Character Traits of Chris McCandless

Chapter  and Page #	Description/Quote from Novel	What impression you get about Chris with this character trait or description?
Chapter 2 Page 12 Chapter 2 Page 13	"SOS I need your help.  I am injured near death and too weak to hike out of here.  I am all alone this is no joke.  In the name of God, please remain to save me.  I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening.  Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?" "The remains were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died, but the coroner could find no sign of massive internal injuries or broken bones."	Chris McCandless realizes that his trip is coming to an end if no one passes by to help him out.  He still has enough strength though to collect berries.  Also, he has been out at this point long enough to realize that he's not even sure what month it is. McCandless had died quite some time before he was found by any type of hikers/authorities.  Although, while he stated earlier he was injured there were no internal injuries or broken bones found during the autopsy.
Chapter 3 Page 16 Chapter 3 Page 18	"He used to sit right there at the end of the bar and tell us these amazing stories of his travels.  He could talk for hours.  A lot of folks here in town got pretty attached to old Alex.  Kind of a strange deal what happened to him." "I've given jobs to lots of hitch hikers over the years," says Westerberg.  "Most of them weren’t much good, didn't really want to work.  It was a different story with Alex.  He was the hardest worker I've ever seen.  Didn't matter what it was, he'd do it: hard physical labor, mucking rotten grain and dead rats out of the bottom of the hole-- jobs where you got so damn dirty you couldn't even tell what you looked like at the end of the day ….. He was what you called extremely ethical.  He set pretty high standards for himself."	Although Chris's intentions were to live in the wild by himself off of the least amount of supplies as he could, he was by no means unsocial, because a lot of people tended to get attached to McCandless.  From the description Wayne Westerberg was giving, you can tell that McCandless carried the trait of arête.  Arête-  everything you do, you do it to the best of your ability, nothing half assed or you wouldn't do it at all
Chapter 4 Page 29 Chapter 4 Page 37	"Instead of feeling distraught over this turn of events, moreover, McCandless was exhilarated: He saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed unnecessary baggage." "On February 3rd, according to his journal, McCandless went to Los Angeles "to get an ID and a job feels extremely uncomfortable in society now and must return to road immediately. "	Clearly McCandless was extremely headstrong on this trip.  While he has a bad situation with his car, he believes it is just a good opportunity so he can live on the least possible, which was his goal. After sailing on the rivers and bodies of water for so long he started to become anti-social and feels the need to leave society.
Chapter 5 Page 40 Chapter 5 Page 41	"Curiously, when McCandless applied for the McCandless job, he presented himself as Chris McCandless, not as Alex, and gave his real social security number."  "When he first started working, he was homeless, and he'd show up for work smelling bad.  It wasn't up to McDonald's standard to come in smelling the way he did. "	After living as a leather tramp for such a long amount of time, he decided to buckle down and get a real job.  Despite the fact he wasn't trying to be tracked by his parents, he gave his real name and social security number to the corporation;  one can only guess he felt comfortable in Bullhead, AZ. Despite the fact that he finally had a job, he still didn't feel the need to join a homeless center, and continued to live homelessly.
Chapter 6 Page 56 Chapter 6 Page 57	"The boy unmasked the gaping void in Franz's life even as he helped fill it.  When McCandless departed as suddenly as he'd arrived, Franz found himself deeply and unexpectedly hurt." "You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to visit one of the greatest sights at on Earth, the grand canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life.  But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation, which you see day after day after day. "	McCandless seemed to have a way with touching people.  When people met him, usually hitch-hiking, they always felt the need to take him under their wing and help him out.  He seemed to make his way as a family member to so many people and fulfilled happiness in so many hearts. McCandless had an incredible way of speaking to someone, heart to heart.  His letters and ways of thinking were extremely inspirational.
