Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian Minister that left his home to find an entirely new meaning to life, which is exactly what Chris McCandless did as well. Emerson’s belief was that everyone should do what they consider is correct, and not listen to others opinions but their own. In the biography Into the Wild, McCandless demonstrates qualities that convey transcendentalism. He left his entire life behind to go into the wilderness and find a more valuable meaning of life that didn’t involve any materialistic items. Furthermore he wanted to travel on his own without the help of other people, which demonstrates that he relied on only himself to accomplish the dangers of the wild. Ralph Waldo Emerson would agree that Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist

This is a sign of Transcendentalism that Emerson could agree with because that's what he thought everyone should follow to be considered their own person. In his essay he writes, “Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your own contemporaries the connection of events.”(line 8). Emerson believes that you should follow the present and not look back, because if you trust yourself, you can accomplish what you set out to do. For instance in chapter six when McCandless writes a letter to Ron he tells him what can damage an “adventurous spirit”. He writes “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun”(Into the Wild,57). The quote illustrates that McCandless lived his life by doing everything impulsively each day, without putting any thought of it beforehand. Emerson would agree that McCandless was a transcendentalist because of his carefree lifestyle of living life day by day, which mirrors that of

He was considered an idealist because he didn’t put judgment on people based on their appearance and status, he did it based on his personal values. In the author’s note Krakauer also believed McCandless was an “intense young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence”. After getting your degree in college, and your parents buying you a new car you don’t think to just throw it all away to go live in the wild on your own, but that’s exactly what Chris did. Items that would seem extremely important to everyone one else in society didn’t matter to Chris considering it wasn’t a necessity for him. In addition in the author’s note it shows what began his journey to Alaska, “he had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself”. This is proof that he was a transcendentalist because he didn’t care about money or other items, he believed he could survive in the wild on his own. In Emerson’s essay Nature, he says in order to be a full transcendentalist everyone must live their life in nature to experience the true meaning of happiness. Emerson would agree that McCandless was a transcendentalist like himself because he had the same beliefs involving materialistic items, and had lifestyles that nonconformist would