Mccandless And Transcendentalism

Christopher McCandless also appreciated Henry David Thoreau, Chris followed many of his ideas in his own lifestyle. He placed it in his own life and tried to live without all materialistic necessities, such as his car and all his money. Chris took his lifestyle

Moreover, both McCandless and Thoreau sought solitude because they preferred it, but McCandless also wanted to prove he could survive alone. The first reason

I believe the overall message of Henry David Thoreau´s “Solitude” is to differentiate solitude and loneliness which are totally different. It is more of a state of mind than something real. People around by other people would feel more loneliness than people who are physically alone. For Thoreau being in solitude is the best way to discover your mind and spirituality and is the best way to know yourself.

“Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works” (Roderick Nash). Chris McCandless, a modern transcendentalist, sent out on an adventure to find his true self in the wilderness of the North American continent. In the two years he was away, he met many individuals he called his friends and explored the extent of the American West. However, Chris was found dead in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail in the deep wilderness of Alaska in early September 1992. Chris believed he could live his life without the disruption of others. Henry David Thoreau believed that individuals can strive for themselves without government interruption. Chris McCandless, in Jon Krakauer’s documentary Into the Wild, believes that living off the land and life to its fullest without help from others compares to Henry David Thoreau’s beliefs in his writing “Civil Disobedience.”

What does it take for someone to be considered a transcendentalist? Can someone be a transcendentalist if they do not mean to be one? In the life of Chris McCandless, many transcendental aspects are exhibited, such as nonconformity and self-reliance, but experts and readers are left wondering whether or not to consider him a transcendentalist. McCandless exhibits these traits willingly, which leads most readers to call him a transcendentalist. Chris McCandless is a transcendentalist because he knowingly follows the transcendental tenets and is heavily influenced by the works of the transcendentalists before him. Examples of the tenets that he follows are nonconformity, love and treasury of nature, self-reliance and free thought.

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.

Many people in this world think that they know a lot about this world because of their wealth and power. One can learn and read about other people’s experiences but can never actually grasp on to their emotions and purpose. People tend to follow our parent’s and peer’s path since their influence is so big on them. But very few courageous people like Chris McCandless, a transcendentalist, criticizes this general norm and steps out of it. In fact, many of us are scared to step out of the determined path because of the pressure society puts on us to be successful as a human being. If someone was to step out of their path, most of the people will look down and criticize their perspective of the world. Humans are stuck in this fast paced world that they forget to think freely and do what they actually want to do. They are stuck with authority that always require you to portray the world in their way. This is the reason why people like Chris McCandless, a transcendentalist, condemns society and departs it. Transcendentalism is a philosophy where it promotes intuitive reasoning rather than scientific reasoning of the world. Since we are so conformed in this fast paced world, many people should wish to live by this philosophy because it disregards money and promotes self reliance.

Many times in my life, I have wanted to be alone: whether it be in my bedroom, relaxing in my backyard, or watching Netflix. During this personal time, I can decompress following a rough or stressful day. At times, I envy people like the Transcendentalists who always strive to be alone with their own thoughts. The more they focus on their own opinions the more they believe in them. Moreover, Ralph Waldo Emerson states “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me” (Emerson). A true Transcendentalists does not hide away with literature or Netflix, instead, they have no outside forces influencing their true thoughts. Contradicting ideas, in

Sometimes in life you got have to do what your mind tells you, and follow whatever makes you happy, walk on the path that you want to be on. Chris McCandless is an interesting guy throughout this movie He starts out as a normal guy, he is a college graduate and was confidante he would get into harvard. In one of the very first scenes, Chris went out to a celebratory dinner with his family. When his parents brought up buying him a new car, nevertheless Chris’s was a junkie. At the moment of them saying this, almost seemed as it sparked or flipped a switch in Chris's brain. He did not want anything from them, Chris turned even more to a transcendentalist than before. Chris almost seems too crazy, even though he was not. Chris basically said he did not want anything from anybody. Which leads me to my point. Most will say that Chris did not follow the transcendentalists, but in other beliefs most do think he did because of his acts of being solo and alone.

Through the reading of the works of Transcendentalist writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, one can draw multiple connections between their writing and Jon Krakauer’s story of Chris McCandless. Thoreau’s work seems to share many more themes with Krakauer’s story. Immediately, Thoreau comes off with a strong statement of “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,” (Thoreau par. 16). This immediate talk of wanting to live with the essentials and with purpose creates a clear trail back to Krakauer’s story through McCandless’ expression of this same mindset. Another theme of Thoreau’s writing is one of a desire for simplifying yourself and your life. The little things in

Henry David Thoreau was someone people liked to talked about. He was known for leaving society for two years and two months to live alone in Walden Park. With a thick beard and a prominent nose, you could pick him out of a crowd of one-hundred. Chris McCandless on the other hand, lead the end of his life adventuring out West and in Alaska on limited resources. He too could be spotted anywhere. McCandless had a scraggly beard, was short, and wiry. These two real-life men, had their similarities and differences when it came to looks and actions. But the important similarities and comparisons are found in their time alone in the woods. Thoreau and McCandless loved the wilderness for different reasons both preferred to be alone but had

Thoreau went into the woods to live life in its simplest form, where McCandless went into the woods to explore himself. He decided to live in the woods so he could live deliberately. He desired to learn what life had to teach him and face only the essential facts of life without any other distractions. Going into

The intellectual path carved by the scholars of Europe and Colonial America grabbed many into its traditions and customs, often evading the idea of non-conformist individual thought, while sometimes acknowledging individual freedom. These customs maintained an unchallenged presence until the idea individual freedom was pursued in depth by American intellectuals like Emerson and Thoreau. These philosophers expanded the concept of the individual into nature, society, religion and independent thought. Their ideas have influenced the societies of the new world creating a foundation for many individuals to experience their teaching ideas in themselves. Chris McCandless deduction on society in addition to his concept of nature, while flawed, initiates a journey which engages Chris to experience the wild in its most primitive form. This withdrawal from society presents reflections to Henry David Thoreau’s writing Where I Lived and What I Lived For, allowing for the viewer to observe a fairly accurate representation of an individual following those core principles mentioned in Thoreau’s writing.

In April 1992, a young man named Chris McCandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp, stepped into the Alaskan bush on a journey to escape the materialistic society he came from and to pursue a life of adventure. Over a century earlier in 1845, another young man, Henry David Thoreau, built himself a small cabin in the wilderness with similar intentions. Both their adventures were recorded in Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, and Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, respectively. Although they had some similar beliefs, their mindsets were often different; both disregarded advice of others, though for different reasons, neither connected solitude to loneliness, and both men had different reasons for choosing materialistic free lifestyles.

As a background, Thoreau had lived alone in the woods by Walden Pond for two years and two months, in Concord, Massachusetts. A lot of people had asked him how his daily life was when he was there, and this book, Walden, is an attempt to answer that question. In his writing, he uses the first person view which he states that he knows his self best and aims to give a what he call a “simple and sincere account of his own life.” When Thoreau removed himself from society and chose solitude at Walden Pond and wrote this book is a proof of which he can communicate his ideas well to the readers.