How Did Chris Mccandless Search For Individualism

Individualism is when a person has achieved non-conformity, self-reliance, free-thought, confidence, and finding one’s self through nature. Although individualism can be achieved in society it can not be fully achieved until one removes himself from society. Chris McCandless did exactly that; he removed himself from society by back packing and hitch hiking throughout the United States to test and achieve individualism. McCandless’s last great adventure was to Alaska to fully obtain individualism, unfortunately, on his last adventure he died trying to find his spiritual belonging and individualism. Many people would think it was absurd that Chris left his family and threw his life away, and they would think that he was not justified in leaving

In a search for non-conformity ideals, Christopher McCandless used Henry David Thoreau’s transcendentalist ideologies, he drew from Thoreau’s book Civil Disobedience, explaining the importance of non-conformity. Thoreau conveys non-conformity cannot be achieved as the government is influencing the people and restricting them from discerning for themselves between fact and fiction. In the following excerpt Thoreau states, “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men, but as machines, with their bodies” (3). This quote can be related to how men are perceived as machines unable to think for themselves, solely relying on the government to make decisions for them. Moreover, Thoreau shows society constricts non-conformity from occurring through the use of propaganda. Initially Chris was a machine being controlled by societal norms due to his familial standing and wealth. Chris made the decision to seek out a non-conformist lifestyle, due to the dishonesty and abusiveness he endured within the family dynamic. According to Ralph Waldo Emmerson, self-reliance is necessary in achieving independence. Emerson states “…envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide”. This quote reflects that

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author of Self-Reliance, articulates how self-reliance is hard to obtain when being oppressed, and when everyone relies on government or hierarchy to fix complications for them. To express and show the oppression of society Emerson states, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members”. Our manhood is used to be our identity and how we take matters into our own hands, but “society in conspiracy against the manhood” is society taking away our identity and self-reliance. With society taking away our identity it will then be tougher to gain self-reliance, which allows leaving society an easier way to gain self-reliance without being oppressed. Chris was oppressed to grow up the same way his father did and get an education, but instead of being oppressed and being reliant on his father, Chris decided to be reliant on himself, and the only way he could do this was by leaving society and his family behind. Krakauer wrote about Chris McCandless journey and how in his journey he tried to gain individualism. In Chris’s adventure, as told in the novel Into the Wild Chris decides to change his name to sever the ties of reliance to his old life and way. Chris states, “No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he is now