What was Chris' connection with the homeless as a teenaged high school students?

McCandless’s passion for helping others and his distaste for materialistic society also show themselves very early. It is especially noteworthy that he doesn’t just try to help people from a safe distance, but he actually drives into dangerous neighborhoods to talk to the homeless people, the prostitutes and drug addicts, to try to find ways to help them. For someone raised in the suburbs, this is especially unusual, and it shows how even at a very young age, he was not afraid of very much, and he was willing to venture far outside of his comfort zone—certainly a unique character.