Comparing Emerson, Mccandless, And Thoreau

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” is a quotation stated by Emerson that effectively described the transcendental era. Transcendentalism was a time when non-conformists critiqued the traditional ways of the Age of Reason and adopted the innovative and imaginative ideals of the Romanticism era. Emerson, Thoreau, and McCandless adopted three essential values of the era: individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature in differing ways.
To start off, individualism was a major ideal of living, for each of the men. In his essay, Self-Reliance, Emerson stated, “Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string,” (Emerson 210) which describes an essential value that Emerson, McCandless, and Thoreau believed in; because with a self-motivated mindset and self-confidence, they were able to able listen to their instincts, mind, and heart without concern of

judgement from others. While, Emerson believed that individualism consisted of a person determining and embracing their inborn God-given talent; Thoreau and McCandless believed that individualism should be found through nature. Despite the fact that both McCandless and Thoreau believed that they would become more themselves through solitude, McCandless’s journey included more human interaction than Thoreau’s, because McCandless was on an attempted journey to Alaska, while Thoreau was stationary in Walden.
Subsequently, idealism was another ideal for meaningful living. In Walden, or Life in the Woods, Thoreau stated, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! (Thoreau 220) to ensure that his audience would have an understanding that for one’s life to have meaning, they must withdraw from the corruption of society. Similarly to Thoreau, Chris McCandless reinvented himself into the persona: Alexander Supertramp, “master of his own destiny” (Krakauer 23) to deliberately relieve himself from the constraint of materialism, such as clothing, money, and family. Both Thoreau and McCandless relinquished relationships with their family and friends to escape the materialism and intimacy of society. McCandless forgoed his connection with his friends and family, which he is extremely grateful for, as Into the Wild stated, “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family” (Krakauer 55). However, he differs from Thoreau because he is gregarious with strangers on his attempted journey to Alaska
As a final point, divinity and embracing nature was significant to have a purposeful life.

This point is expressed when McCandless states, “Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road... Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the great white North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild” (Krakauer 163). Compared to Emerson and Thoreau, McCandless is more impulsive with his actions, and is unequivocally the extremist of the three. McCandless explores a variety of nature as he hikes through the woods, climbs mountains, crosses rivers, etc., while Thoreau embraced nature when he created a home for himself in the woods. Thoreau learned his surrounding, what species of animals lived near, and grew bountiful rows of beans. While Thoreau intentions of living in the woods was an experiment to see if one could “find themselves” in nature's, McCandless “into the wild” experience was a journey for

freedom.
In conclusion, the essential ideals: individualism, idealism, and divinity in nature differed between the three transcendentalist: Emerson, Thoreau, and McCandless, but they were significant in pursuing a meaningful life. While not many understood these men tactics for independence and self-control, these transcendent men understood that, “To be great is to be misunderstood” (Emerson 210).