ipl-logo

Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

1154 Words5 Pages

The book, Into The Wild, provides the most popular and detailed outline of Chris McCandless’ adventures. Through the examination of this book, it can be seen that Chris McCandless is a transcendentalist. A transcendentalist is a person who seeks to find their relation to the universe through a direct relationship with God and nature and believes in the tenets of transcendentalism. The validity of McCandless being a transcendentalist can be seen in his time in the Detrital Valley. In addition to examining whether McCandless is a transcendentalist, it is helpful to self-reflect and determine if I am a transcendentalist. It is difficult for me to self-reflect, but through the examination of my time in the woods hunting and my current ideology, …show more content…

We can tell from McCandless being all alone in the Detrital Valley that he wants to spend time in nature alone to better understand himself and his relation to the universe. It is harder to tell if he finds this relation through God as well in this scene, but an examination of part of his letter to Ron, “I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.” shows that he believes God was the creator and thus most likely has sought his relation to the universe through God. This message from Ron also points to tenet five of Transcendentalism that God is present throughout nature because Chris says that God has placed wonderful things around us to discover implying that God created nature and is present in his creation. Chris’ belief in tenet one that the individual is important, inherently good, and has free will can be seen in the scene in the Detrital Valley when he is disregarding the signs and exercising his free will to continue off the pavement. He also exercises his free will by not conforming to society’s standard that money should not be burned. After analyzing this scene, Chris McCandless is found to be a transcendentalist due to seeking his relation to the universe through God and nature, …show more content…

It has been over a year since I have been out into the wilderness in Southern Illinois. The last time I was there I can remember seeing the endless amount of trees swaying in the wind with the ice and snow from a recent snowfall. My father and I huddled in a deer blind for hours with a space heater and still felt the chill of the sub-zero temperatures running down our spines. After sitting for hours, we still saw no deer because it was even too cold for the deer to move. Despite the immense cold and boredom from sitting silently for the deer that never came, I was at peace, and the time to myself helped give me another perspective on life. This peace from the wilderness coupled with a sermon from my youth pastor the previous week on the distractions of an ever-moving life and how it leads little time for God had made me realize the necessity of a break from the business of life. There are many times when I am constantly in motion and leave little time to appreciate some of the best, most beautiful things God has placed around us like the droplets running off the windshield or the countless leaves blowing amongst the trees. When I am in too much motion and don’t stop to appreciate these little, stunning things my life often seems to become boring or meaningless and that is usually

Show More
Related
641 Words | 3 Pages

Chris Mccandless sought to seek gratification in an undiscovered way, to adventure, and escape from the materialistic commodities of life. It

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

The effects of one's action can tarnish the well being of any parent. How can any parent ever revert back to a life of normalcy, when it comes to devastating news about their children? How effective are modern day transcendentalist? Are we lead to believe that self-centering, highly intelligent transcendentist are experience and consciousness of their surroundings. Or are these transcendentist suffering from something greater?

Read More
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.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

If there is one person in the past or present that lived a truly transcendental life, many would say it was Alexander Supertramp, otherwise known as Chris McCandless. Throughout the 1990s, this man took transcendentalism to a new level that not many people in this day and age had seen before. In different points in his life, he exhibited all 8 of the main keys of transcendentalism. This paper will touch on just three of those, starting with reducing dependence on property. This is probably the number one key that is seen the most from McCandless in Into The Wild.

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

McCandless set off into the Alaskan depths to test himself, to find himself, and to free himself from society’s values. Because of Chris’s radical ideas and his purpose in life to push him into the unexplored, he believed that life is not about the materialistic

Read More
866 Words | 4 Pages

In the 19th and 20th century transcendentalism was a new and exciting topic that caused tremendous controversy. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless was a man with a very unique character. In more detailed words Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist. His actions and moods played a big part in his life, from beginning to end. He was a transcendentalist because of his self-reliance, confidence and non-conformity.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Into the Wild: Transcendentalism at it’s Finest “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man (Chapter 14).” This was a quote from a letter that Chris McCandless wrote to an acquaintance named Wayne Westerberg. It was a week or so before Chris McCandless spent many months in the Alaskan wilderness alone, and eventually arrived to his death.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

A Transcendentalist is someone who wants to rise above society through the use of thought and spirit. Through their journey Transcendentalist typically isolate themselves from society not just physically but materialistically. By Definition Chris McCandless is not only a transcendentalist, but he was one of the greatest. First in Chris McCandless’s list of traits that contributed to him being a transcendentalist is his spiritual rebirthing, inner connection with nature and his divine will power.

Read More
616 Words | 3 Pages

“McCandless was a seeker and had an impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature” (Krakauer 85). Christopher Johnson McCandless: a scholar, and an athlete, and a naturalist, and a transcendentalist. After high school, Chris was internally conflicted which pushed him to leave his home, although, he did return to finish out college after a short period of adventuring. Once he was done with college, he indulged himself in a peregrination; after meeting several people and venturing into the wild he received mental salvation and enlightenment. Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless was justified in shunning society and social norms in pursuit of individualism; Into the Woods by Henry Ticknor and “Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson best

Read More
644 Words | 3 Pages

As a final point, the non-fiction book, ¨Into the Wild,”is a great representation of transcendentalism because it encompasses themes dealing with

Read More
1102 Words | 5 Pages

The divinity of life through spirit rather than material, and in nature rather than in society, was tested and actively advocated by Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The transcendentalist movement spoke of individualism and a plain lifestyle. As society develops, these simplistic ideals become an “unrealistic” way of life due to the dependence we must have on things other than our own self. However, the film Into the Wild denies this idea as it traces a man’s life and independent survival in the wilderness. Into the Wild illustrates the values of transcendentalism by portraying a man’s spiritual journey through the experiences of nature, self-reliance, and rejection of the material world.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

Kevin Sun Mrs. Cohen English 2CP --D February 22, 2018 Another Perspective The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance.

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1711 Words | 7 Pages

Because Charlie’s personality is already fixated on this philosophy, Mr. Keating’s idealized presentation of transcendentalism was a recipe for Charlie’s implementation of this ideology to get out of hand. In his case, it was important for Mr. Keating to emphasize the dangers of following this philosophy radically and to teach Charlie how to control himself and not do stupid things, such as the “phone call from God” antic. Similarly, it was important for Mr. Keating to tailor his preaching of the philosophy to Neil as well. Neil was living in one extreme of the spectrum: he was forced to follow orders from an incredibly dictatorial father while living in an oppressive boarding school. Mr. Keating’s theory of seizing the day and thinking for oneself is an idea on the whole other side of the spectrum.

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

By changing his identity and leaving society, he felt he was shedding the fake elements of his past and evolving into a person he wanted to be. Chris McCandless did not depart on his transcendental quest to die, he ventured into the wilderness to kill the disappointments of his

Read More

More about Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

Related Topics

Open Document