Zander was a lot calmer when he was younger, and many of those traits still show through, especially when he's around close family and friends. He cares about people that are close to him, even if he often tries to hide it behind a bluff of being a 'badass'. He's especially good around children, considering he practically had to raise his three younger siblings by himself. He loves kids, and although he doesn't think too much about the future, he feels that one day he'll want to have kids of his own. He can be very caring with his actions as well, with strong empathy for others, even those that he doesn't know personally or very well. He does his best to care for them in any way he can, even if it's something he's never done before in his life. He's not afraid to try new things, especially when it comes to doing something for someone he's close to.

However, those are sides of Zander that most people never get to see. He became very rebellious in his teenager years, and having only his mother around to teach him right from wrong made him grow up to be a very crass person. He constantly lies and tells fake brags about things he's never done, all so that he can fit in with the popular crowd. He often gets himself into trouble that he can't backpedal out of because of this, and he never learns his lesson. He's like a chihuahua — more bark than he is bite — and he tends to pick fights with people that are twice his size, even though he doesn't have the physical power to back it up. He often gets into fights because of his abrasive way of addressing others, and he tends to go home with injuries that he does his best to hide from his family. He doesn't want them to have to worry about him, even if he does feel a small amount of resentment towards his mother for her carefree attitude.

Zander wasn't raised in a polite household, so he has a very foul vocabulary. He constantly is swearing and speaking as though he were raised outside of the walls, as a drifter. He's not afraid to get lippy towards others that piss him off, which is another thing that often gets him into trouble. He isn't afraid to speak his mind, even if he's wrong or knows it'll get him into trouble. For whatever reason, he has trouble with filtering himself or exercising self-restraint, and can't help but constantly put his foot in his mouth. He never learns his lesson either, and is just as willing to insult someone a second time, even if they beat him up the first time around. He is extremely impulsive and reckless in the things he does, with little self-control. He does things that he thinks is a good idea at the time, even if it comes back to bite him in the ass in the end.

In many ways he's still very naive about the world, having grown up in the slums without much experience about the outside world. He believes everyone lives like them — and therefore, they're not 'poor', but rather simply 'living'. Zander has heard the tales about the world outside the walls, but the Infected still seem very much a bedtime story for him than a reality. Yet even with this naivety — this belief that there isn't much more to life than the things he knows — he's started to tread down a much darker path, aligning himself with one of the gangs for the sole fact of being able to earn more money. His emotions and reckless behavior have only doubled since then, confidence in himself built upon the behaviour of other gang members. Only time will tell when he'll get in trouble for good, and this time not be able to get back on his feet.