Chris Mccandless Philosophy

“...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

This was the idea that Chris McCandless, so closely mimicked. However, McCandless is not the only soul to find truth in the teachings of Thoreau. Recently, a protest to "draw attention to [the] corrupt campaign finance system and rigged voting laws" took place at the U.S. Capitol building. The protest was predicted to last a week, and by the end of the first day over 400 protesters had already been arrested for "crowding, obstructing and incommoding". Despite the arrests, 3,500 people from 33 different states pledged to join in what they describe as “non-violent civil disobedience” (Krieg, Gregory). Civil Disobedience is defined as “the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy, characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting, picketing, and nonpayment of taxes” (civil disobedience). These nonviolent protesters saw an opportunity to “sit-in against the influence of money in politics and congressional inaction” (Krieg, Gregory). This act of civil disobedience mirrors McCandless’s decision to scorch his remaining money in protest of a money driven

He effectively argues this through a strong biblical allusion, saying, “… just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid”. By alluding the Bible King provokes pathos in his audience, who responded strongly to religion. Next, he uses a simile to compare “a boil that can never be cured [until exposed]” to “injustice [that] must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates”. His comparison justifies the fact that injustice must be exposed to “the air of national opinion before it can be cured”. People must call attention to their disgruntlement, otherwise the issues will never be resolved. King identifies this fact through the use of inverted sentence saying, “there can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs [the] community”. The inability to deny that racial injustice has taken over strengthens the idea that the individual has not only a birthright but also a responsibility to challenge unjust laws. King argues this through a parallel structure when saying, “...[I] can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme