Chris Mcandless aka Alexander Supertramp had a passion for adventure. He set out right after graduating from college on the open road to view what the real America was like first hand. He was very reckless in his attempt living with no money, food or shelter but he didn't have a care in the world he was exploring the world and he like it that way. I’m sure people would say carefree exploration wasn't passion it was carelessness the same carelessness that got him killed in the first place, but I’d argue that you can’t tell one person what he can or cannot be passionate about. That is up to the individual. Eleanor Roosevelt said “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Just as I feel my passion is to help people Chris’s was to explore and live and love every minute of it. It may have been the best decision in the long run but it was his and he was committed to it that’s saying something.

We had a class discussion about the privileged individual and passion. Chris came from a family of privilege but he didn't let that affect him. From the time he was little he would find ways to work hard and earn his keep. Many children who are born to privilege think life should be handed to them but in Chris’s case it was the opposite. If anything Billie and Walt taught him that stuck it was hard work and the value of hard work. Chris prided himself on that and was very passionate about his abilities to work hard and anything that came his way no matter the task. This stereotype of passion and privilege doesn't always connect just as all people who face poverty may or may not have a passion for anything. Life, our circumstances and surroundings shapes and molds are passion not the amount of money we have or where we live etc.


Chris was a smart kid. He went to prestige’s schools and did well. Never the less this wasn’t the driving force of his passion. Once he discovered the truth about his parents his real passion was to escape the oppression he felt he was under. He still obeyed what they told him to do until he was done with college but after that he felt he was free to live his life the way he wanted. I think Chris being a smart educated kid made him confident he could conquer his conquest. This may have made him seem arrogant to some but to me his education helped fuel his passion. He almost made it out when he found what he was looking for in the wild and I think on the day he went to cross the river if the tide hadn't been so high or he would have found another way around he would be alive to tell his own story. Passion drives us all to many different outcomes in life and I thing that were the book and the passion project etc intersect.