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Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

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Oscar Wilde once said, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Wilde’s quote is describing, in whole, the laborious idea of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a simple way of living life that promotes reducing the dependence on property, self expression, and the goodness of human and respect for other beauty. Starring in the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless shows many examples of transcendentalism through his simple lifestyle. Chris McCandless was a hitchhiker who enjoyed living on the road. He loved watching nature, exploring, and living in peace away from society and the government. On page thirty six of Into the Wild, Krakauer, the author, stated that McCandless burned all of his money. He had …show more content…

Westerburg was worried about McCandless. The trip would be long and cold, and McCandless would hitchhike the whole way. Westerberg eventually offered to buy McCandless a plane ticket to Fairbanks, but he would not take it. McCandless said that taking a plane would be “cheating”. McCandless had a challenge and a goal for himself, and he was going to do whatever it took to achieve it. He wanted to accomplish it alone, without the help of others. By not accepting Westerberg's offer, McCandless was reducing his dependence on property. He had the chance to ride a plane to Alaska, which would greatly shorten his journey North, but he did not take it. His actions relate to the essay “Walden”, also written by Henry David Thoreau. In “Walden”, Thoreau speaks of his life on Walden Pond. On page 410, he states, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” When Thoreau made the decision to explore the woods by Walden Pond, he was reducing his dependence on property, just as

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In Into The wild, Krakauer narrates the last couple of journeys Mccandless had on his adventure to Alaska where he ultimately died. Mccandless Touched many people's lives through all of his journeys. Mccandless went on these journeys because he was confused in life when he figured out his dad had cheated on his mom. This changed Mccandless to the point he began to hate his parents. Mccandless had a lot of confidence in himself so he left on an adventure to find his identity.

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802 Words | 4 Pages

Critics argue that McCandless is rather unprepared nor does he have the necessary survival skills to survive in the hypothermic winter in the Stampede Trail. McCandless’s unpreparedness leads him to “overestimate [himself], underestimate the country, and [end] up in trouble” (71) Upon McCandless’s return to the Carthage grain mill, he tells Westerberg “he [plans] on staying until April 15th, just long enough to put together a grubstake” (62). Westerberg undoubtedly did not agree with McCandless’s stubborn determination of his vagabond voyage and says, “there [are] gaps in his thinking” (63). In mid-April, Westerberg is shorthanded on employees and makes a final attempt to post pone McCandless’s departure by offering to fly him out to Fairbanks, but “Once [McCandless] made up his mind about something, there was no way of changing it” (67). Despite Westerberg’s endeavour, he could not compel McCandless to stay as he has an extremely headstrong nature and iron-willed stoutheartedness.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story, “Death of an Innocent” by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless travels into the Alaskan wilderness with the intention of relying completely on himself. In the true spirit of transcendentalism, McCandless travels to escape the bounds of society and to remove himself from a materialistic world. Many argue, however, that Chris McCandless was not a transcendentalist because he travels to exotic lands as a means of avoidance, but actually, Chris McCandless is the epitome of a transcendentalist. Transcendentalists, however, rely on themselves and nature to survive and do not depend on material items. Transcendentalists romanticize individualism and believe that intuition is the best guide through life.

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Essay that most relates to this idea is Henry David Thoreau's “Walden”. All of the ideas McCandless exhibited during his Alaskan adventure seem to be based on the essay. Since he highlighted passages from “Walden”, that probably means he learned these ideas from it, or he really enjoys the essay because he related to it when he first read

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854 Words | 4 Pages

Confused about where they stand in modern society. For christopher johnson mccandless, it was all of these reasons, and maybe more. The question is however, is why. Why did mccandless leave his well-to -do family to hitchhike to alaska to simply “live off the land”? Why did he want to invent a new life for himself when he had more than was necessary?

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243 Words | 1 Pages

Transcendentalism is the idea of striving to live a life of independence, simplicity, and coherence with nature. An element of transcendentalism is having the euphoria of one life over society. A modern example of a song that supports transcendentalism is “Try” by Colbie Caillat. Transcendentalism is when someone does not meet society’s expectations and they are their own individuals. This song relates to transcendentalism because the singer, Colbie Caillat is singing about how women do not have to change so much to meet society standards of beauty.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

“Into the Wild”, by Jon Krakauer explains the story Chris McCandless’ life in the wild. McCandless leaves everything even his family to set off on adventure to Alaska so he can live of the land. On his adventure to Alaska he meet a lot of new people that help him with reaching his goal of Alaska. Chris eventually reached Alaska where he was living off the land for sometime, but unfortunately die by an accident he had. McCandless was a very intellectual and well-rounded person he left an emotional impact on people he meet on his journey to Alaska.

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“We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because it is unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature” -Henry David Thoreau, Walden. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, a biographical account of Chris McCandless’s life, after graduating from college, 22-year-old McCandless decides to cut all ties from his family and hitchhike across America and live as simply as possible.

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.

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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.

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It is based entirely on opinion that whether McCandless in any way represents what is wrong or right about American character and as an American and growing up in America I am undoubtedly biased. Overall I believe his characteristics of being a hard-worker, optimism, friendliness, frankness, stubbornness, riskiness, and individuality are good, but the abandonment of his family and stubbornness to the extreme are bad. Because McCandless was American this journey and death became a representation of American culture however it wasn’t American values that McCandless felt the drive to do his Alaskan Odyssey but rather arguably it was human nature. There are people of different countries who journey into the wilderness alone recklessly or solo climb mountains without any gear, but we only take McCandless and use him to represent American

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858 Words | 4 Pages

What I did not know before I started researching transcendentalism is the connection between the individual and nature. There are over 100 different types of species of roses. Normally you would categorize a rose as a flower; which is scientifically true. But looking through the eyes of a transcendentalist they see the rose as an individual; not focusing on the roses as a group but as one. Each rose symbolizes something unique and different.

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Henry David Thoreau is one of the primary promoters of the transcendentalist movement and has been inspiring people to take on the transcendentalist lifestyle ever since the mid 1800’s. Mccandless was an admirer of Henry’s philosophy but he wasn’t as fully immersed in his work and ideals as Thoreau was to his own. His intentions were not as closely aligned to the movement as Thoreau’s and the difference between these icons are clearly visible. Self reliance is one of the most significant components of the transcendentalism movement that Henry David Thoreau contributed to in his literary career. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”).

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558 Words | 3 Pages

Informative Essay Transcendentalism, first introduced by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is an importance piece of American literature. The five different forms includes, nonconformity, self reliance, free thought, confidence, and importance of nature. The forms of transcendentalism has shaped society and pop culture today in many different ways. Throughout pop culture, importance of nature portrays in all different kinds of movies. The importance of nature significantly affects humans because without it, we’re nothing.

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Transcendentalism is the belief that man is inherently good, is an independent thinker, and goes out into nature to get in touch with himself. Generally, man has good intentions and intends no harm unto others. In addition, man does not need society to give him and develop his thoughts, as he already has them within. To help bring out these already installed beliefs, man has the desire to go out into nature to get in touch with himself and find deeper notions within. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings “Self Reliance” and “American Scholar”, he writes about how being a true individual means that one must have his own beliefs, and not copy someone else’s ideas.

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