Chapter 7 Page 64 Chapter 7 Page 66	"He brooded at length over what he perceived to be his father's moral shortcomings, the hypocrisy of his parents life styles, the tyranny of their conditional love .  Eventually, Chris rebelled- and when he finally did, it was with characteristic immoderation." "McCandless's apparent sexual innocence, however, is a corollary of a personality type that our culture purports to admire, at least in the case of it's more famous adherents."	Although this isn't surprising because when McCandless engages in something, he goes through with it at full force; McCandless bottled up his emotions towards his parents and eventually cut off all means of communication (when he went on the road) and couldn’t stand them for anything.  McCandless wasn't phased by peer pressure or the vogues of American culture.  His sexual innocence is one of many examples of this; another including his love for his old yellow Datsun, when he was offered a brand new car.
Chapter 10 Page 101 Chapter 10 Page 102	"EXEMPT EXEMPT EXEMPT EXEMPT EXEMPT" and given his name as Iris Fucyu. Address: "None of your damn business."  Social Security number; "I forget." "His hair was long and he had a beard.  Chris almost always had short hair and was clean-shaven.  And the face in the picture was extremely gaunt."	Chris was not going to give his information to anyone he was unaware of at the time.  He did not want his parents to be able to track him down. This is a description of Chris McCandless on the last picture he took of himself before he died.
Chapter 11 Page 103 Chapter 11 Page 113	"You had to learn to walk by yourself.  There was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgment you respected.  At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute- life or truth of beauty- of being ruled by it in place of man-made rules that have been discarded." "On weekends, when his high school pals were attending "keggers" and trying to sneak into Georgetown bars, McCandless would wander the seedier quarters of Washington, chatting with prostitutes and homeless people, buying them meals, earnestly suggesting ways they might improve their lives."	This was a quote underlined in a book McCandless had with him on the bus, found when his body was discovered.  It is important because it explains the way Chris felt towards society. Chris always danced to a different drum.  He was more into helping society than being a wreck less teenager.
Chapter 12 Page 122 Chapter 12 Page 120	"More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white.  He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." "His social studies were the only thing he was interested in talking about.  Social life at Emory revolved around fraternities and sororities, something Chris wanted no part of.  I think when everybody started going Greek, he kind of pulled back from his old friends and got more heavily into himself."	Chris looked for either the good or the bad, he didn't really bend the corners.  He lived up to high standards. Eventually, in college, Chris basically shut himself out from society.  He wouldn't talk to anybody unless it was about something important or about his grades, he would go on for hours about the homeless.
Chapter 13 Page 129 Chapter 13 Page 131	" Like Chris, Carine is energetic and self-assured, a high achiever, quick to state an opinion." "His name was printed wrong.  The label said CHRISTOPHER R. MCCANDLESS. His middle initial is really K.  It ticked me off that they didn't get it right.  I was mad.  Then I thought, 'Chris wouldn't care.  He'd think it was funny'."	Chris shared similar traits like being a high achiever and quick to state an opinion, which is shown in his trip to Alaska. McCandless had a good sense of humor.  The book doesn't tell you much about his sense of humor, but this let you know that he can take things lightly and make a joke out of things.
Chapter 16 Page 165 Chapter 16 Page 170	"Faced with the obvious folly of his original ambition, to walk five hundred miles to tidewater, he reconsidered his plans." "In his journal he now wrote, "Disaster… Rained in.  River  look impossible.  Lonely, scared."	Chris went into this expedition with big ambitions but the climate wore off on him, and he started to be realistic. When Chris started out on his journey, he wanted to be alone and find him self, but towards the end he felt alone and scared.
Chapter 17 Page 182 Chapter 17 Page 184	"it is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others.  Danger has always held a certain allure. "McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily.  He demanded much of himself --, more, in the end, than he could deliver."	Chris was just another normal young adult who strived for adventure in his life. Chris wanted to come to more conclusions by the end of his trip then what was actually available.
Chapter 18 Page 189 Chapter 18 Page 199	"And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness . . .  And this was most vexing of all," he noted, "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED." On the other side of the page, which was blank, McCandless penned a brief adios: "I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD.  GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL."	After wanting to go off into the wild by himself, he became lonely and realized that this wasn't a good quality of life. Towards all of the suffering Chris went threw he always stayed positive, even when he was about to die, and was writing his last note before death.