More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis of chris mcandless
Character analysis of chris mcandless
Character trait of chris mccandless
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Chris McCandless lived a life in which he disgusted by human civilization, and left it, eventually being led to his death in Alaska. McCandless entered the Alaskan wilderness severely unprepared, a brutal error that cost him his life. In the novel, Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Chris glances into his mindset by they way of his journal, history, and analysis of his life reveals that Chris McCandless as an arrogant and judgemental narcissist, while not mentally unstable, had a condescending attitude towards society and perished not only from his reckless stupidity but also from his unparalleled ego. Chris McCandless was immune to love and had an obsession with nature and society, him showing characteristics that created the appearance of McCandless …show more content…
The selfish nature of McCandless’s actions is most evident in the results of his actions on Ronald Franz. The story recounts such results in this quote: “When Alex left for Alaska," Franz remembers, "I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn 't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex. After I dropped off the hitchhikers," Franz continues," I turned my van around, drove back to the store, and bought a bottle of whiskey. And then I went out into the desert and drank it. I wasn 't used to drinking, so it made me real sick. Hoped it 'd kill me, but it didn 't. Just made me real, real sick.”(Krakauer, pg 56.) McCandless was very aware that Franz loved him, and again he was not willing to reciprocate this love. However, the way that McCandless was able to disregard Franz’s love and care and knowingly leave him in despair shows that McCandless did not care about the impact his leaving would have on others. He cared about fulfilling his life and living by his beliefs at the costs of others. A similar situation occurred with McCandless’s family. Although angry at his father, McCandless had less resentment for his mother and much less if any for his sister. He knows that they also loved him and cared for him, but he was able to leave with a clean conscience and allow them to live in worry and eventually agony and despair. His so called courages was actually an unrealistic point of view and a result of his not valuing his life. If only because of the selfishness of his actions, McCandless should not be admired
Many individuals decide to live their life in solitary; though, only a few choose to live in the wild. The book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer vividly paints the adventurous trek Chris McCandless went on. From the friends he made, to the hardships he went through, McCandless is portrayed as a friendly, sociable person despite the fact that he was a vagabond. Other than McCandless, there are even more individuals that have taken the risks to live in the wilderness such as, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess. All three of them had both similarities and differences between their own qualities as a person and their journey.
Throughout Into the Wild, Krakauer portrays Christopher McCandless as an infallibly eager young man hoping to distance himself from the society he so obviously loathes, to "live off the land," entirely independent of a world which has "conditioned [itself] to a life of security." Chris, contrarily to this depiction, is disparagingly viewed by some as a "reckless idiot" who lacked the sense he needed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. This derogatory assessment of Chris's mindset is representative of the society he hopes to escape and contains all the ignorance that causes him to feel this way. Nevertheless, he is misjudged by these critics, allowing Krakauer to hold the more accurate interpretation of Chris's character, his goals, and his accomplishments.
McCandless’ had a noble goal – to find his true self outside of the constraints of an organized society and return to “nature”. A philosophy espoused by Tolstoy, Muir, Rousseau, Kerouac and Thoreau and others, McCandless believed that person was essentially free only in state of nature, in connection with himself, the earth and exempt from the material needs and wants of modern civilization. McCandless’ cynicism and rejection of material goods, (symbolized in the novel by the burning of his paper money and identification cards) are something that many disillusioned with the ceaseless toil and routines of modern society can certainly relate to.
Was he a reckless idiot? That is the big question. This is what people always seem to talk about when they talk about Chris McCandless. There are many people who think that Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot who was mentally ill, or something else was wrong with Chris. It seems that almost everybody that met Chris thought maybe Chris was crazy or had problems. Here are just a few things that people said about Chris and his state of mind. Pg 40 Zarza admits saying, "he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws. Pg 42 Charlie said, "seemed like a kid who was looking for something." Pg 45 Burres said "I thought Alex had lost his mind when he told us about his 'great Alaskan odyssey, ' as he called it."
Everyone has a dream, some act on theirs, but the majority do not. What makes Christopher McCandless so unique is that he followed his dream, regardless of how unusual many people thought it was. Many believed that Chris McCandless was crazy, but through the use of pathos, vivid imagery, and personal anecdotes, Jon Krakauer shows his audience that McCandless was never crazy at all.
