How Did Chris Mccandless Share The Transcendental Beliefs

Henry David Thoreau and Chris McCandless embrace beliefs from the Transcendental philosophy. In the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer and the excerpts from Walden by Henry David Thoreau readers can see connections between the beliefs of McCandless and Thoreau. They show that McCandless and Thoreau share the Transcendental beliefs of being one with nature, having self-wisdom, and simplicity. Parallels exist between the Transcendental beliefs of Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau. One of the first of the Transcendental beliefs shared by Thoreau and McCandless is being one with nature. In Walden, Thoreau indicates “I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front the simple facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach” (Walden). When Thoreau says this, one can infer that he wanted to be one with nature. Just as in Into The Wild where McCandless indicates that he is “no longer to be imprisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land

As an example, McCandless tells his friend Ron Franz “you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it” (Krakauer 57-58). Through this letter to Franz, McCandless is trying to help Franz find his own inner wisdom. This relates to where Thoreau says “if one advances confidently in the direction of his dream, and endeavors to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours” (Walden). This quote from Walden can relate to McCandless’s belief that in his search for self-wisdom all he has to do is reach out and grab it for himself. McCandless and Thoreau believe that self-wisdom is another step towards a life of Transcendentalism. Yet another of the Transcendental beliefs shared by McCandless and Thoreau is