Transformational Experience In Into The Wild

Why do people look for experiences that will transform them and perhaps change their lives? Oftentimes, people and characters are pushed toward an important experience in order to self-affirm or due to seeking affirmation from society. Perhaps, people face issues that lead them to yearn for an event that will truly affect their lives. All of this creates a motive for which people go on incredible journeys or do unprecedented actions. Because of all of this, people look for transformational experiences due to family or personal issues, self-affirmation, and societal pressures. Family and personal issues often cause stress and motivation for a person to look for a transformational experience. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris McCandless

Even famous singers are often forced to change who they are in order to achieve mainstream success and wealth. For instance, grammy-winning singer Abel Tesfaye, or better known as The Weeknd, was forced to conform to society through a transformational experience as he explains in his song “Rambo;” “Society now accepting me, pray for the young ones.” Likewise, Lily from The Secret Life of Bees faced pressure from society to look and act a certain way, and often lacked resources to do so because of her negligent and abusive father. Lily, similar to Tesfaye, felt as though a transformational experience would allow her to conform to society by finding her mother’s previous home; “And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street. They are the moons shining over me” (227). Though Lily and Tesfaye achieved far different goals in their journeys, each were considered outcasts from society and dealt with issues of poverty. Tesfaye believed that he could only be accepted as part of society if he transformed himself and his music style, and Lily similarly felt that she could only fit in with the presence of a