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a nonfiction novel. Into the Wild is a novel about a man named Chris McCandless who went into the wilderness and left everything in his hometown to hitchhike into different parts of America, Mexico and Canada. After he finished college he gave all his money to charity, left his car with everything in it and burned all of the things in his wallet. He wanted to find adventure in a new life. Chris McCandless died on his way to Alaska by being under prepared, he died of starvation. Chris McCandless was a man who went into the wilderness and hitchhiked to find adventure and get away from society and to start a new life, by being independent, and changing his identity.
For example, this is exhibited when Krakauer includes an anecdote about Chris and his father “He got real emotional...fighting back the tears, telling Dad that even though they’d had their differences over the years, he was grateful for all the things Dad had done for him. Chris said how much he respected Dad for starting from nothing...to support eight kids”(Krakauer 118). Chris seems to be very appreciative of his father and even gets emotional when thinking about all the sacrifices his father made in order to support both of his fathers families. McCandless appears to be family oriented and quite loving towards those around him, right? If that were the case, then why didn’t he let his family know where he was going or that he was planning on leaving, at the very least? When the McCandless family heard about the tragedy that Chris had suffered, his father, Walt McCandless, said, “How is it...that a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?”(Krakauer 104). Chris demonstrates a high level of selfishness and ignorance towards his family’s needs and feelings. He left behind a devoted mother, hard working father and loving sister behind and never looked
Throughout the book Chris McCandles appeared to me as a selfish young man, it annoyed me that he would attempt such a risk when he had many people who loved and cared about him. Chris was so close minded causing my slef to look at him as very conceited and like a know it all. Yes, he was open to learning but every time someone reached out to him and tried to help he did his best to decline and run away. However, with a peculiar mental state I feel like Chris may have had some issues of the mind that go unspoken through the entireity of the book and the thought of Chris going into the wilderness purposfully unpreapred corssed my mind. I feel maybe he wanted to die becuase with some of the issues that were unearthed wiyth Bill Marcia and walt
Chris McCandless was definitely a young, bright man fresh out of college that had opportunities some would dream of. You might even say he was set for the world. But, what played out after all was he left all that behind and set out into nature to find himself. He was without a doubt courageous, yet selfish to do what he did.
Through his use of special organization, factual accounts and complex syntax, he is able to display McCandless as a person who was living the life that he wanted to live. He was kind and respectful to the people he met along the way, even helping them through their own hardships at times. This is the type person that Krakauer wanted to paint a picture of. He wanted to make sure that people did not see McCandless as the “nut” who did himself in. To make sure that the McCandless family could be proud of their son for being brave and doing what many would be too scared to attempt even if they wanted to. By writing this novel with the impressive rhetoric that he did, Krakauer was able to defend the actions of the late Chris McCandless and paint him as the bright young man that he
I believe, that many of us know that like Chris McCandless that we all have way too many “unnecessary baggages” and have things that we all cannot live without as well. With each person those things are different. Of course, that there are things that we all need because of the culture and the time period that we all live in, such as, car, cell phone, internet, and computer are some of the few examples that I could list of the top of my head. Now that I look into my own life, there are many “unnecessary baggages” in my life that I have and there are also somethings that I just simply cannot live without and i would not trade them for anything with. I personally need my Bible, food, water, and clothing. Because they are essential to life,
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he becomes more and more disturbed by society’s ideals and the control they have on everyday life. He made a point of spiting his parents and the lifestyle they lived. This sense of unhappiness continues to build until after Chris has graduated college and decided to leave everything behind for the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing very little about how to survive in the wild, Chris ventures off on his adventure in a state of naïveté. It is obvious that he possessed monumental potential that was wasted on romanticized ideals and a lack of wisdom. Christopher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise.
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
McCandless went on this trip not knowing he would need money and some essentials that he just kinda up and through away. McCandless seemed as if he didn't really think before he did anything, and some of the things he did were ver dramastic. Like Krakauer shows when he says “ … abandoned his car, watch and map, and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the wilderness doctrine,...”(71). Chris McCandless was given money from his parents for school but when he stopped doing everything to go on his adventure he got rid all of his money. Chris burned and gave away the money his parents had giving him as a touishion , instead of taking it with him and using it to get hime there safely or even get him some of the things he lacked already. As well, Chris McCandless instead of taking the car his parents wanted to give him he went out and bought a car, and then during this trip he drove it so far and then ditched it. If McCandless would have just accepted his parents car then ditched it, it wouldn't have been as bad, but he saved up to get this car and then just up and threw it away. “..he could simply abandon the datsun and resume his odyssey on foot, and that's what he decided to do”( Krakauer 29) Hitchhiking is illegal in many places, and its because of how dangerous it is. By abandoning the car he could have gotten into trouble or even killed by oncoming