Chris Mccandless And Henry David Thoreau

Both Henry David Thoreau and Christopher McCandless ventured out into the woods to get away from the dreariness of everyday society and to find themselves. Only one lived to tell the tale. What was the fatal flaw of the man who didn’t continue on? The only way to find this is to analyze the differences and similarities between the two. McCandless, while embracing some of the same values as Thoreau, was ultimately a different man. While they led very contrasting lives in very distant times, both McCandless and Thoreau sought a type of freedom that can only be achieved when immersed in nature. Thoreau’s entitlement and cozy cabin in the woods is a far cry from McCandless’s constant struggle during his expedition, however, certain parallels

Self-reliance is the freedom of being independent. One only relies on oneself and doesn’t look for help or for anyone to save them. One is perfectly content with being solely reliant. Three people who believed greatly in self-reliance were Chris McCandless, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. They had many different beliefs and along with acting out in civil disobedience, acting in nonconformity, thinking nature was most important, and being a transcendentalist, they was also self reliant. McCandless, Emerson, and Thoreau were all people who believed strongly in self-reliance.

Henry David Thoreau was a great American writer, philosopher, and naturalist of the 1800’s who’s writings have influenced many famous leaders in the 20th century, as well as in his own lifetime. Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817, where he was later educated at Harvard University. Thoreau was a transcendentalist writer, which means that he believed that intuition and the individual conscience “transcend” experience and are better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason (Prentice Hall 1174). Thoreau is well known for writing Walden Pond, Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada. In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay

He feels that everything in the universe is only created for him as if no one else is alive. The power of being alone, surrounded by your own thoughts, by your own nature, by your own world is truly an experience that Thoreau will never want to change. Thoreau values the sensation and thrill that solitude can have on one 's mind. Throughout Henry David Thoreau’s life, he preferred to spend his time in solitude. As being in the company of other people are beneficial, the interactions between them soon become dull and uninteresting. With the appeal of human interaction depleting, self-reflection and solitude are to be used for a replacement for conversing with people. This is because as Henry David Thoreau announces, “I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude”(Thoreau 128). Thoreau’s life consists of being alone for the most part of the day. He isn 't in need of friends in order push past the lifeless moments of time. He himself is the only person he needs. Why must everyone require friends when you have yourself to connect with? You are your own best friend. Thoreau knows this and lives his life constantly digging deeper into his own thoughts asking questions and pondering about himself. He is able to truly discover his inner self to the full extent by being succumbed in his own solitude. In allowing himself to be his own companion he has also allowed solitude to become his best

An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.

Thoreau and McCandless are people who are very similar and different at the same time. The thing is people can’t be completely the same even if they tried to. You can’t think the same thoughts at the same time, people are bound to have differences. People are always growing and changing even if it is in the smallest way. This makes it impossible to be exactly the same as other people. Of course the same is true for the other side too. You can’t be a completely different person either. People are also bound to have similarities. We are all humans so that’s a similarity. But do similarities and differences matter? In the end we know that Thoreau and McCandless have many similarities and differences, here are three examples of them; Thoreau and McCandless are both determined and hard-working people, McCandless went to the forest to run away from his family problems while Thoreau went to the forest to live by himself, and they both hate materialism.

Surviving alone in Alaska without the proper gear, and knowledge of the terrain, had proven fatal for many; including McCandless. The native Alaskan Galien told him that he lacked adequate gear and supplies to survive alone in the wilderness. He did not heed the advice of an experienced Alaskan who hunted. This purposeful unpreparedness was a major contributor to his death. Another instance of McCandless’ disrespect for nature is that he was not knowledgeable about the terrain and went, despite being inexperienced in surviving solo with minimal supplies in the frozen tundra of Alaska. During his trip he successfully killed a moose, but wasted most of the meat by not knowing how to properly preserve the meat to last him a longer period of time. If he respected nature it would have been to his benefit to research the conditions in Alaska, to educate himself about the terrain, and to practice survival skills before trying to live as minimally as

