Characteristics of Chris McCandless

Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer mentions in the book how he tried to find his purpose in life by climbing the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska (Krakauer, 133-156). In his book, he documents the trip of 23-year old man Chris McCandless, otherwise known as Alexander (or Alex) Supertramp, across the United States. He eventually settles in an abandoned Alaskan bus for 16 weeks and passes away after eating a large amount of slightly poisonous seeds. This journey into Alaska in order to find a purpose is eerily similar to Krakauer’s journey. Knowing what he wanted to do in order to find his purpose in life, Chris was successful in that mission; the book mentions how his purpose finally feels fulfilled after travelling the entire country, and that at the end of his life, he writes a note saying “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may god bless all” (199)! In order to find meaning, however, Chris had to have certain characteristics in order to survive travelling cross-country and eventually settling in the barren-cold wilderness of the Frontier State. Chris McCandless was a determined, compassionate, and resourceful man, and without these characteristics, he would not have been able to go as far as he did.

The most prevalent characteristic of McCandless is that he is incredibly determined. Even when meeting amazing people who will later become his friends across his journey, his ultimate goal is to get to Alaska, and he will not stop until he gets there. He even mentions this to Wayne Westerberg, a Carthage, South Dakota resident who Chris would work for four weeks afterward and would become incredibly close to. He tells Westerberg he needs money in order to buy gear for Alaska, and though Chris promised to come back, “he wanted to be in Fairbanks by the end of April in order to squeeze in as much time as possible up North before his return” (62). Chris’s determination is probably the most important part of his trip because if he in any way decided to turn back and falter on his need not to give up, he never would have gotten to his ultimate destination of Fairbanks Bus 142 near the Stampede Trail.

Another important characteristic of Chris’s personality that help him on his tramping expedition is his compassion. Whoever he met on his adventure, from Jim Gallien to Jan Burres to Wayne Westerberg, he was always kind and made a good first impression on them; the interviews in Krakauer’s book say it all. In one interview, Gaylord Stuckey, a truck driver who, against the rules, helped Chris get to Fairbanks, said, “ I tell you what: He was a dandy kid. Real courteous, and he didn’t cuss or use a lot of that there slang” (159). This is especially surprising coming from the fact that Gaylord himself said that he usually stayed “leery” of hitchhikers because of his presumptions that someone who “can’t even afford a bus ticket” (159) isn’t exactly connected to the world around him. Without Chris’s compassionate nature, vehicle drivers probably would have tried to stay away from McCandless or regret that they had taken him along, but instead, he is able to make a good impression on the people who help him get to his final destination.

The final personality trait that helped Chris on his journey across the country is his resourcefulness. Resourcefulness is an important skill to have in the middle of the wilderness where resources are not easily obtained, and Chris always tried to make the most of what he kept in his hiking backpack and use what he had to help him survive. This skill is brought to its fullest when you realize he surprisingly brought very little material with him on his expedition to the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, which is notoriously cold and where resources are hard to find. At the beginning of the book, Jim Gallien, the driver who would take Chris to his final destination, mentioned “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip”(4). However, Chris brags to Westerberg’s consistently on-and-off girlfriend, Gail Borah, that “he could live for a month on nothing but twenty-five pounds of rice” (63). This shows how incredibly resourceful Chris actually was, or believed he was, and in order to survive a trip like that into the Alaskan wilderness, you’ve got to be able to survive off of very little and be able to make the best out of all of the materials you have.

The determined, compassionate, and resourceful nature of Chris McCandless was important in order for him to be able to go on his giant, grand, big-scale adventure. Using all of these traits, this normally ordinary man made a huge impact on everyone he came across on his journey, from Ron Franz, who wanted to adopt him as his grandson, to Wayne Westerberg, who says to his co-workers that the reason he is upset when doing hard work is because “we was counting on Alex being back at work by now.” (62) Through these compassionate and positive interactions with many people across the United States, he turned a story of a normal man who would usually be considered an everyday hitchhiker or tramp into an emotional, heartfelt journey that leaves a huge impact on the reader even after the book ends. Through his charismatic and charming personality, Chris McCandless carries the entire story through, and makes this story of a man who would usually be considered just a normal guy that much better.