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Chris mccandless success and tragedy
Is chris mccandless a transcendentalist essays
Is chris mccandless a transcendentalist essays
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Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau take in the 19th century philosophy of Transcendentalism. After reading Into the Wild by Krakauer and Thoreau’s excerpts from Walden, readers see the similarities between Chris’s beliefs and Thoreau’s. Both of them embrace individualism, simplicity and nature. One of the first Transcendentalism beliefs that Chris McCandless follows is seeking individualism. For example, McCandless changes his name to Alex Supertramp. The hitchhiker swung his pack into the bed of the Ford and introduced himself as Alex. “Alex?” Gallien responded, fishing for a last name. “Just Alex”, the young man replied (Krakaeur 4). McCandless shows his individualism by changing his name to Alex because he left his …show more content…
Jim Gallien picks up McCandless and notices that he doesn’t have much in his backpack. Gallien says, “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip” (Krakaeur 4). This proves that McCandless only wants what he needs to survive. He does not want all of the advantages of modern society; he wants to live simply. Thoreau says “Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion” (Elements of Literature: Essentials of American Literature). This quote relates to McCandless’s belief in only living off the smallest amounts of food or material goods, which embraces the Transcendentalism of simplicity. This shows that both McCandless and Thoreau want to live a simple life. McCandless and Thoreau not only agree on individualism and simplicity but also agree of the Transcendentalism belief of …show more content…
He goes to say “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty” (Krakaeur 57). McCandless is saying that a person will never understand the true beauty of nature until he gets out and experiences it himself without any distractions. Thoreau also depends upon nature. Thoreau says “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” (Elements of Literature: Essentials of American Literature). McCandless and Thoreau are both saying that nature is essential to life and the experiences that come with
For example, he strays away from Robert Franz 's offer of adopting Alex to become his grandson, after the two of them form a close relationship: “ 'So I [Franz] asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson. ' McCandless, uncomfortable with the request, dodged the question: 'We 'll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron '” (Into The Wild) McCandless shields himself from any sign of attachment to other people he encounters in order to follow Transcendentalist ideals. He treats human bonding as a distraction from his real goal, which is to achieve total independence and a spiritual connection with nature. Charlie, a man who McCandless has briefly acquainted himself with during his journey, reports his observations that McCandless is not much of a people person: “ 'Didn 't like to be around too many people, though. Temperamental...He 'd get moody, wouldn 't like to be bothered '”(Into The Wild). Being normally antisocial becomes a trait for McCandless because he values and follows the Transcendentalist ideal of minimizing human contact. McCandless mirrors the typical Transcendentalist because he prefers solitude over socializing, believing that being alone is a much more meaningful and spiritual
In one the passage was highlighted in the book “Family Happiness” that Chris brought with, the author Leo Tolstoy talked about how a person's life should be. “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. … which found no outlet in our quiet life.” (p.15) Tolstoy explained how a life should be excited and interesting not just living day by day without any enjoyment. Chris followed his beliefs. He believes that he should live a life that he would not regret later on. That could be one of his reason he was going into the wild to make an excited life. Another passage was also found with McCandless’s belongings is from Henry David Thoreau’ “Walden”. “All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. … a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.” (p.47) This passage explains the fact that happiness can found in nature. McCandless wanted to found his purpose of his life and Thoreau stated about the importance of the nature. And McCandless believed Thoreau. If Chris McCandless had believed some authors, he would follows that in his whole
Beliefs are what define humans not as a society, but as individuals. Individualism is a large part of Transcendentalism, which was a movement started in the mid-nineteenth century led by figures such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Into the Wild, written in 1997 by Jon Krakauer, is a modern novel that examines a transcendentalist young adult. That young man is Chris McCandless, who leaves his family at the age of 23 to live the Transcendentalist dream. He hitchhikes and travels through many rivers and cities to get to Alaska, the place where he believes he can finally experience that dream. Transcendentalism is the idea that humans are innately one with nature, and therefore God, and that nature is the only place where humans belong because society is poisonous. By enjoying himself and connecting with god through the environment in an isolated location, Chris McCandless demonstrates that he is a faithful Transcendentalist.
How many individuals have gone to extreme lengths to reevaluate who they are as a person, to find their purpose? Christopher McCandless was an outrageous individual who was not afraid to push the boundaries, because of his dauntless behavior people questioned his sanity. Many people referred to Chris as a selfish person for not looking back when he decided to go into the wilderness. Christopher McCandless was not a selfish person because he has inspired many individuals to not be afraid and just go into the wild. Chris made an excellent choice by leaving; people dwell differently, on his journey he inspired many, and he hasn’t once took advantage of the opportunities he was given by those he come across in his journey. People didn’t agree with Chris’s decision to pack and leave. In chapter 8 of Into the Wild John Krakauer includes letters that he receives from people that did not agree, and believed that Chris was a selfish person Most of the letters that John Krakauer received were nasty and unnecessary; they were letters of individuals expressing their opinion on Christopher McCandless. “McCandless had already gone over the edge and just happen to hit rock bottom in Alaska.”(Jans) nobody deserves to die, especially not a horrific death like Christopher McCandless. Cristopher McCandless past because of starvation and possibly poisoned by a wrong plant he consumed. His decomposing body weighing only sixty seven pounds was discovered in the Alaska terrier inside a rustic old bus that was located twenty five miles west of Healy, and was used as a halfway boundary.. His body was discovered by a group of people, who rescued his body and found Chris. Those letters expressed the opinions of many; the people believed Chris was childish ...
