Chris Mccandless Misunderstood Essay

In history, there tends to be a trend among many great leaders. Any successful leader who has accomplished great things has also experienced being misunderstood. Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated, “-Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood” (Emerson). Although powerful leaders have been misunderstood for thousands of years throughout history, Chris McCandless endured being misunderstood in all aspects of his life. Not only was McCandless misunderstood during his life, but he continues to be misconstrued years after his death. Even though his parents, peers, and readers of his journey all misunderstood his beliefs and values, Christopher McCandless still followed his …show more content…
When Chris acquired a job at a McDonald’s while staying in Bullhead city, most of his coworkers thought he was a deranged homeless man. One of the assistant managers while Chris started working there stated, “I don’t think he ever hung out with any of the employees after work or anything. We he talked, he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws” (Krakauer 40). This is one of many encounters in Chris’s life where he was assumed as uneducated and unsuccessful. He was misinterpreted because of the way he looked or the clothes he wore. Strangers often thought of Chris as a hobo or a homeless man rather than a highly perspicacious and educated man out seeking adventure. Before his death, many of the individuals he encountered thought of him as someone who honestly didn’t care about life. Only a few people got to know Chris and truly understood his reasoning on why he packed up, moved away, donated all of his money, and set out for all of these many