Getting to know Chris McCandless though Direct and Indirect Characterization

Direct Characterization is the writer makes direct statements about a character's personality and tells what the character is like.
Indirect Characterizaton is the writer reveals information about a character and his personality through that character's thoughts, words, and actions, along with how other characters respond to that character, including what they think and say about him.

Direct Characterization

1. Five feet seven or eight, with a wiry build. (Page 4)
2. Claimed to be 24 years old and from South Dakota. (page 4)
3. Gallien was a union electrition. (Page 4)
4. Ken Thompson was an owner of an Anchorage auto-body shop. (Page 11)

5. Gordon Samel, Kens employee, was a construction worker. (Page 11)
6. The river was 75 fet across and real swift. (Page 11)
7. My rig is jacked up 82 Dodge four by four with 38 inch rubber on it. (Page 11)
8. Gordon has an 8 thousand pound winch on the front of his rig. (Page 11)
9. Samuel, a man of strong opinions. (Page 13)
10. Killian, a coal miner who moonlights as an emergency medical technician for the Healy Volunteer Fire Deparment. (Page 13)









Indirect Characterization
1. The remains were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died, but the coroner could find no sign of massive internal injuries or broken bones. (Page 13)
2. No subcutaneous fat remained on his body, and his muscles withered. (Page 14)
3. McCandless's signature had been penned at the bottom of the SOS note. (Page 14)
4. He wasnt carrying any identification. (Page 14)
5. It's been 2 months since the body of Chris turned up in Alaska. (Page 15)
6. He used to tell a lot of stories. (Page 16)
7. He could talk for hours. (Page 16)
8. He used to sit at the end of the bar. (Page 16)
9. A lot of folks used ot be attached to Alex. (Page 16)
10. He was smallish with the hard, stringy physique of an itinerant laborer. (Page 16)



Chris seemed like he was social and likeable person by all the people in town. When he left all the people in the area missed him and his stories. He was a hardworker and did what they asked him to do.