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Transcendentalism In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

849 Words4 Pages

A struggle against control has been fought over since the beginning of civilization, resulting in a coinciding fight against the government. One belief system that shows this fight against government is Transcendentalism, where its followers strive to be individuals by defying the laws and traditions set by the generations before them. They express their desire to be completely different, which then causes a question to arise: At what point do once-established laws become overthrown by individuality? These dangers may not be seen by the authors and citizens who follow these beliefs, but they can be seen through the dismay caused by their beliefs. The inherent dangers of this belief system become more evident to the common person in Transcendentalism literature, the Dead Poets Society by Peter Weir, and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The ideas behind Transcendentalism have been shown to have had many negative effects on the mental health of the individual, the physical health of the individual, and the idea of government overthrow. To begin, a …show more content…

In Into the Wild, Krakauer states, “the fact that I survived my Alaska adventure and McCandless did not survive his was largely a matter of chance” (Krakauer 155). This only furthers the fact that Transcendentalist beliefs push individuals to commit actions that, without the intervention of luck, will result in death. In the last moments of his life, McCandless writes, “help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me” (Krakauer 12). In the moments before his death, McCandless wished for life, but the possibility of survival was out of reach. McCandless shows that when someone puts themselves in a position to be completely isolated from society, they truly have no one to call out for help. In summary, Transcendentalism is a philosophy that harms the

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In the biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer writes about a man named Chris McCandless. McCandless seemed like a normal person. He had good grades, a good home life, and had just graduated from college. Then, the 24-year-old went off on a journey, eventually ending up in Alaska, where he met an untimely death in an abandoned bus that he had taken shelter in. While McCandless never came out as a transcendentalist, his actions were indicative of some of the tenets of transcendentalism.

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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.

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4 years after Christopher Johnson McCandless death in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992, Jon Krakauer beautifully depicts every moment of the tumultuous times leading up to Chris’s demise. Fed up with ill intentions of his peers and society, McCandless departs for the dark corners of the country. Since McCandless held nature close to his heart, and preached against the object-oriented society he lived in, Chris can be classified as a contemporary transcendentalist. Chris passionately tries to draw metaphysical connections between himself and nature.

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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.

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Transcendentalism In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

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Transcendentalism is a philosophy that emphasizes a prior condition of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality (Merriam Webster). Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Fredric Henry Hedge, and Theodore Parker. They were critics of their society for its conformity, and urged that each person find “an original relation to the universe.” Chris McCandless, the focus of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, was a transcendentalist. The author of Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer’s purpose is to spread Chris McCandless’s story while explaining transcendentalist ideas, such as nonconformity.

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Henry David Thoreau, Jon Krakauer, and Chris McCandless embrace Transcendentalism. Mainly Chris’ and Thoreau’s belief about it. Both try to find themselves and the adventure of nature. In Into the Wild, Krakauer has the same beliefs as Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau want to find themselves, especially in nature. The first comment of transcendental beliefs is Chris McCandless was finding himself.

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Transcendentalism In Into The Wild, By John Krakauer

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Transcendentalism is to find your inner self and deepest intuitions in nature. Out of John Krakauer the author of Into the Wild and Christopher McCandless, who has more transcendentalist ideas? I believe Mcandless has far more transcendentalist ideas than Krakauer, due to Mcandless’s hate for society, his self-reliance, and his true connection with nature. First of all, McCandless has a hatred towards society and as a result stays away from it as much as he can, while on the other hand, Krakauer fully supports and relies on society. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance, he mentions, “Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.

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