Characterization Chart of Chris McCandless

Chapter	Description/quote from novel	What impression you get about Chris with this character trait or description?	Page Number
Chapter 1	“He didn’t appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at the most.  A rifle protruded from the young man’s backpack, but he looked friendly enough;”	I think this shows that he looks young for his age.  Also because of the rifle, he is guarded and cautious.	3-4
	“Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be 24 years old and said he was from South Dakota.  He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and ‘live off the land for a few months.’”	I think this shows that he is not very strong and it would be a long, hard journey for him.	4
Chapter 2	“S.O.S. 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?”	This showed just how desperate Chris was just before he died.  He went through and endured so much and wouldn’t take any help most of the time but here he was that desperate.	12
	“A peek through a window revealed a Remington rifle, a plastic box of shells, eight or nine paperback books, some torn jeans, cooking utensils, and an expensive backpack.”	This shows that he only kept the things that were most essential and important to him.  He didn’t keep anything that he didn’t think he needed.	11
Chapter 3	“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.”	This shows us that Alex was a very likable guy and could make friends very easily.	16
	“‘You could tell Alex was intelligent,’ Westerberg reflects, draining his third drink. ‘He read a lot.  Used a lot of big words.  I think maybe some part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking.  Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.  A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things.  He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.’”	This showed that he was smart and people respected him for it.  They knew that he was a hard thinker and that when he got into something he needed to figure it out.  He was persistent.	18
Chapter 4	“We got to talking.  He was a nice kid.  Said his name was Alex.  And he was big-time hungry.  Hungry, hungry, hungry.  But real happy.  Said he’d been surviving on edible plants he identified from the book.  Like he was real proud of it.  Said he was tramping around the country, having a big old adventure.  He told us about abandoning his car, about burning all his money.  I said why would you do that? Claimed he didn’t need money.”	This shows that he is not giving up just because times are getting harder.  He feels strongly about what he is doing and it proud of it.	30
	“…he learned from an inspection of tax records that Chris had given away his college fund to OXFAM.”	This shows that he is a very giving and charitable person.	31
Chapter 5	“‘Nice guy, yeah, a pretty nice guy,’ Charlie reports.  ‘Didn’t like to be around too many people, though.  Temperamental. He meant good, but I think he had a lot of complexes—know what I’m saying? Liked to read books by that Alaska guy, Jack London.  Never said much.  He’d get moody, wouldn’t like to be bothered.  Seemed like a I ho was looking for something, looking for something, just didn’t know what it was.’”	This shows that he was temperamental.  His journey did get frustrating too so it must have been  hard to keep a happy face on all the time.	42
	“…Burres makes it clear that he was no recluse: ‘He had a good time when he was around people, a real good time.  At the swap meet he’d talk and talk and talk to everybody who came by.  He must have met six or seven people in Niland, and he was friendly with every one of them.  He needed his solitude at times, but he wasn’t a hermit.  He did a lot of socializing.  Sometimes I think it was like he was storing company for the time when he knew nobody would be around.’”	This shows that even though Chris was a very social person he also needed his time to be alone.  He needed to be social or else he would go crazy from never getting the chance to talk to people.  He would need to talk to people while he can because when he was out in the wilderness there would be no on to talk to.	44
Chapter 6	“I thought the he was too nice a kid to be living by that hot springs with those nudists and drunks and dope smokers.”	This shows that Chris left a good first impression with people.	51
	“Painlessly, that is from McCandless’s perspective –although not from the old man’s.”	This shows that Chris did leave an impression on those that he did leave.	55
Chapter 7	“Nor was McCangless endowed with a surfeit of common sense.  Many who knew him have commented, unbidden, that he seemed to have great difficulty seeing trees, as they were, for the forest.”	This shows that Chris didn’t think of the literal meaning he thought about it more and sometimes thought about it too much and too hard.	62-63
