Chirs' Odyssey

Chris’ Odyssey
One of the greatest decisive traits of a hero is his fatal flaw; for young Chris McCandless, whose final mistake was hubris, it brought about his destruction at the time of his life’s culmination. In his piece, Into the Wild, Krakauer glorifies his accomplishment despite this imperfection. His fatal flaw, along with his admirable traits of compassion, congeniality, intelligence and above all his unencumbered devotion to live life to the fullest, make him a relatable, commendable hero.
There is no doubt in my mind that McCandless, like any other human being, has his share of flaws; overconfidence, hubris, and an inability to confront his family due to the harbored resentment he felt were the most prominent of such. Despite these flaws, McCandless was determined to live the life he believed was best. Even Krakauer, a powerful advocate for Chris’ veracity, acknowledges, “By design McCandless came into the country with insufficient provisions…evidence not just of stupidity but of the even greater sin of arrogance” (Krakauer 180). I believe the heart of McCandless’ mistakes was his detrimental reaction to failure. Hathaway recalls that, after McCandless failed to live up to his expectations in a cross country competition, “he wouldn’t want to talk about it. If I tried to console him he’d act annoyed and brush me off” (Krakauer 112). One can mistakenly view this flaw as the reason he is a dumb jerk, but the truth of the matter is that this is exactly what makes him heroic.
No matter how cynically-minded one views McCandless, it can also be stated, unquestioningly, that he pushed himself to his limits. During 1992, his final year of life, “he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice” (Krakauer 182).   This immense feat of literally living off the land proves that, “[McCandless] was not just the common wayfarer” as noted by his close companion, Ronald Franz (Krakauer 48). Even at a young age,...