Krakauer’s book portrayed him as an idealist, but I don’t think he was a leftist. The commie Sean Penn made him seem that way, but from what I remember of the book, McCandless gave his college money to Oxfam and then set off to find himself, not unlike many young men his age.
Agreed.
Like you, I actually read the book, and I never got the impression that he was a leftist or a commie or anything of the sort. Actually he was non-political - his motivation was to completely separate from his parents (the father in particular) and prove his independece. If you read the book or google "Chris McCandless father" you will see what kind of abusive and bizarre situation he and his sister grew up in.
The book was rather inspiring to me in the sense that this kid was totally self sufficient and independent. He saved something like ten grand by the time he was 19 or so, but donated it all to charity, started from zero, went on the road and lived on the cheap working odd jobs and living on rice and beans to prove himself as a completely independent individual...really an ideal conservative libertarian in a sense; almost like a character in an Ayn Rand book. He never went on welfare, that would have been against what he was trying to prove. Very few people have the guts to throw away all security and start over with no safety net to prove to themselves that they have what it takes.
The comments here disappoint me in how uninformed they are, but some of that may be because people are basing their opinions on Sean Penn's movie - the book was much better.