Into the Wild Blog #5

Chris's most positive traits:

1) Chris has three most positive traits about him. The first one I think is very positive has to be independent. Chris was very independent; he would do things that most people don't do. He disappeared. Chris vanished away from his family and went on his own to live his life the way he wanted to live it. He had a goal and a dream of some sort to travel to Alaska as his Alaskan odyssey. He would live on the streets, he would work for people to get money, and he would hitch hike and many more things. Chris is independent, because he did everything his way. He left on his own, he made money on his own and he didn't have to depend on anybody or let anyone down, not that he really cared about that; but still. This is very independent to do everything on his own and that made him dependable about himself.

2) Chris was very brave. Who would just disappear and live in the nature half the time? No one, because they think it would be a stupid thing to do. Its not stupid though, not to me or to Chris at least. Chris didn't care what people thought of him, he didn't care if he hurt his family, he didn't care to call or write his family anymore. He just wanted to be alone with his own life. That's brave to me, and Chris is very brave. Chris lived on streets and lived in the desert and wondered around every where without his own car. It takes a lot of bravery to do these type of things. He wasn't ashamed, he was proud he had a goal to go to Alaska, he wasn't just a person who disappeared. He was brave.

3) Chris was very polite though. He wouldn't be mean to anyone of course, he would become friends with them and work for people he knew. Like Wayne for an example, he became friends with Wayne and started to work for him. Social and friendly sorta of categorizes in this trait as well if you say. He was social a lot, but only to his friends. Especially ones that hit it off with him immediately. He likes to talk about his trip to Alaska. He can go on and on and on about it and just love it. He had many good friends that he would write and contact sometimes. Ronald Franz had a huge connection with Chris and evne wanted to adopt him as his grandson, but Chris denied it until he said he returned from Alaska. Chris was really friendly though.

Now Chris does have some ad traits.
1) The first one that is a negative trait of his is that he is very secretive about things. He never wanted to talk about his family, he would get mad and angry when people asked about his family. Anways, he was secretive about disappearing. Yes, he told his parents that he was going to be gone for a while, they probably didn't think forever. Chris never did tell his parents where he was going, he never told anyone actually. Just that he was going to go on a long- extended trip of his own. I personally would not like the fact as a parent that my child was going somewhere and I had no clue. His parents didn't like the fact of it either. They worried sick about him and couldn't call him, because he didn't have a cell phone and didn't know where to go to bring him home. Being secretive is a negative trait about Chris to me.

2) Now his second trait is that he isn't dependable. You couldn't depend on Chris If he was the last person to depend on. He never held a full time job, he never stayed somewhere for so long. Either he did for a while, but he would just get itchy feet and run off into the nature again. He almost gave up once, but his feet made him move again. You can't depend on Chris to just up and leave someday without saying goodbye. He would probably just leave a note, unless it was his dear friends, he would say goodbye. Chris being dependable isn't necessarily in the cards for him if you ask me. He just can't be depended on with a job or to stay somewhere for another long time.

3) Thirdly Chris's last bad trait has to be that he is stubborn. Chris is very stubborn, he has to do everything his way. Chris hates to be told what to do and never listens to what he is told to do. He does it his way and his own way. He is very headstrong. Even though he was headstrong and decided to run away from life, he was running towards something he loved; but still. Being stubborn isn't always the best decision in life, but Chris never really cared obviously.

The one trait that outweighed all the others was being independent. He was very very independent about his life. He wanted to be on his own, to live his own life and make his own decisions without people telling him what to do. He didn't want to have to make decisions he did not want to make. He gave his money up on his own and he left his car on his own. He did everything independently. That is amazing how independent Chris really is. No one I bet is as independent as him. I love this trait about Chris McCandless.

Krakauer had similarities with Chris and five of them were just like Chris. Like Krakauer was willful, and self-absorbed, intermitently, moody. Krakauer even disappointed his father like Chris did. (134) Krakauer was an adventurous youth who had a difficult relationship with wealthy parents, just like McCandless. He similarly undertook an expedition, climbing the "Devil's Thumb" in Alaska. (135) However, as Krakauer notes, the difference was that he had survived his experience, where as Chris McCandless had not. Krakauer believes that his and McCandless' idealistic attitudes and ignorances were alike, and so he could have ended up just like Chris, if it weren't for his luck. To close his personal tale, Krakauer states that he was not satisfied at all after overcoming the Devil's Thumb, but did learn an important moral in the value of companionship.

