Katherine Hunsaker
English 8-3
3/7/10
Chris McCandless/Alex Supertramp
Character sketch: What was your first impression of a character?Well, I saw the movie before the book so I kind of knew what kind of guy Chris McCandless was but my impression of him was that he was a young guy, didn’t like his parents, and just wanted to be free from everyone. He wanted to go to Alaska to escape civilization and he knew what he wanted so he followed through with it. He doesn’t remind me of anyone I know because everyone I know is very social and would never leave and hitch hike. But, I think the closest to his characteristics is myself. I can be social but sometimes I just want to get away. Although, I think I like the IDEA of going out on my own and living in the wilderness (because I love camping) a lot better then I would actually like being out there by myself. I do often think how awesome it would be to meet new people along the way and live off the land. When you look at Chris McCandless, you see a sharp guy whose got his head on right. He looks well rounded and clean. But, when you look at Alex Supertramp, you see someone entirely different. His grown out hair and scraggly beard and bad hygiene gives you the impression he doesn’t take care of himself and he’s some homeless creepy guy. He’s very skinny because he had no food. You can tell he’s a mountain guy because of his big hiking pack on his shoulders. When you meet Chris, like before, you see a well rounded, smart young man who is probably getting a good education. But then again, when you see Alex, he still acts as a very intelligent person, but he is a bit mysterious because of his low profile background and the mystery why he’s there? Why he won’t tell his parents where he is? Other characters have thought the same exact thing as I just stated but they also said he was very stubborn and very confident, almost too much. I picked two quotes. The first is for Chris McCandless, after learned his lesson, I think this quote suits him well…”I have lived through much and now I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it don’t to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor—such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps—what more can the heart of a man desire?” He wrote this while stranded on his bus during some of his last days. I would of picked two years he walks the earth. No phone…and so on but I used that quote in my acrostic so I picked the next best two. The two quotes I picked for the unexperienced Alex Supertramp are these: “Lara walked along the tracks following a path worn by pilgrims and then turned into the fields. Here she stopped and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath of the flower-scented air of the broad expanse around her. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of her life. She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name, or, if this were not within her power, to givebirth out of love for life to successors who would do it in her place.” He identified this paragraph while reading this book and wrote nature/purity in the margins. “Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!” this was also one of his favorites and he specifically underlined refuge in nature. This describes his personality.
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