Chris Mccandless Research Paper

Chris McCandless: Spiritual Revolutionary of the Primordial World Chris McCandless, a young, nonconformist man, died in the Alaskan wilderness trying to live off the land there. Some laud McCandless for his transcendentalist behavior and unique, nonconformist beliefs; others call McCandless a reckless fool whose impulsive actions ended up costing his life. Chris McCandless was ultimately a modern day transcendentalist because he believed that nature was purer than society, a common transcendentalist belief. An inscription McCandless engraved in Fairbanks bus 142 indicatesthat he thought of society as poisonous, thus making nature purer than society in McCandless’s mind. In September of 1992, Alaskan hunters found McCandless’s body

AND NOW...THE CLIMACTIC BATTLE TO KILL THE FALSE BEING WITHIN AND VICTORIOUSLY CONCLUDE THE SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION...NO LONGER TO BE POISONED BY CIVILIZATION HE FLEES, AND WALKS ALONE UPON THE LAND TO BECOME LOST IN THE WILD" (Krakauer 163). McCandless talked about his vagabond life on the road for two years. In Alaska, the climax of his journey would occur. For McCandless, this “climactic battle” would “kill the false being within,” or the superficial self that living in society created within him, especially since McCandless believed civilization “poisoned” him, which made him have to escape to nature (“become

McCandless had been “infatuated with London since childhood. London’s fervent condemnation of capitalist society, his glorification of the primordial world...all of it mirrored McCandless’s passions” (Krakauer 44). McCandless agreed with London’s “fervent condemnation of capitalist society,” meaning that McCandless believed in expressing disapproval of society. London also glorified the “primordial world,” meaning McCandless also believed in venerating and respecting nature (the “primordial world,” or the world that existed before the “world” of human civilization). Since London disapproved of society and heaped praise upon nature, McCandless did the same because London’s writings “mirrored McCandless’s passions.” The opposite terms of “condemnation” and “glorification” form an antithesis, juxtaposing disapproval of society with approval of nature to show the stark difference between both London’s and McCandless’s thoughts about the purity of society in contrast to nature. The disapproval of society contrasts with the approval of nature, so if McCandless disapproved of society (by agreeing with London’s “fervent condemnation of capitalist society”), he obviously approved of nature (by agreeing with London’s glorification “of the primordial world”), meaning that he preferred nature over society. McCandless would have evidently chosen nature over