Into The Wild : Connecting The Film

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that revolved around the works and ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The transcendentalist wrote about his discoveries while studying philosophy, religion and literature. In Emerson’s collection of essays, Nature, he stresses the concept of finding one’s own personal understanding of the universe. In another one of Emerson’s works he presents the over-soul-- which goes into deeper detail of the unity of God, man and nature. Chris McCandless, the protagonist of the novel Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of a young male who elects to leave his upper-middle class life and travel the United States . Chris McCandless was heavily influenced by Emerson and became a living example of Emerson’s works.

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement that has major themes of nature and spirituality while going against society and materialistic things. Christopher McCandless is a Transcendentalist in every sense of the word. The young adventurer, who is the main character in Jon Krakauer's nonfiction text Into the Wild, travels throughout North America, following three main Transcendentalist ideals: the disconnection of society, a minimalist lifestyle, and a reverence for both God and nature.

The book “Where the Wild Things Are” was written about Maurice Sendak’s life. He based the book of living in Brooklyn with his hard-working father and emotionally unbalanced mother. Spike Jonze loved the book and wanted to create a movie that applies to more than just children. When watching and reading the book, and movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”, there are many differences and similarities that stood out.

This need for transcendentality is real and strong, especially in the two novels The Call of the Wild, by Jack London and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Transcendentalism is the belief that thought and spiritual experience is more important than everyday experiences and material belongings. The main character in the call of the wild is buck, a dog forced into trancendality as he was kidnapped and handed a brutal northern life. The main character in Into the wild is Chris McCandless, a young man who chooses the call of nature over modern society, also demonstrating transcendentalism. The protagonists, Chris McCandless and Buck, exhibit their transcendentality in conflicting yet converging ways including the specific occurrences which

Thoreau once said “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves” following this Chris Mccandless adventures off into the wild on a journey to discover himself without being surrounded by a materialistic society or his family. Sean Penn delicately crafted cinematography in the film into the wild makes use of …. to show the challenges of family relationships, the power of words and self discovery. This is shown through the use of many different filming techniques to emphasise a certain theme.

Transcendentalism by definition means to live a rational life with nature and becoming one entity that rules over itself. That seems difficult though because living in this day an age without having to worry about anything or about anyone else is like asking for forever lasting gum. In the book Into The Wild, Chris McCandless tries to do just that and succeeds. While on his journey to Alaska, Chris becomes the embodiment of transcendentalism. He embraces multiply of the qualities of transcendentalism but there were three that were the most prominent throughout the story. He believed in living closer to nature, relied on self trust and self reliance, and also he insists on breaking from traditions like government or paying taxes like most

However, the dark side of this perspective is we do not follow our true beliefs. Transcendentalism certainly does not mean getting out of control and live freely under your will (The Positives and Negatives of Transcendentalism). Transcendentalism certainly means to live to adapt to the surroundings based on what suits the situation well, but still have an appreciation towards natural surroundings. By one appreciating their own instincts and beliefs, they can certainly pioneer a new pathway that could be harder to pass through, but can bring one more joy and happiness after. The movie “Into the Wild” explicitly portrays the main character - Chris McCandless - who was highly educated and was interested in transcendentalism, connects with the nature and with him living under hard circumstances, he learns that fully adapting himself into the nature is very hard as he does not have any knowledge about the setting around him. After Chris living in the nature for a certain time, he learns to celebrate his natural surroundings. However, as he was not prepared to fully commit himself into the world of nature, he reaches death by eating the

What is transcendentalism? How is Christopher J. McCandless a transcendentalist? Transcendentalism is a philosophy, and a way of life. It consists of being a non-conformist, becoming one with nature, and rejecting materialism. Throughout Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into The Wild, McCandless happens to achieve all of the above. “Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist” (Emerson). He defied society, lived in the wild, and never cared about “things”. He existed off the land in Alaska, the west coast, and even Mexico. McCandless did not want anything else in life but happiness; he found this in the wilderness.

