Transcendentalism is visualizing objects as a small version on the whole universe and self-reliance. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is about a modern day transcendentalist named Chris McCandless. Into the Wild has many transcendental beliefs pulled from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Michael Donovan. Krakauer, Emerson, Donovan, and Thoreau all share themes in their transcendental writings. A transcendental theme displayed in Emerson’s, Thoreau’s, Donovan’s, and Krakauer’s essays is self-reliance. Self-Reliance is the act of relying on your resources and ideas rather than using others. In Emerson’s works Nature, Self-Reliance, and Concord Hymn he provides on how you can focus on yourself in unlikely place. In Thoreau’s works Walden, and Civil Disobedience he expresses that your thoughts and ideas dictates society and law. In Donovan’s poem It's All-On-Me he writes about how at the end of the day you have to rise up and trust yourself to dictate your life. In Krakauer’s work Into the Wild the main …show more content…
In Emerson’s essay Nature he states, “Standing on the bare ground- my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space- all mean egotism vanishes.” This is a statement that further explains how taking yourself away from society and being yourself without having to worry who is watching you, you can fully be yourself on your own terms. In Emerson's essay Self- Reliance it states, “We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.” This statement means that trying to impress society is holding back our true character. In the two essays Thoreau wrote he focuses on how our thoughts should dictate society. In Walden by Thoreau he says, “Our life is frittered away by detail.” This means that we shouldn't focus on the details society can push upon us and focus on our ideas and
It is hard to piece together the beliefs that a Realist person has versus the beliefs of a Transcendentalist has. The book contains both philosophies about them but the book itself portrays more of a Transcendentalist feel to it. The author portrays himself as a Realist, he may be known to write about nature, outdoors, but he has a different outlook. In the book, Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer talks about a young man named Chris McCandless who decides to walk alone into the wilderness in Alaska to invent a new life for himself. He then struggles to make it out on his own and his body is found inside a bus. While both philosophies of Realism and Transcendental exist in Into the Wild, Realism is the real focus for Jon Krakauer.
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.
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.
Transcendentalism to some is may just be a long, lengthy word coined two hundred years ago that is not used today, but to other people, people like Chris McCandless, it is a way of life. They use these qualities to shape their life and strive hard to follow them. Chris McCandless was so focused on embodying the qualities of transcendentalism that he failed to see how much danger he was putting himself in. He had little to no common sense as shown by Westerberg. “But there were gaps in his thinking. I remember once I went over to the house, walked into the kitchen, and noticed a god-awful stink. I mean it smelled nasty in there. I opened the microwave, and the bottom of it was filled with rancid grease. Alex had been using it to cook chicken, and it never occurred to him that the grease had to drain somewhere. It wasn’t that he was too lazy to clean it up- Alex always kept things real neat and orderly- it was just that he hadn’t noticed the grease” (Krakauer 45). McCandless embodied the values of transcendentalism by believing in living closer to nature, believing in the dignity of manual labor, and being self reliant.
An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.
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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is known as the father of transcendentalism. Chris Mccandless, the protagonist of Into the Wild is known as one of major followers of transcendentalism. Chris and Emerson have many similarities. Both of their beliefs, and actions just shows how similar they are. It also shows in Emerson, and Chris’s writings that they are alike.Chris Mccandless and Ralph Waldo Emerson are similar in the way they see the importance of nature, how they tried to seek, to find their identity, and their views on independence.
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.
Emerson promotes the ideal concept of self-reliance throughout his article to persuade his readers to have faith in their ability and nature; as he writes, “The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried” (par.2). Even though being independent in action and thought is critical, there are numerous factors hindering its existence and progression in each person. They are society, conformity, consistency, fear of judgments, religion, arts, or property. By unwisely learning and imitating others’ works and opinions, a man loses his identity and self-confidence to the hands of norms. A man starts to lose his stand and tend to find a place where he can live under stable conditions; he is afraid of change; he is afraid of being different. Of all the thoughts that Emerson expresses in his paper, the most valuable point is how he promotes individualism and convinces people not to be afraid of being
Transcendentalism plays a key role in all of our lives. Many commonly shared values are rooted from the transcendental keys. Some devote their entire lives to try and live as transcendental as possible. For example, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were huge undertakers in these ideas and virtues. Chris McCandless looked up to these great thinkers and many others to find an outline for his life. McCandless dedicated his entire life to following many transcendental keys such as non-conformity, reducing dependence on property, and self-reliance.
Thoreau conveys many points in his writing and a large recurring one is the state of society. As stated before, he believed that people are too focused on physical gain and modernization which leads them into desperation. He adds on to this belief later in the book asking that above all else whether it be money or fame he be given honesty (Thoreau 246). To Thoreau, the truth is more important than anything measurable in status. Thoreau believes that a minimalist lifestyle is a good lifestyle, similar to Mccandless. He speaks of how it is good that he can put all of his belonging in one pile in his yard because it removes the clutter from his life (Thoreau 85). He also says that his best quality in life is to want very little, because it keeps himself true to himself and keeps him from distraction. Thoreau also believes that every man should be one in himself not oppressed by the government. He says that everyone should be able to be themselves whether is is in accord with the government or not (Thoreau 240). He is essentially saying that the government should not be a part of people's life decisions only to maintain the
Jon Krakauer interpreted his own ideas of transcendentalism while creating the novel Into the Wild. Krakauer believed that McCandless plays a very important role in the idea of a transcendentalist. He created Into the Wild by telling the riveting...
According to the statement, “Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate,” Thoreau believes that the basis for the success of any person is his/her own individual opinion of himself/herself. Thoreau is the perfect example of his own opinion, based on his time spent living a simple life at Walden Pond. The public had varied opinions of Thoreau’s lifestyle, and Thoreau even addresses some critics in his essay. However, Thoreau himself was very content with his lifestyle, and he believed that his simple lifestyle was far superior compared to the seemingly luxurious lifestyle of men, who actually are in debt and bound to a la...
Throughout the essay from Walden by Henry David Thoreau he often refers to self reliance and simplicity throughout the essay. He believes that its important for an individual to live independently from
Krakauer said “McCandless change his name, gave the entire balance of a 24 thousand-dollar saving account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his pocket” (Author’s note). Family is an important factor in everyone’s life; apparently that was not enough for Christopher McCandless. I have been fortunate to live with my family my whole life.