My Opinion of Chris McCandless

After reading the first two chapters of Into the Wild, I could feel contempt and disgust building up toward McCandless; that feeling I had conveyed through my essay. I felt he was foolish, ungrateful, and merely doing the whole thing for attention. However, after reading the last few chapters, my feelings have changed slightly. I still am not a huge fan of McCandless. I still think he is foolish and a little self-absorbed, but I see that his journeys are not driven by the need for attention, but simply for his need for excitement and adventure. I don't think he had cruel intentions any longer. You can't really blame a guy for "wanting more" out of life. I mean I am a true believer that one should always be striving for something. However, McCandless should've at least taken proper precautions for going to the Alaskan wild. He may have survived in the south and the west coast, but Alaska is a whole different story. And for that, McCandless is stupid. I have also started to feel more sympathetic towards the characters in the book. I feel sorry for McCandless, that he was not able to make it out alive when everyone thought he would and most of all I feel sorry for his parents. His poor parents - he completely estranged himself from them and they did not deserve that. Obviously, we are not able to get the full background on them, but one should never disregard their parents like he did. I feel sorry for the friends and family that he never said goodbye to. Even if McCandless got the chance to say goodbye, I don't think he would take it. For this reason, the majority of my negative feelings towards him are here to stay... for now.