Chris McCandless left all that he had back home to go on this long transcendental trip to the Alaskan wilds that he thought he would find out who he is. He left behind family, friends, college, burned his money, and his life. When he left he did so without saying anything to his family and changes his name so he can truly start over. During his trip he has had many hardships and points where he should have died, but he kept going on in the end to reach his end goal of reaching Alaska and a goal he managed to complete, but it would not last long as in August of 1992 Chris died from starvation, but one question arose from his story. Was he truly transcendental? Some believe he was and other do not, it is sometimes up to opinion to decide whether he was or not, but you must first must understand what transcendentalism is before you can decide whether or not Chris McCandless was a transcendental person or not. The key things to know about transcendentalism is its core beliefs, those who “found” transcendentalism and their differences, and how these beliefs from these founders differed from what McCandless did during his transcendental trip. So, did Chris McCandless leave everything behind to become transcendental and die as a transcendentalist or was he a fool that left home because he was a rebellious person who ended up dying alone in a bus in the middle of the Alaskan wilds?

Transcendentalism is a religious, philosophical, literary, and social movement of the nineteenth century. Essentially, this movement was based upon the ideals of the “sixth sense,” nature, and non-conformity, as well as individualism, intuition, idealism, imagination, and inspiration. A few of the works featured in the transcendental unit include Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, and Walden by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The primary focus of this essay is to provide an opinion on a strikingly debatable topic; Whether or not Christopher McCandless, hero of Krakauer’s Into the Wild, was a true transcendentalist. Despite the bold actions of Chris McCandless on his daring Alaskan odyssey, he turned out to be far from a true transcendentalist, failing to meet the definition of transcendentalism, being solely concerned with himself, and acting out of revenge rather than seeking self discovery - nothing more than a childish suicidal rebel.

The novel Into the Wild is a nonfiction novel published by Jon Krakauer who investigated the life and death of a free spirited individual named Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a recent Emory University graduate who sought to suck the marrow out of life through an independent experience in nature and purposely sought to this experience in the rawest form of supplies. He was found dead in August of 1992 in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. For the sake of his journey, he purposely didn't bring an adequate amount of food or supplies.   Consequently, those who read of his actions wonder what evoked him to live the way he

The famous philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” The world is full of people who are conformists as well as people who stand for themselves and follow their own values. Emerson explains that by being yourself you are already part of something great. However, the question still lingers: Which is the real cause of genuine happiness? There have been many claims argued by various sources, such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sherry Turkle’s TED Talk titled “Connected, but alone?”. All have come to a consensus

The next morning he ate some of the leftover berries thinking what he was gonna do. He thought about how his parents would be if there together trying to look for him. We know that he was a very brave 13 year old because he managed to pass the night in the forest.

The main character of the story is a half Saint Bernard, half sheepdog named Buck. The story begins with Buck on his owner’s property. He is kidnapped from the Judge and sold to dog traders. He is then beaten into obeying the traders. He is then shipped up north and bought by Francois and Perrault. These two are mail carriers for the Canadian government and use him as a sled dog. During his time as a sled dog he discovers how to survive in the wild again. But during his time as a sled dog, he comes to have a fierce rivalry and great dislike for the lead dog, Spitz. Eventually this leads to conflict in which Spitz is killed, and Buck takes over. They make record time with Buck in command but handed over to another mail carrier who eventually

It was a typical morning, calm, peaceful, birds chirping, a beautiful sky and the forest next to my house was overflowing with life. It was my usual day, I was walking through the forest to my job at the lumber yard, I usually don't like to work hard, but I needed a job and at my small town the lumberyard was one of the only jobs that were hiring. I was listening on my iPod to some music then I heard something peculiar, to me it sounded like a pair of footsteps and some leaves rustling on the trail to the forest, but I wasn’t sure if it was part of the music, but I called out anyways.