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Character traits of chris mccandless essay
Character traits of chris mccandless essay
Character traits of chris mccandless
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In Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild”, Krakauer describes the travels of Chris McCandless, a young man, who travels alone into the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer details Chris’s painful demise from starvation was at the age of 24 in an abandoned bus deep in Alaska. According to Krakauer, Chris McCandless left for Alaska because he was seeking refuge from his betrayal by his father. Chris was searching for truth; something he could believe in after he had found out his dad led a double life; one with Chris and his mother and another with another woman and another son. It seems McCandless was looking to test himself; to prove he could survive in the wild without society, but mostly without his father’s help. Chris was searching for something, Independence. During Chris journey to Alaska, he found what he was looking for an escape but also found his identity. During his final days in the bus, Chris’s mindset changed; he determined he needed people. Some say Chris was foolish but he was a smart kid in unfortunate circumstances.
He was normal in High School. Very involved with people on cross-country team. Chris was a captain on the team and a very intense captain. The guys on the team really loved chris and how exciting his runs were. Chris would purposefully try and get the running team lost and have to run back to somewhere familiar to find there way back home.
Chris wanted to seek refuge from his home because of what he found out about his father. After Chris’s sophomore year of college at Emory University, during the summer he went on his usual cross-country wanderings. He went to California to visit the El Segundo neighborhood where he'd spent the first six years of his life. He called a lot of old family friends who still liv...
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...is final days of life. He wrote in the book of Doctor Zhivago, the last book he would ever read: “Happiness only real when shared.” His mindset changed a lot from when he began his journey. Chris sent letter saying something completely different from his writings in the book. Chris sent to his close elderly friend, Ronald Franz, a few months before his death, “You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships.” Chris changed in the end. It might not have been what Chris originally had in mind but it might have been a healthy change if Chris had lived. At the start of Chris’s journey he only wanted to be called by Alexander Supertramp, not Chris McCandless. He goes by Alex for about two years, but a few days before he died, he goes by Christopher McCandless, as if he has finally come to peace with his family and people around him.
Although Chris McCandless' life at home growing up was hounded by his so called "ignorant" father or his "bigot" parents, made the best out of his life whenever he could. He was on the cross country team when he was younger, and they all ran out into the wild almost, purposely getting lost. Being on that team and experiencing that made him happier and started his interest and passion for embracing nature. Chris even found solace and was content with providing food, such as hamburgers, stated by his cross country teammate Eric Hathway, providing company to people less fortunate than him. Taking hikes with his grandfather and doing things as mentioned previously (cross country), eventually influenced him to make his greatest adventure and unbeknownst
Chris does not agree with a lot of the values of society. He shuns the day-to-day sheltered routine that comes with the security of the material world. Chris does not hold the security of the government with a high esteem, as shown in the following quote, “‘H*ll, no… How I feed myself is none of the government’s business. F*ck their stupid rules’” (Krakauer 7). Chris doesn’t even enjoy the comfort of modern living. He prefers minimal
Even though Chris was so young and such a vibrant young man, he seemed as though he was ready to let himself go. He had accomplished his dream, and even if it wasn't always everything he'd cracked it up to be, he was ready. Ready to be somewhere else where he could be proud of his accomplishments no matter how meager they may have seemed to others.
...s was at peace. Chris McCandless died happy and at peace with life because of the all the sights he had seen, all the people he had met, and ultimately the goal he had wanted to achieve was at his fingertips. He did not make it out of the “Great Alaska,” but he died trying. He had survived one hundred plus days. He had walked all over America. He had met some amazing tramps along the way. He had caused heartbreak, but he helped thousands. I believe, based on the fact that he stated he would write a book upon his return, all he wanted to be a legend and have a legacy. He did just that. Chris has died over ten years ago, and here I am in the tenth grade learning about his eventful life. Chris ‘Alexander Supertramp’ McCandless had lived an eventful life in his twenty-four years of living than most do in their one hundred years of life. His legacy will live on forever.
... every aspect of his life whether it be his education, physical endurance, or making it through the Alaskan wilderness with nothing more than a rifle, a backpack, and a road map. Chris was aware of his differences and that he did not fit into society. He fully embraced that and and chose to lead his own path. Chris led a happy life according to one of his last journal entries he wrote, “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” (Krakauer 199). Chris was willing to risk everything to gain that happiness. His ambition to enter the wilderness, in the end, took his life but that did not stop him. He would have rather died a happy man than lived a miserable one. Chris ventured out into the wilderness and found himself; a tragic story for a tragic hero.
The tone is set in this chapter as Krakauer uses words to create an atmosphere of worry, fear, and happiness in McCandless’s mind. “The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing”(4). McCandless is on the path of death, which creates worry and fear for the young boy. “He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited,” (6). Alex is very excited and care free, which Krakauer used to his advantage in making the tone of Alex’s mind happy. The author creates tones to make the reader feel the moment as if the readers were sitting there themselves. Krakauer uses dialogue and setting to create the mixed tones of this chapter. As one can see from the quotes and scenery the author uses tones that are blunt and are to the point to make the reader feel as though the emotions are their own. Krakauer uses plenty of figurative language in this chapter. He uses figurative language to support his ideas,to express the surroundings, and tone around the character. To start the chapter he uses a simile describing the landscape of the area, “…sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed,” (9). This statement is used to make reader sense the area and set the mood for the chapter. The use of figurative language in this chapter is to make a visual representation in the readers mind. “It’s satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain” (9).
