though they could be poisonous, however, when he was starving and ate the berries, they were then poisonous to his digestive system thus causing him to starve to his tragic death.
Lastly, Chris was a very mature person. He made the dean's list quickly and his grades were superior. He started to not fit in well with everyone else though and too mature for his age, which is probably why the older men in Alaska that met him liked him so much. The truck driver, Jim Gallien, was only going to drive him half way, but after getting to know Chris, he began to be his friend and drove him the full distance and even bought him a 10-pound bag of rice. Also, Wayne Westerberg, described how Chris was such a hard worker, doing jobs that others would not do as well.
To sum it up, Christopher McCandless made many decisions on his two year journey to Alaska. He made these decisions with certain traits that he possesses, whether they were strengths or weaknesses. Of these traits that he has, three are independence, over-confidence, and maturity. These traits have majorly affected how he acted in each situation throughout his journey. Although McCandless died, many of us would not have survived as long as he did; he had those strong traits and things might have even been different if he was just more prepared.