Thoreau lived as a minimalist to strip away the distractions of life. He wanted to live in the woods,

Chris McCandless is not a modern day Thoreau in many ways. Chris went out in the wild unprepared and not knowing what he was doing, he didn’t have plan. McCandless never showed a true purpose or reason for his doing, while Thoreau had clear and understandable reasoning. Thoreau was writer who spent his time alone enjoying nature focusing on the pieces he was writing. He also did this as way of protest. McCandless was a smart young man who was trying to run away from his problems with his family at home. He did this by changing his name and running off to Alaska where no one knew who he really was. He wanted a new start.

Transcendentalism, or the belief that there is a direct connection between a man’s individual soul and nature, was a very avant-garde movement throughout its peak; although now, American society continues to grow increasingly distant from it. These ideals are reflected in the works of Henry David Thoreau and Jon Krakauer, as well as the life of Chris McCandless. Throughout Thoreau’s novel Walden he distinctly preaches the belief that in society, men have become more focused on work and material possessions than life’s simple pleasures and freedoms. In the same manner, Krakauer and McCandless both draw inspiration from Thoreau, and ultimately share spiritual experiences throughout their adventures, both seeking to find life’s true purpose. Although many will argue that transcendental ideas and culture are outdated and have no place in today’s humanity, transcendentalism itself, and the ideals possessed by Henry David Thoreau and Chris McCandless have played a major role in American society, in that they appeal to the spiritual side of every man, which accredits to the belief that only life’s bare necessities are required in order to live a fulfilled life. However, it is unfeasible to live a transcendental lifestyle in today’s insatiable, consumerist society.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” – Henry David Thoreau. This sentiment expressed by Thoreau back in the 19th century was echoed 150 years later by Chris McCandless as he starved to death in the remoteness of Alaska. Chris McCandless plunged headfirst and alone into the wilderness of Alaska pursuing this ideal. McCandless’s journey was inspired heavily by Henry David Thoreau, who is a counterculture icon. Despite McCandless’s hubris and recklessness, he remains a transcendentalist hero, worthy of admiration, because of his unrelenting devotion to the transcendental values of honesty with one’s self, originality, and self-sufficiency.

Chris McCandless: a man so infatuated with nature, he practically committed suicide to bring himself nearer to it. This extreme liking for nature, along with other ideals, makes up the core tenets of the transcendentalist philosophy. McCandless demonstrates other tenets of transcendentalism as well, most notably the supremacy of the individual, by detaching himself from the mammon of this world. Another way he shows the supremacy of the individual, by the belief that one should not conform to the usual policies of life, causes him great trouble in some cases. As well as the belief that the individual supersedes all else, McCandless received much of his inspiration from nature. Finally, always following what he believes correct, McCandless

Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau were two men who were willing to give up their entire lives and follow their Transcendentalist ideology. It didn’t matter that they lived in different time periods and had completely different histories, they both would abandon their lives in search of transcendentalist freedom.

Thoreau left society and went into the woods because he wanted to live life to the fullest and learn what life had to teach him, while Chris wanted to leave his problems at home. Thoreau was living in solitude in the woods. He liked living in solitude because he didn’t have to change his way of life to make others happy. He was also able to do his own work and did not have to worry about other people. Thoreau was not lonely in the woods because he was connected to nature like a flower is. He wanted to learn everything that the world had to offer by living with simplicity and focusing on his “needs” instead of his “wants”. We know this because Thoreau said, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” Thoreau went towards solitude and fully

Again in Walden, Thoreau wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately” [1854]. It is quite strange that Thoreau had chosen to live in woods purposely. Perhaps one reason can be that he is a transcendentalist but one must not forget that he had discovered about the Walden Pond when he was deliberately living in the woods. However, another possible explanation can be that woods are not dominated or are controlled by anyone, nature lives freely in world. Therefore, a reader can