Into the Wild Blog #4

When Chris was working at McDonalds it was a characteristic break through just like the book said. It was unlikely of him to just stop and settle down for a while. He seemed to me that he was tired of traveling on foot and I thought he might just give up. I then remembered he always gets itchy feet later on. Anyways, since he would be staying there for a long time it seems, that he would decide to get a job and earn some money just to have in case he needed anything. I believed he just chose McDonalds just for an easy steady job he could maintain for himself. That basically my thoughts about it, that he just wanted easy money to make flippin' burgers. Something did trigger him to stay as a normal person. It doesn't necessarily come quite to my mind even when I read back before or after he worked there. My hypothesis is that he was just tired and wanted to settle for a while until he thought about moving on again. He even used his real name Chris McCandless and gave his real social security number to McDonalds. In my mind, I was saying that he was going to give up and just work at McDonalds. Thats just my thoughts though and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly did trigger him to do what he did.


The colleagues from McDonalds don't recall much from him. The assistant manager said that he absolutely hated to wear socks with shoes. That he just hated to have socks on no matter what. He also that Chris was a real good worker and was really dependable. Then the second assistant manager had a different impression. Lori Zarza, she said that no matter how hard she was on his case that he would just work at his same pace. It claims in the book that customers would be piling up, but he never really seemed to care much. Chris is that typical guy that aren't around as much anymore. He just doesn't care what someone says to him and takes no emotion. Later on, Lori started telling Chris he needed to bathe more often and that made Chris mad, but he never showed it. Chris's feelings were probably to just ignore the other workers. He priority is probably to just get money and be on his way. If I was worked with Chris at McDonalds I would probably try to be friends with him. Thats what I like to do. I like to make people feel welcome and comfortable with where ever they are. I would just be friendly to him.
 
I feel like he had a strong connection with them, because they bonded more than anyone. Chris would do things for Jan and Bob, like watch the flea market table and other things. I feel like Chris had just strong feelings for staying with them and a little piece of him not wanting to leave. They were connected to Chris , because he was unique in ways. They basically loved him and so did the dog. Anyways, the connections between them were really unique and I loved them.h

Ronald Franz was really really connected to Chris. Ronald's family died, which means his wife and his son. Thats really hard to take in with your life. So, Ronald accepted Chris into his life, because he was alone and had nothing left really. He missed his family insanely and that probably drove him to the point right when he met Chris, he was going to be attached to him. They spent a lot of time together, going places together, eating together and more things. Ronald finally popped the question and asked Chris if he could adopt him as his grandson. See, Ronald just wants someone in his life again, someone to love of his own; to call his own. Ronald's connection grew and grew while he was with Chris. Thats why I think he was so affected was by his family's death and that he didn't want to be alone anymore.

Into the Wild Blog #3

List of the things I learned about Chris McCandless

• He is Brave
• He is Nobel
• He is Adventurous
• He is Intelligent. He has a book of plants to tell what he can eat basically. If its poisonous or not.
• He is Outgoing obviously.
• He is Crazy
• He is Jubilant
• He is Eager
• He is Impatient
• He is somewhat Helpless when his wants to be.
• He is that type of person who would take nothing else, except something to carry on your back. "Not including the canoe."
• He lived on the beach for 10 days.
• He was put into custody.
• He stopped writing his journals after his camera was broke.
• He worked in Las Vegas and then he was on the road again May 10th.
• He left his canoe after the powerful tides drug him out towards sea and he was back on the road without it.
• He had lost all hope when he couldn't get to the ocean, before the duck hunters took him. He was confounded.
• He is Kind.
• He wasn't needy to me.
• He is the guy who lived on his own, however he wanted too. He would get rides to where he wanted to go and would explain why. Chris McCandless is an adventurer.

           
              My reaction to the note is that his grades were very important to his family. Well his parents more likely. They had very high expectations for Chris. They wanted him to go to college and have a good life of his own;going to Law school and all. The relationship still isn't quite clear to me yet, between his parents. I still have more thinking to do about it all. Though Chris felt uptight mostly and felt like he couldn't do anything. Quoted in the book it says, "At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence" (22). Chris felt tied up in his house, between his parents and the world. He wanted to get out and do what he wanted to do. This is where when he says, "I think I'm going to disappear for awhile," came into the picture. He didn't want to be around anyone to tell him what to do or what he should be doing. He wanted to be free. He wanted his own life to live. He didn't want anyone around to tell him different either. My intentions were when it says "security" in the quote I quoted; I thought that, he was the kid who was frustrated with his parents dreams and not his own. He was bundled up inside and didn't want to be anymore. All he wanted was it to go away. Maybe his dream was to live in the wild, I mean look where he is at now.
      
               Maybe he just didn't want to be around it anymore. He was tired of doing what he was doing. Maybe he just wanted to see what it would be like to live in the wild. Maybe he thought in his head that he could actually survive throughout the wild with what supplies his had. Nature could be another, to just live there. He just wanted his own life, he wanted to be on his own and wanted to see if he could do it.