Chris McCandless looked up to Henry David Thoreau’s ideas in his Walden excerpt. John Krakauer went on to make McCandless’ journey a novel of its own. However, Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau’s ideas on how one should live their life didn’t always compare as much as contrast. Thoreau does not like the outdoors as much as Chris does, “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one” (Walden).
Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau are followers of the 19th century philosophy Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the belief that everyone has the wisdom in them to be one with God without having to go through a priest or be in a church. Transcendentalists base this philosophy on self-wisdom, nature, and social reform. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild shows Chris McCandless’ choices and parallels to Henry David Thoreau’s transcendental beliefs from Walden. One transcendental belief that Chris McCandless follows is living deliberately.
The words of many authors, poets, and songwriters can influence certain aspects of a person’s life. One may simply admire the work because of the inspiration or beauty behind the piece, but others take the words to heart and live their lives by it. A fan of many transcendentalism authors Chris McCandless wanted to live his life with the same simplicity they did. After finding the inspiration in the works of Jack London and Henry David Thoreau McCandless ventured out into a two-year-long journey to find happiness in the Alaskan Wilderness. McCandless had the bravery to follow his own dream and was willing to risk his life for true happiness.
In Henry David Thoreau’s essay, “Walking”, he exemplifies a walk in the woods. Thoreau describes his feelings and the surroundings when he walks. He walks further and further into different landscapes. Thoreau argues in his essay that the things that humans have created in this world are all minimal and irrelevant to the world and nature itself. Thoreau argues that all these things that occupy our lives are minimalistic in the eyes of nature.
That Stories Tell us about War What do you think Tim O’Brien want his reader to understand about war? He wants his readers to feel an emotional connection to the place that he describes. One of the main things that he wants his readers to feel is emotion. Or the feeling that you have been there.
John Muir’s essay, The Calypso Borealis, and William Wordsworth’s poem, I wandered Lonely as a Cloud, are two wonderfully written works centered towards their love for nature. They were able to create vivd images in the reader’s head through their writing as well as emotional transitions. Both works, inspired by events in the 19th century, have their differences, however, their emotion and love for nature is the same and creates the same impact with the
The authors main point is that when you are in nature it blocks out any outside influence and allows you to think for yourself. Being alone for Emerson allowed for him to feel different and be at one with his surroundings. Thoreau’s short story, “Civil Disobedience” and Emerson’s short story “Nature” are examples of Transcendentalism because they include intuition, non conformity, spiritual well being, and individualism.
“While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons I trust that nothing can make life a burden to me. The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house today is not drear and melancholy, but good for me too. ”He compares Mother Nature with humans throughout the chapter, saying that mother nature provides thousand wonderful, beautiful, and interesting things, and fellow human beings seem to be interested in only what they can get out of you and who offer little in exchange. Thoreau feels that, rather than being near the greatest number of people, people must live and work in the place most important to their various
Thoreau states, “This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore” (384). In this spot, I sat, absorbing the surroundings of the area, taking in all of the wide landscape into my mind. The wind and sun brighten my mood, and the combination of the two are absorbed spiritually and mentally. I forget of everything that worries me, and I only concentrate on the surroundings. As I looked into the distance, I took in all of what I could see and more.
Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”,
Walden is not only a critique of the past but also a reflection on what happens in the future, since nowadays, we live in an even more capitalist and materialist society than Thoreau did. The society we are living in today only cares about money, profit, goods… and the one who supposedly has the best life is the one that has got everything, from a big house with garden to the newest car. Thoreau is encouraging us readers to be satisfied with the simple things, to value every little detail that nature offers us, and to make the most out of every new day; as he himself perfectly stated in Walden, “Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.” ; only we ourselves can judge how our life has gone by, if we have lived it at its fullest or if we have failed at
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both fond nature to be essential to being a whole person: spiritually and emotionally. Emerson saw nature’s effect on people and their thoughts, whereas Thoreau saw the deliberateness of nature and thought that if people could seize the same decisiveness that they would have more to enjoy in life. Both authors believed that humans needed to enjoy nature to be one with the universal being that is the basis of Transcendentalism. Emerson wrote “When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind.” (Nature 693) Emerson was saying that nature is similar to poetry for the mind, in that it is relaxing and wholesome.
This highlights how unrealistic it is to live the successful self-reliant life that Thoreau was trying to encourage. In addition, despite how romantic Thoreau’s “solitude” sounds, in reality, living life isolated from society is incredibly lonely. When Christopher McCandless tried to incorporate the value of self-reliance into his life by taking an adventure to Alaska alone, he was left feeling incredibly lonely. At the end of his journey, he realized the flaws of this lifestyle. McCandless writes, “happiness only real when shared” (Penn).
Nature is a beautiful component of planet earth which most of us are fortunate to experience; Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about his passion towards the great outdoors in a passage called Nature. Emerson employs metaphors and analogies to portray his emotions towards nature. Emerson begins by writing, “Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers.” , this is a metaphor for how we think; all our knowledge is based on what is recorded in the olden days and a majority of our experiences are vicarious instead of firsthand encounters.
During WWII, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, calls upon Britain to not give up hope during a time of defeat, to turn the tables on Germany, to take the fight to them and to win. The purpose of Churchill’s speech, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”, is to revive the spirits of the citizens and soldiers who have relinquished their hope . He adopts an inspiring, patriotic tone in order to convey that the British cannot be easily conquered. Churchill opens his speech by establishing that no matter the circumstances, Britain will rise out of the ashes to protect its citizens and land. He appeals to the emotions of the beaten down audience by acting as their friend rather than an authoritative position.
