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Was chris mccandless a transcendentalist essay
Was chris mccandless a transcendentalist essay
Was chris mccandless a transcendentalist essay
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Transcendentalism is a unit all about expressing yourself and self improvement. In Into the Wild, we are taken on a transcendental adventure through the known life of Christopher Johnson McCandless. McCandless was a young man in his early 20s seeking a life away from society. McCandless was a nonconformist who refused to follow the rules, led by transcendental figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The following accounts are pieces of McCandless’s great adventure through transcendentalism. In Chapter 4 of Into the Wild, McCandless was said to have, ‘arranged all of 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.’ This represents the transcendental key, reduce dependence on property, because McCandless is burning all of his money, one thing humans rely on the most nowadays. Furthermore, this can be connected with “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau, found on pages 407-415 of the textbook. Thoreau had gone out into the wilderness to get away from society, he left his long lived in home to go to a place of non-stop adventure. In Chapter 6 of Into the Wild, the book stated that Chris McCandless made a belt with several different parts of his adventures …show more content…
Transcendentalism can be an excellent thing because it is great to express yourself and to follow your intuition. If your intuition leads to something unexpected, you can learn from your mistakes. The people mentioned in the book, such as McCunn, Waterman, and Ruess followed their intuition, though they led a life of adventures and doing what they loved, they all met a tragic demise. Though these people may have met their end, it is still no reason to not pursue your dreams. Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try. Everyone goes on their own transcendental adventures at one point or another in their lives. You have the choice of what you do with your life, so live
All three adventurers displayed their affection for the wilderness through how they lived after leaving society. After reaching Fairbanks, Alaska, McCandless set up his camp and began to live off the wildlife nearby. In his journal, he noted what he caught each day and showed his gratefulness through his writing font. He believed that “it [wildlife] was morally indefensible to waste any part of an animal that has been shot for food” (166). He tried his best to preserve the animals he shot for food, which in turn displayed his thoughts of nature as something precious.
He was trying to escape something, or at least felt overwhelmed by the patterns in his life and craved something fresh. One hundred twenty-three dollars in legal tender was promptly reduced to ash and smoke” (Into The Wild). McCandless's loss of his once beloved car is tossed away in a second because he has the fortunate accident that allows him to get rid of a materialistic object that makes his journey easier. Money is also considered as access to acquiring luxury items, which is why McCandless does not waste any time getting rid of it. Any opportunity to stray away from a minimalist lifestyle must be quickly avoided in order to follow the ideas of Transcendentalism.
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.
...r the inspiration he requires to learn more about himself. Finally, McCandless follows his own intuition to the point of death. These ideas presented by McCandless not only demonstrate transcendental ideals, but the fathers of transcendentalism themselves lives closely resembling that of Christopher Johnson McCandless, a man who desired to live as close to nature as possible; however, volition alone could not save him from his unintentionally self-inflicted demise.
Many people have theories and philosophies about life in general. There have been countless amounts of books published by countless amounts of people on the ideas of people in the past and the present. Transcendentalism falls into a sector of all of these ideas. Transcendentalism has affected many people since the philosophy was first introduced. Henry Thoreau is a name that is always associated with transcendentalism through one of his famous novels,Walden. John Krakauer is able to explain how transcendentalism has affected Chris McCandless in the novel Into The Wild. McCandless's life is comparable to Thoreau's in a variety of ways such as motives, however both McCandless and Thoreau's lives are much different by means such as their reasons for traveling, and what they did.
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.
When I was about six or seven I was diagnosed with Aspergers which is a type of Autism. Over the years I have had a bunch of help in my life thanks to my mother and father. Now I bet you really can’t tell because of all the help I have gotten over the years. The trait of transcendentalism is shown here is human potential. In the movie Dead Poets Society, it is about having teenagers form a club, as the same name as the movie. With help from their teacher, they figure out who they are as people and who they want to end up being as life moves on. Transcendentalism is not conforming from society. This movie demonstrates non-conformity, respect for nature, and human potential, which are all traits of Transcendentalism.
You are sitting on the grass. The sun is so bright and you can feel the brisk breeze surrounding. You feel as if you could take flight with just a hop to fly with the sparrows and watch everything without a worry or care. You know you are right because even with the world saying it is not true, you believe it is real. You think the world is so loud, and everyone so busy, that no one even notices the trees, the birds, the breeze. Today, it is hard to find peace. The world is busy, and most do not even stop to see it. If you have thought that, then you are a transcendentalist. Transcendentalists go to nature for peace, to hear the over soul that is in all of us. They believe conformity is wrong, they believe nature is a place to learn and connect, and they tend to be well known with the extent of their nonconformity. There are many famous transcendentalists, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, and Eustace Conway. You may think, “Why do you say he is a transcendentalist? I have never heard him referred to as one.” Or maybe even, “I do not believe you.” And that is fine, because either way, he is. Eustace Conway is a transcendentalist, for he does not care about social norms, is well known, and has a strong spiritual connection to nature.
In the book Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, written in 1854, there is portrayed a strong philosophical theme on transcendentalism. This view on the world was a prominent New England philosophy during the author’s life, and had a great effect on him. This view has a very simple idea. It shows that people, men and women equally, have a knowledge about the world around them, as well as themselves, that goes beyond what they can they can see, smell, taste, touch, or feel. This knowledge is acquired through imagination and intuition. People are able to trust themselves by their own authority, and what they individually think is right. Transcendentalism is shown through Thoreau how he regrets materialism, uses scripture, and how he accepts all faiths and philosophies.
“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.
Transcendentalism is based upon five pillars. These pillars include: confidence, non-conformity, nature, self-reliance, and free thought. These ideas were unique for the early 1800’s. Such important people included, Emerson, and Thoreau, that pioneered this new way of thinking. Transcendentalism countered the ideas of such important figures as Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Ben Franklin. The countered addressed philosophies on reason and justification. Transcendentalists believe things can happen for any reason. After reviewing the following sources, it is evident that transcendentalism should be glorified on its stance on free thought. This will be proven through, the true life story, “Into the Wild,” by Jon Krakauer and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s, “Nature.”
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.
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 could be considered to be one of the first revolutionary movements in United States history. They weren’t violent protesters but instead people who challenged the social norm and encouraged non-conformity. The effects of the Transcendentals and their influence are still felt today in writings and in movies such as Dead Poet’s Society. The movie Dead Poet's Society focuses on a group of highschoolers in an overbearing high school and their teacher, Mr. Keating. Mr Keating is a believer in the Transcendentalist movement and challenges normal teaching practices. His students take inspiration from Mr. Keating and take the Transcendentalist tenets to heart. But incorporating the tenets of Transcendentalism into your everyday life is not worth the risks that it poses. It can lead to being cast out from
Chris McCandless was a young man who gave up his belongings to live in the wild away from society, and his journey was to find fulfillment and the meaning of life through nature. In the nonfiction book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer writes about the details of Chris McCandless’s journey to find and reinvent himself as he lives off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the book, Krakauer portrays McCandless as a hero for rejecting society and falling victim to this bravery. However, Chris McCandless’s death is not an example of heroism and he did not fall victim to his courage. Instead, McCandless died as a result of ignorance and overconfidence that clouded his self-perception and ultimately led to his downfall.