Throughout McCandless’s adventure in the Alaskan wild, he made a series of choices. His survival was made possible by his ability to adapt to harsh conditions. The fact that he survived all his ventures and hardships might have been due more to good fortune than his actual preparation and skills. It is theorized that it was his point to make the Alaska trip so difficult, and so barebones, that he wasn’t sure whether he would have been able to survive it or not. This journey, though reckless, makes his adventure into the Alaskan wild that much more admirable. For Chris to live a life with little to no material objects and survive on his own, in itself, is an act of extreme bravery and determination. Some may say that the
McCandless had been accused of abandoning his family and loved ones. Chris had always felt like his parents were holding him back, they had a different vision of Chris’ future than Chris had. Even though Chris left his family it was in his best intentions and for the best intentions, if he had never left him he would never have been able to find himself. He did not mean to harm anyone, he was just trying to discover the larger meaning of his life and fulfill his dream. In the end of the novel Chris was able to discover himself when he realized that ‘ Happiness only real when shared’. This was Chris’ realization that life really mattered most when he was with others, it implied that Chris was ready to go back to his parents and
Chris’ youth was defined by a sort of cabin fever, one that instilled him with an unshakable desire to escape the monotony of average life in pursuit of greater meaning. He hated that everyone pushed the traditional path on him, school to college, college to career, career to retirement. Why should others dictate the way he chose to approach life? This feeling of entrapment heightened his disdain for societal pressures as he grew to be appalled at the state of the world:
Honesty and truth were very important traits to Chris. The fact that a disillusionment happened to Chris was too much for him to bare, especially because it was about his own father. After he discovered about his father’s affair years ago and a half-brother he was clueless about, Chris was extremely wretched. His behavior started to become unrecognizable, “I saw Chris at a party after his sophomore year at Emory … and it was obvious he had changed. He seemed very introverted, almost cold” (Krakauer 120). He dealt with the pain in a certain way for quite sometime, until he decided he needed to go. To leave what was hurting him and that is exactly what he did. “Immediately after graduating…he changed his name, gave the entire balance of a twenty-four-thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions…” (Krakauer 1). His father’s affair was definitely a huge slap in the face that left him destroyed. Sadly, there are no step by step guides to how someone should process hard times and the wilderness was his escape from the
What was Krakauer thinking when he was talking about Chris McCandless? In the Alaskan wilderness, Peter Christian has described numerous young men who acted and ventured there similar to McCandless. If there are people who had ventured and faced death in the Alaskan wilderness just like McCandless, would Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” be different in regards to quality and character if Krakauer had used any other individual as the main character of his book? Based on how Krakauer wrote his book, Chris McCandless had an interesting story of his travels as told by Krakauer. Despite being an enigmatic and intellectual, however, McCandless shows that he is merely another young adult who had made bad decisions.
Chris McCandless left his comfortable living for a crazy adventure into the deep forest of Alaska. No one will ever know why he did it, but there are a numerous reasons. Chris’s focus on adventure, freedom, solitude and his resistance against the government influenced him to leave his comfortable living to try to survive the wild.
The novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer introduces a young adult by the name of Chris McCandless who is on a quest for his self-identity. Chris doesn’t necessarily have an itinerary planned for this adventure of his. He just goes with the flow and doesn’t worry about the next event in his life. He abandoned his family, his friends and his life, for what reason? That is the essential question. One might question the normality of this kid but I for one feel that he was completely normal but confused. He is all over the place. His adventure stretches from Carthage, SD to the Stampede Trail in Alaska where his journey sadly ends. Why is Krakauer writing this story of this lost boy who has no plan in life? I’ve constantly been asking myself the
McCandless views his life as pointless and not enjoyable, that there is more than a suburban lifestyle and American materialism. Christopher decides by choice to reject the lifestyles that his parents had laid down for him. He detaches himself from his family, leaving behind his parents and the upper middle-class suburban setting in which he was raised. As well as, donating his college savings to charity, abandoning his car in the desert and burning his paper money on the desert floor. McCandless's energy, vision and arrogance drives to kill his perspective of life. Ultimately leading him to leave the nurtured world he was raised in to gain new viewpoint of what life is and what it could be for him. It was up to Chris to leave behind the safe environment his parents had raised him in, it was his decision and his control that drove him to do such questionable actions. He had chose to give up what was made for him; leave behind college money that could have given him a great education, to abandon his car that could have led him to a new beginning and burn his money that was his source of income. Christopher McCandless had control of what he owned, and decided himself to continue with life they way he wanted it to be and with the way he viewed the world
“McCandless was a first-class freeloader,” writes Craig Medred of the Anchorage Daily News. Craig, as well as many other Alaskans, view Chris McCandless, whose story is immortalized in Into the Wild, as a foolhardy charlatan. These people scold those who admire him and his journey through the American West and believe that Chris took his privilege for granted. Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild, however, sees McCandless as a pioneer in the twenty-first century way of life. Krakauer chronicles Chris’ journey as he travels from Atlanta to South Dakota to Alaska. Frustrated with his parents and the privilege associated with his class, McCandless embarked on a journey away from his past life, leaving no indication to anyone of his plans