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Into The Wild Individualism

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Living in a world in which money and possessions are extremely important can cause a lot of damage because essentially human individuality is corrupted by society and the government. In Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, the author blames the government for imprisoning the people causing them to lose their individualism. Meanwhile in Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless is fighting society by going off to explore nature with the ultimate goal of being alone in Alaska. Both argue that one must learn to live with themselves and look within and become self-reliant in order to restore what society has stolen.
Thoreau states that in a perfect world the people would be self-reliant enough that the government would hold very little to no power. He goes on to recount the one time he felt free, the time he was sent to jail for refusing to pay his taxes. He said “I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was.” for in jail where he had the liberty …show more content…

Coming from a well-off family, the McCandless were all about looks, in order to fit among their neighbors leaving Christopher feeling fake and without control of his own life this leads to his journey. He travels from place to place, meeting people along the way but never forming strong enough ties that would cause him to leave behind his journey because he feels that once he settles down he might lose himself. Nature, he believes, is inherently good and by living among the animals and plants, he wants to learn about all the purity that the industrial world lacks. In order to find himself, he becomes self-reliant, living off the earth in Alaska. Without people around him, he does not have to worry about society's ideas or rules interfering with his

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What McCandless Has Shown Me Chris McCandless was just a normal college graduate just like any other person but then he decided to go into the wild and go travel to all different areas before he went to Alaska. Chris decided to go to Alaska because in his head that’s where he thought there would be no one from society telling him what to do. He thought he wouldn’t have to follow the rules of society or people telling him what to do. He reached Alaska, but the reality of Alaska was different that the romanticized expectation that he had in his mind. He didn’t bring enough food for himself and all he relied on was eating plants and berries from the wild.

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In the words of John Krakauer “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.” If asked to describe Chris Mcandless in Into The Wild one could say that he is simply foolish. Chris could have lived a longer life if he would have stayed in the comfort of his own hometown. Chris’ common sense was obliterated by his time in the wilderness. Not only did he throw common sense to the wind, he also went into the wild leaving behind many people who loved and cared deeply about him.

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Into the Wild, a book by Jon Krauker and a film by Sean Penn, features the journey of Christopher McCandless, the son of wealthy parents who graduates from Emory University as a top student and athlete. However, instead of embarking on a prestigious and profitable career, he chooses to give his savings to charity, rid himself of his possessions, and set out on a journey to the Alaskan wilderness. Chris McCandless claims, “Happiness is only real when shared. " One should always be prepared to go into the wild. Chris McCandless, a young adult, made the egotistical decision to venture into the wild leaving behind his loved ones and future.

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We get to see how his home life impacted his decisions later in life. By learning parts of his story, we can piece together McCandless’ values. McCandless admired a few people, and obtained his values through others. One of the ideas Christopher McCandless values the most is his independence. He didn’t let anyone tell him what he could and

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In the beginning, McCandless starts his adventure by cutting himself off from all the human connections he had. He severs all ties from his family, including his sister which whom he was previously very close to. He burns his social security card, changes his name, and decides to travel across the country. Throughout his journey, Christopher often accounts for his parent’s wrongdoings for the reasons why he wanted to run away to Alaska. He subsists with a minimalist lifestyle and is disappointed in his parents’ behaviors and their materialism.

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Chris McCandless abandoned the modern world and chose the wild because he believed that he could improve himself through living in the wild, and found the true happiness of the life. McCandless abandoned his wealthy family because of his complicated relationship with his father, and he was ashamed with his father’s adultery. Therefore, McCandless believed that human relationship was not the only thing that forms happiness, instead a man’s connection with the nature brings joy as well. He also believed the habitual lifestyle was not what people were meant to do, and people shouldn't have more possessions than what they need. For this reason, McCandless traveled with little effects.

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Christopher McCandless left presuming to leave his old life behind, change his name, make a new life for himself and live off the wild. Chris gave everything he owned away, leaving himself with nothing but a dream to go to Alaska. His remembrance of his past has left him with a deep feeling of being unwanted by his parents past and present. From his parents arguing about little things to going on his first road trip to where he grew up in California and learning about how his dad was cheating with his mom and had a son with his other wife, it really disturbed him giving him very mixed feelings. This ultimately lead to him wanting a new life away from his past.

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Chris McCandless resents the world of materialism from which he was born into and in an effort to separate himself from this life he walks away from it. He wasn’t involved much with society and had problems with his family which made him to start his journey to Alaska. In most other cases people stay and deal with their problems. McCandless on the other hand ran away in the most dangerous of possible ways, by totally abandoning his sheltered existence into one that had no safety nets. "Two years he walks the earth.

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A government should only be present as a safety net and not be controlling of the people. Thoreau believes the power should be “in the hands of the people” and protect the country for the benefit of the people. When Thoreau

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The characteristics of transcendentalism is individual vs society and the connection between human and nature. A subject of Into the Wild is individual vs society because Chris McCandless tends to desire to chase freedom and be alone rather than with people. In the last letter ever received from Everett Ruess, to his brother Waldo on November 11th, 1934. He explains that he wants to live in isolation.

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The key to deconstructing Thoreau's argument is to understand his hierarchy of government and the individual. Thoreau's ideal communion between the individual and the state is manifest by the individual as a "higher and independent power". This relationship is entertained in Civil Disobedience in the analysis of Thoreau's 1846 imprisonment, in which Thoreau demonstrated freedom as an internal and subjective

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McCandless didn’t want to live a life full of unhappiness and he felt that the only way to avoid that was to get away from his family and go into the wild. McCandless was raised in a wealthy family and he had all the opportunities that came with that. He was a bright student and had a bright future ahead of him. He wanted to live a simple life and experience nature. So he left everything behind and went into the wild.

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The reader gets to join McCandless in his adventure across the country as he invents a new life for himself. He embraces the ideas and morals of Thoreau and Emerson in his journey. In the book, a man by the man by the name of Westerberg discusses about how McCandless is not destroying his possessions and journey around the wild because the wild he is suicidal or unintelligent. “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent… He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.”

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1373 Words | 6 Pages

Individualism Mankind possesses a natural desire to be in touch with their inner self. In John Krauker's novel "Into the Wild", "Alexander Mccandles" tried to prove that the only way to truly be in touch with one's inner self is to be completely and totally isolated and or alone, but was faced with the truth that being completely self-reliant is impossible. Within Krauker's novel the idea of self-reliance is rather prevalent. A young male named Chris Mccandless had a rather cushy life, but material items did not interest him and neither did the support of his parents, he was an intelligent man but rather stubborn. Mccandless had the idea that he could make it on his own in the Alaskan Bush completely alone without sufficient supplies.

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Being individual is important, because everyone is their own person and not one person is like another. The definition of individualism is the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant. If you live in the United States you are able to be individual. In some countries that are totalitarian, you don 't have the freedom to be who you want to be and what you want to do. Without individualism you wouldn 't be able to read what you want, have the job that you want, go to the school that you want, listen to the music that you want, and you wouldn 't be able to do what you want to do on your free time.

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