Both Thoreau and McCandless had a deep appreciation for solitude in nature. In Walden, Thoreau explains how he’d “... love to see Nature that is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence..” (Thoreau, Walden 238). While being on his “adventure”, Thoreau was able to observe all of the little things in nature, and appreciate all of the little things. While in civilization, one would not be able to notice such things because there are much too many people around to notice. While on his journey, McCandless “No longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is known as the father of Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement based on feelings rather than logic, it is a movement for the nonconformists and unique thinkers. Transcendentalism’s main ideas are individualism, intuition, imagination, idealism, and inspiration. When Emerson created the movement in the nineteenth century he was a well known writer and is still today a prominent figure in American Literature. Christopher McCandless was also a transcendentalist. He left everything he had in order to go on a great Alaskan voyage. Unfortunately, during his journey, something went wrong and he died due to uncertain causes. McCandless is also the protagonist of the nonfiction novel, Into the Wild which Jon Krakauer wrote about McCandless’s life. Emerson and McCandless show similarities with each other such as their transcendental thinking, their individuality, and their life goal of searching for their identity.
“...as a latter day adherent of Henry David Thoreau, [Chris McCandless] took as gospel the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and thus considered it his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state... Then in a gesture that would have done both Thoreau and Tolstoy proud, he arranged all his paper currency in a pile on the sand-a pathetic little stack of ones and fives and twenties-and put a match to it. One hundred twenty-three dollars in legal tender was promptly reduced to ash and smoke” (Krakauer 28-29). This passage from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild is a prime example of civil disobedience. Krakauer along with Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. were all disciples of the necessity of civil disobedience in their
Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson conveyed strong, specific viewpoints on the world through their writing. The transcendentalist ideals differ vastly with the lives lived by most of the modern world today. Firstly, the two differ on views of self-reliance. Secondly, they have different outlooks on the government and organized groups. Lastly, transcendentalist and modern American views vary by the way they view nature. These differences between transcendentalism and life today are essential in understanding life then, as well as life now.
In the first paragraph, Thoreau states that he wants to find a higher purpose to his life. He decides to live in the woods so that he can lead a simple life yet dig deeper into details that regular people overlook. He wants to absorb everything that life has to offer him.
One of these thinkers was Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist. This movement reflected a deeper thought process moving through the country where longstanding ideas were questioned and the role of nature was put into more prominence. Thoreau says, “I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful” (Thoreau 34). This speaks to the overall thought process of the budding country and the people who make it up. Seeing things as they are and doing away with excess is a cornerstone of the transcendentalist movement, which took hold of the dominant thinkers of the
Thoreau wrote, “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.” The words transformed people’s lives to think more of the why in life and live with a purpose not just do what they are told, which was a driving idea within the Transcendentalist movements. Transcendentalist were hard to define, but perhaps one of the fathers of transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson defines it most gracefully in a speech he gave, “The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine, He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power: he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy”. As Emerson’s key student and self-proclaimed Transcendentalist Thoreau fulfilled these requirements to help further this movement of higher
Transcendentalism is a religious, philosophical, literary, and social movement of the nineteenth century. Essentially, this movement was based upon the ideals of the “sixth sense,” nature, and non-conformity, as well as individualism, intuition, idealism, imagination, and inspiration. A few of the works and writings featured in the transcendental unit include Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, The Beatification of Chris McCandless: From Thieving Poacher into Saint by Craig Medred, and Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The primary focus of this essay is to provide an opinion on a strikingly debatable topic; Whether or not Christopher McCandless, hero of Krakauer’s Into the Wild, was a true transcendentalist. Despite the bold actions of Chris McCandless on his daring Alaskan odyssey, he turned out to be far from a true transcendentalist, failing to meet the definition of transcendentalism, being solely concerned with himself, and acting out of revenge rather than seeking self discovery - nothing more than a childish suicidal rebel.
Transcendentalism is living and communicating simply and in nature to find yourself. Chris McCandless can be seen as a transcendentalist in the book Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer tells the story of Christopher McCandless, who in June of 1990, set out on an adventure around the continent. After traveling all over and living on his own for two years, Chris decides to hitchhike up north to live off the Alaskan coast, 4 months later, Christopher was found dead. Though Chris’s adventure was fatal, his beliefs and actions throughout the book were undoubtable those of a transcendentalist.
Chris McCandless was a young man from Washington, D.C.. In an effort to live closer to nature, he abandoned his life and education at university studying. He gave his life savings to a charity and started hitchhiking and traveling for almost two years. He eventually finds himself in Alaska, where he lived for four months before he unfortunately died due to starvation. McCandless’ journey was in tune with the movement of transcendentalism, a movement in which its founders were a strong inspiration to Chris. Chris McCandless was very in tune with his surrounding and the nature within it and his connection with it. A turning
Transcendentalism is defined as a system of philosophy holding that the key to knowledge of the nature of reality lies in the critical examination of the processes of reason on which depends the nature of experience. Ralph Waldo Emerson published his essay “Nature” in 1845 and is split into multiple chapters according to the topic. John Krakauer wrote about Chris McCandless’s (Alexander Supertramp) life preceding his death in the Alaskan Wilderness. “Nature” parallels Into The Wild in the way that nature in its entirety is large beyond belief, while beautiful, is simultaneously terrifying, and can ultimately leave you amazed or conquered by its unpredictability.