Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

Chris McCandless was a young and adventurous man, and at age twenty two, he set out to travel on his own in the American wilderness with only a ten pound bag of rice, a plant guide, a rifle with ammunition, and a camera. There’s much debate about this boy and his character, but a frequently asked question is whether he really embodied transcendentalism or if he was just a priveleged boy on an unprepared and reckless mission. Throughout Into the Wild, a nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer, his actions and reasoning are revealed through his adventures and thoughts. By the time Krakauer's journalistic exploration is over, McCandless is proven to just be a man who follows many transcendentalist influences. Chris McCandless grew up disagreeing with

He wanted to have the independence to do whatever he pleases, whether it be to climb mountains or walk along icy creeks, and to have the self-government to roam by himself is his unrivaled goal. In May of 1992, after finding the Magic Bus, he carved into the plywood of a busted window, “Two years he walked the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom” (163). He wrote this as his mission, a finish line to be crossed, to follow his transcendentalist philosophers’ teachings, to live as uncontained and wild as he could. Again in May, he wrote in a journal entry, “I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun” (168). Being in nature caused Chris to feel a certain type of contentment in the unpredictability of the wilderness, more than anything in a poisonous society could. He found that although it could be exhausting to live on his own in the Alaskan wilderness, it also energized and revitalized him after living in a toxic environment for twenty two years. The exhilaration of being surrounded by everything and nothing at the same time is an unbeatable feeling to Chris, and that is why he represents transcendentalism. Every transcendentalist will agree on at least one thing, and that is that nature is superior to the industrialized world, and it’ll always be more stabilizing and enjoyable than anything in the urban world will