Into the Wild Essay Most people go into the wilderness to go camping for a week or less than a week, then leave. Some stay for more than a week. Chris McCandless was in the wild for at least one hundred days. “ I’ve decided to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and the beauty of it is too good to pass up.”(pg.92)
Many people have conflicting thoughts and beliefs about Christopher McCandless’ trek through the Alaskan wilderness. There is, however, one point to be made about his decision. Pleasure without conscience is profoundly the social sin McCandless commits, therefore leading to his eventual “no-contact” with his family. This social sin was the catalyst for his unfortunate demise in Alaska. Although McCandless’ journey was undoubtedly courageous, his decision to depart from all contact with his loved ones, including his sister, Carine McCandless, who he was extremely close with, was considerably uncaring of him.
Like Thoreau, Chris believed that he was too good to follow what the government tells him to do. They both believed that governmental rule is ludicrous and should have no effect on how they choose to live. McCandless showed his view of government on several instances. One act that showed how civilly disobedient Chris was is when he burnt all his money. Destruction of money is, and even was at the time, against the law, yet Chris decided that since he did not need to money, there is no point in keeping it around, therefore he burnt it.
Have you ever met someone that everyone seems to love? This is exactly how Chris McCandless seemed in Into the Wild. Chris seemed to have a very loveable personality even though he did nothing to deserve it. But McCandles was too focused on himself, so he never grew attached to others that were willing to help. I believe that MCandles was selfish, independent, and arrogant.
McCandless’s self-reliance is a big part of identifying him as transcendentalist. In the short story, “Death of an Innocent”, Chris says, “I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.” McCandless feels that life should not be wasted doing what you do not love, and shows this by traveling and living off the land every chance he gets. Transcendentalists take in all of what nature has to give them by becoming one with it; like McCandless does throughout the story.
Despite the seemingly random nature of this, my mother is well informed. My mother loves and cares about the people in her life and will always make sure to check in on her loved ones and ensure she's safe and well. McCandless, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any concern for the people he connects with. He leaves, barely reaches out, and causes people heartache. After finding out that Chris had died, the news eventually got to his family.
In the story “ Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer, I would characterize Christopher Mccandless as a bright and adventurous young man. He wanted to get away from everything and live a life he wanted in Alaska isolated from everyone else. For a boy who lived in Washington D.C. and went to the Emory University and decided to change his way of life shows a lot of courage. His actions make me feel like you can do anything you want in your life or live anywhere you want. For being an educated young man I would think he'd have more common sense than going into the freezing wilderness in Alaska with only ten pounds of rice and a .22 caliber.
McCandless lived in a upperclass neighborhood. He had a privileged life, he never experienced such like most americans. Although McCandless does not care for such thing such as wealth or social class. McCandless’s decision
McCandless believed that his mind was better than a map and that he could trust his instinct. Chris’s confidence told him that his opinion was better than any opinion out there, and that he could live his life without others useless ideas. McCandless was very confident in his idea, like he should be with the grades that he got in college. Emerson writes, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind” (Emerson 4). Opinions are very important because that’s what makes a human different.
“Into The Wild” is a non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer in 1996. The book is an extended article on Krakauer’s take on the case of Chris McCandless, an example of a modern-day transcendentalist. Transcendentalism can be described as a philosophy that draws attention to the idea that people, both men and women equally, have a better comprehension or understanding of the world around them and themselves. In addition, McCandless enjoyed the simplicity and the beauty of nature, for which he was determined to go out into the Alaskan wilderness. As Chris McCandless is taking on his Great Alaskan Adventure, he met all kinds of people along the way, but there were a few he had quality time with and impressed.
McCandless’ self reliance is the cornerstone of his philosophy and contributes to his ultimate demise when he walked into the wild with nothing but his wits and basic supplies. His main influence for this ideal came from Emerson’s aptly named essay Self-Reliance where he writes, “But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, — came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away”. When Mccandless is offered charity in the form of food and clothes he refuses to take them, when he does he does so begrudgingly and in some cases leaves it behind. A similar example of his shame for property he didnt earn was the money he got to go to college.
Was Chris McCandless a true transcendentalist? Transcendentalism is a system developed by Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, McCandless is viewed as a transcendentalist.
Into the Wild: Transcendentalism Into the Wild is a harrowing account of the events surrounding a young individual’s death by Jon Krakauer. A question is presented within this novel about whether this man’s actions make him a transcendentalist or not. Christopher John McCandless is a modern-day transcendentalist in the minds of those who wish they were, but he is only a childish rebel in the minds of those who would think of themselves as, perhaps, realists. The type of people that idolize McCandless are the whimsical naturalists that trick themselves into thinking they are somehow more self-enlightened than those who take a more reasonable and levelheaded approach to life. “McCandless...read like...an above average, somewhat histrionic
Some argue that his rejection of societal norms and materialism was misguided and that his journey was ultimately a selfish and irresponsible act. However, it is important to consider the context of McCandless's journey and the societal pressures that he faces, as well as the larger themes of the book, which challenge the values of modern
The Simplistic Living of Chris McCandless Around the 1830s-1840s, transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson founded an intellectual movement called transcendentalism. Like Emerson, Jon Krakauer writes with detailing transcendentalist keys in his book Into the Wild. In Into the Wild Krakauer shows his similar experiences through the character Chris McCandless. Krakauer uses transcendentalism by detailing the many keys McCandless portraits in the book. These keys are, goodness of humans and respect for other beauty, respect and beauty of nature, the importance of self-expression and self-reliance, non-conformity, and reducing dependence on property.
