What really separates a hero from a fool? A hero could be someone who rushes into a burning house to save a puppy from the fire, but that person could also be considered a fool because they jeopardize their own life to do so. In the book called “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless should be regarded as a hero because he showed drive, kindness, and his willingness to risk everything to follow his one true dream.
Christopher McCandless showed characteristics of a hero such as drive and motivation. Christopher shows such characteristics through his actions of making his dream a reality. McCandless’s whole reason for his actions was how he was sick of reality. He wanted to experience a life without materialistic things like money and possessions. He knew that in order to live a life without responsibility, he had to leave everything behind including his family. In the chapter “The Stampede Trail” a friend of McCandless, Andy Horowitz, said that
…show more content…
He shows plenty of kindness to the people he met along the way and those people returned his kindness throughout the story. In the book, the author describes Christopher, “He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight” (Page 34). This quote fully displays Christopher McCandless’s true colors. He has a good heart and it is shown plenty of times in the story. For example, Chris stumbles across a pair of drifters named Jan Durres and Bob, who teach him all the basics of hiking. Christopher McCandless reminds Jan of her own son, which may be a part of the reason the drifters were so kind to him. But nonetheless, McCandless wouldn’t have made half the amount of friends or gained as much experience as he had if he didn’t outwardly express so much