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What Is Chris Mccandless A Transcendentalist

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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. In early 1992, an elderly man stumbled upon Chris camping near a hot springs and Chris develops a deep relation with him. The two men develop a mutual relationship because of Franz’s hospitality …show more content…

Chris fits this category like a glove throughout the book. In his final years of highschool, Chris’s parents bought him a yellow Datsun sedan. Chris grew extremely attached to the bucket of rust-on-wheels and becomes belligerent when his parents try to get rid of it. Chris becomes outraged because “[his parents would] try and buy me a car” (21).Only someone with radical ideals would denounce such a genuine attempt to reward hard work. Going along with his transcendentalist notions, Chris makes it his policy to no longer “give or accept gifts” because he feels that it goes against his beliefs (20) .Billie McCandless confesses on Mother’s day 1990 that she hadn't received a gift from Chris in 2 years. Chris demonstrates his denunciation of titles and gifts by turning down a fraternity offer in college as well.Chris proves his warmth towards the vagrants too. Showing compassion towards outcasts is a respectable quality of transcendentalists, and Chris falls into line by “[bringing a homeless man] home… and set the guy up in the Airstream trailer”(113) Chris can’t stand to see someone struggling and would often chat and buy meals for the homeless of Washington. Because he doesn’t favor privilege and wealth, Chris stays true to his beliefs.. These examples clearly prove that Chris falls into line with famous transcendentalists throughout history such as Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson, and Melville. These beliefs led Chris to protest against the “sick society” that he was so fed up

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“Thoreau was first and foremost an explorer, of both the world around him and the world within him” (The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau). From the evidence in the book, I would say that this statement is also true about Chris McCandless. Chris explores the world around him but Chris also explores himself, when everyone was telling him to go to law school he knew himself good enough to know that exploring the country was the better option. Their view on individualism is similar, they both think that it is very important. Materialism was also a big thing for both Chris and Henry David.

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McCandless shows multiple examples of these transcendentalist traits throughout the story, although there are times where he takes transcendentalism to the extreme. Although Chris McCandless is a transcendentalist, there are aspects of his past that prove otherwise. One example is when he moved into Westerberg’s house for an extended period of time and had all of his mail sent to Westerberg’s

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Chris went off after he graduated college and “lived off the land”. Chris would travel to the coast of Mexico, the plains of Kansas, and the dunes of Nevada. Chris went on a final expedition to Alaska that cost him everything. In the following paragraphs I will fully detail how Chris was reckless, selfish, and naive. I will also explore how Chris tied his life to the beliefs of transcendentalism.

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The novel Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer centers around a young man named Chris McCandless who embarks upon an adventure leading to his tragic death; however, critics accuse McCandles of being naive and dumb, but on the other hand, he could be considered a transcendent. McCandless embodies transcendentalist thought by becoming one with nature and then ultimately withdrawing from the world and everyone in it. Throughout the novel, McCandless struggles by alternating between the two philosophies of transcendence, but ultimately he attempts to focus on self-regulation to make himself happy. Often to accomplish this task, he avoided the “impending threat of human intimacy” and avoids relationships by leaving quickly (55). Thus, McCandless,

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Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of the novel and film Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, is not your average guy. Driven by his minimalist ideals and hate for society, he challenged the status quo and embarked on a journey that eventually lead to his unforeseen demise. A tragic hero, defined by esteemed writer, Arthur Miller, is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on tragedy. Christopher McCandless fulfills the role of Miller’s tragic hero due to the fact that his tragic flaw of minimalism and aversion towards society had lead him to his death.

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For instance, Chris realizes what he needs to live life with value. McCandless says, “Deliberate living: conscious attention to the basics of life and a constant attention to your environment and its concerns.” (Krakauer 168).Chris believes in living for anything requiring efficient concentration. His support in belief is related to Thoreau. Thoreau says,” … I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life…”

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In my opinion, Chris McCandless is an example of a modern-day transcendentalist -- someone who believes in nature, confidence, free thinking, self-reliance, and non-conformity. Because transcendentalists are typically people who live in the wilderness with no contact with society, transcendentalism usually relies on a more spiritual thinking rather than a certain scientific-like thinking based on materialistic things. This way of life can prove fatal if carried to an extent exceeding the person’s capabilities, knowledge, and/or experience. “There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile.

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Chris McCandless was someone who didn’t believe in having money, and items that were materialistic. He was considered an idealist because he didn’t put judgement on people based on how they look, he did it based on his personal values. In the author’s note Krakauer also believed Chris was a “intense young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence”. After getting your degree in college, and your parents buying you a new car you don’t think to just throw it all away to go live in the wild on your own, but that’s exactly what Chris did. Items that would seem extremely important to everyone one else in society didn’t matter to Chris, because it wasn’t a necessity for him.

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.

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He does not view the world based on a piece of literature, or the voices of other, rather, he goes out and looks for the answer on his own. Chris reads transcendentalist writing, and those books inspire him to find his own meaning. He travels to Alaska, and he expects to have the same views and opinions as Emerson or Thoreau. However, he realizes that he did not agree with what he previously believes about being alone, and he understands what true happiness means to him, and it was not the same as those authors that he follows. Despite his different opinions, his realization works along with Emerson’s view in his Work Nature, “The foregoing generations beheld God and the nature face to face; we, through their eyes.

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785 Words | 4 Pages

Kevin Sun Mrs. Cohen English 2CP --D February 22, 2018 Another Perspective The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance.

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Henry David Thoreau is one of the primary promoters of the transcendentalist movement and has been inspiring people to take on the transcendentalist lifestyle ever since the mid 1800’s. Mccandless was an admirer of Henry’s philosophy but he wasn’t as fully immersed in his work and ideals as Thoreau was to his own. His intentions were not as closely aligned to the movement as Thoreau’s and the difference between these icons are clearly visible. Self reliance is one of the most significant components of the transcendentalism movement that Henry David Thoreau contributed to in his literary career. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”).

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915 Words | 4 Pages

The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.

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Krakauer completes gaps in Chris’ story; but loses objectivity as he intertwines Chris’ experiences and emotions with his own. Though Krakauer’s details about Chris provide insight, his emotional involvement in Chris’ life becomes an

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Chris McCandless was a college student with a need for adventure. On April 28, 1992, he left on a journey which would lead to the end of his life. After news of his death had reached public ear, most people came to the same conclusion: Chris McCandless was an uneducated, arrogant boy who went on a journey seeking death. However, in the novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakaur portrays Chris McCandless’ transcendental quest as a journey full of wonder. Throughout the novel, Krakaur defines McCandless as an intelligent, hard working, determined young man.

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