Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

Jacob Tavarez

Mrs. Lamorgese

English II Honors

March 9, 2023

The Fallacy of Chris Mccandless

Some people make decisions for themselves, not considering the consequences it will have on themselves and the ones around them. In the film Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn, a young man named Chris McCandless runs away from his home, along with the expectations of his parents, to live his life the way he wants to, by traveling to Alaska. In doing so he leaves behind people who care and depend on him. Many ideas of Transcendentalism are seen mainly through Chris, as he feels society is a poison that must be escaped, and he believes that some laws may be broken if they are unjust. These views are similar to the ones seen in “Civil Disobedience” and

Throughout the movie, monologues are given from Carine, Chris’s sister, documenting the time Chris has been gone and the effect it has had on her and the family. These voiceovers are incredibly important as they give the viewer a look into Carine and her parents' minds. From these, one can infer that Carine understands why Chris is doing what he is doing, but it doesn't stop her from feeling depressed about it. In fact, one almost sees Carine become more upset as the movie goes on. She doesn't seem to understand why Chris wouldn’t send letters or make a call back home when the truth of the matter is that contacting his family was a thought that rarely crossed his mind. Chris was solely focused on making it to Alaska, caring about the relationships he made, but not being unable to throw them away. We see this again in the character of Tracy. Chris almost goes out of his way to make a personal connection with Tracy, just before leaving again. A consequence of Chris’s hyperfocus on his wants and goals is that he misses the good that is around him, which is finally seen in the character of Ron Franz. Both Franz and Chris learned a lot from each other throughout the time they spent together. Chris learned leatherworking and some of the man's philosophies, while Franz adopted more of a Transcendentalist mindset. This can be seen in a quote from Franz saying “...but

Chris took a very uncivilized approach to his escape from reality. While he did donate a large sum of his savings to charity, he also crashes a car in the desert, abandons it, and proceeds to burn all the money he had on him, which is in fact a crime. On top of this, he also didn't tell anyone of his departure and just fled his past life. This shows extreme cowardice on his part, as he was too afraid to face anyone before leaving, and instead just wants to escape all of his issues. Adopting a new name is another example of this idea. While it may seem that he just did this so authorities couldn't track him down, truthfully it was just to separate himself from his old life. Throughout Chris’s journey, he commits multiple crimes that did not necessarily need to be committed. Chris illegally takes a canoe down the Colorado river, he illegally crosses the border into Mexico, and he would ride on trains without permission. All of these are examples of how he would use what was around him to help reach his goal, whether it was legal or not. He could have found other ways to get to his destination but his own time is more important than the law so he did what made his life easier. While one could argue that these were an example of civil disobedience since he wasn't harming anyone, the act of taking a canoe down the river without training,