Chris Mccandless Transcendentalism Essay

Christopher Johnson McCandless, a reflection of modern transcendentalism.

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement developed in the early-19 century. This literary movement based on the importance of God, man and nature, allowed numerous authors to become known. Nowadays, in a society full of innovations and in which nature is becoming less and less important, some people still feel the need to live far from the cities, in the wilderness, and still appreciate the simple concepts of life. Chris McCandless was one of them and decided to live a simple life by following the basic ideas of transcendentalism.

First and foremost, Chris McCandless, better known to the world as Alexander Supertramp, showed his transcendental beliefs by the way

When he was young, Supertramp has already shown a non-formal behavior similar to civil disobedience. “The teacher explained at the beginning of the semester that because he had something like two hundred students, lab reports had to be written in a particular format to make grading them a manageable proposition. He did his lab reports, but not in the correct format, so the teacher gave him an F.” (Krakauer, 109). At a young age, McCandless started this anti-society behavior. Chris highlighted in a Tolstoy’s book: “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.” (Krakauer, 15). McCandless has always lived his life in a different way than regular people and has never worried about what other people could think of him. Also, Alex has never had any relationship in his life and he has never truly needed one. In fact, he always felt quite uncomfortable when people talked about relationships. “I asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson. McCandless, uncomfortable with the request, dodged the question.” (Krakauer,

In fact, in my opinion, it would probably help our society to take into consideration these ideas: factories, cars, and cities in general pollute our planet more and more, what causes the increasing global warming. If more people were living with respect of nature or were simply giving more importance to nature, I believe that global warming would be a smaller problem. Besides that, I would assume that living as a transcendentalist allows you to live your life to the fullest. Living without caring about what someone can think of you, and acting the way you want in order to be happy to have a blooming life. Henry David Thoreau wrote in his book Walden: “I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” This quotation totally describes my point of view and totally represents the main ideas of transcendentalism for me: you need to live, without regrets nor