	“Both father and son were stubborn and high strung.  Given Walt’s need to exert control and Chris’s extravagantly independent nature, polarization was inevitable.”	This shows that Chris and his father were the same and that was probably the reason they didn’t get along because they were so similar.	64
Chapter 10	“‘his hair was long, and he had a beard. Chris always had short hair and was clean-shaven.  And the face in the picture was extremely gaunt.  But he knew right away.  There was no doubt.  It was Chris.’”	This shows that Chris was easily recognized even by someone he didn’t know for long.	102
	“You’re the sixth person in the last hour who’s called to say they knew the hitchhiker’s identity.”	This shows that Chris knew a lot of people and touched every one of them.  It also says that they all knew that Chris was going there and might not make it.	99
Chapter 11	“‘The hardest part’… ‘is simply not having him around anymore.  I spent a lot of time with Chris, perhaps more than with any of my other kids.  I really liked his company even though he frustrated us so often.’”	This shows that even though Chris did annoy his parents sometimes, they did care about him, and when he left, he hurt them.	104
	“‘he was very to himself.  He wasn’t antisocial---he always had friends, and everybody liked him---but he could go off and entertain himself for hours.’”	This shows that even thought everyone liked Chris he still liked being alone and was different than others.	107
Chapter 12	“‘I remember sitting there when he gave Dad the telescope,’ says Carine, ‘Chris had tossed back a few drinks that night and was pretty blitzed.  He got real emotional.  He was almost crying, fighting back the tears, telling Dad that even though they had their difference over the years he was grateful for all the things Dad had done for us.’”	This shows that even though Chris and his father did fight they loved each other too.	118
	“‘Chris was good at almost everything he ever tried,’ Walt reflects, ‘which made him supremely overconfident.  If you attempted to talk to him out of something, he wouldn’t argue.  He’d just nod politely  and then do exactly what he wanted.’”	This shows that Chris was good at anything he set his mind to.  Also it shows that Chris didn’t take well to authority.	119
Chapter 13	“Like Chris, Carine is energetic and self-assured, a high achiever, quick to state an opinion. Also like Chris, she clashed fiercely with Walt and Billie as an adolenscent.”	This shows that Chris and Carine were both very similar.  They both were smart, opinionated, and were different then their parents.	129
	“‘His name was printed wrong.  The label said CHRISTOPHER R. MCCANDLESS.  His middle initial is really J.  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.’”	This tells me that Chris didn’t really let things get to him.  That something as simple as a misprint would never ruin his day.	131
Chapter 16	“‘Said he didn’t want to see a single person, no airplanes, no sign of civilization.  He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it on his own, without anybody else’s help.’”	This shows why he did what he did, why he went all the way out to Alaska and risked his life.	159
	“To McCandless’s inexperienced eye, there was nothing to suggest that two months hence, as the glaciers and snowfields at the Teklanika’s headwater thawed in the summer heat, its discharge would multiply nine or ten times in volume, transforming the river into a deep, violent torrent that bore no resemblance to the gentle brook he’d blithely waded across in April.”	This shows that Chris really didn’t know what he was getting himself into, he was very inexperienced and didn’t know the consequences of crossing the river.  He didn’t know that eventually everything was going to melt and he would have no way to get back across.	163
Chapter 17	“The gauging station can’t be seen from where the Stampede Trail comes down to the river, but after 20 minutes of fighting our way through a snarl of spruce and dwarf birch, Roman shouts, ‘I see it!  There! A hundred yards farther.’”	This shows that if Chris would have been a little bit more patient and looked around a little bit more he would have found this station.  This mistake ended up costing him his life.	173
	“There’s a big difference between a moose and a caribou.  A real big difference.  You’d have to be pretty stupid not too be able to tell them apart.”	This shows that Chris didn’t know everything about the wild when he was out there.  He was not as knowledgeable as he thought he was.	177
Chapter 18	“HAPPINESS IS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”	This shows how Chris felt during his last few days alive.  He had figured that he out the reason he was out in the wild.	189
	“I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD.  GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!”	This shows that Chris was content with the life that he lived.  He also knew that he was going to die and he know was okay with that.	199