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Transcendentalism essays
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“Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance” is an idea in the essay “Self-Reliance” that encompasses nearly all of transcendentalism (Emerson 5). It means that, between all bodies of life, whether it be as small as a chemical bond or as large as a tree, there it a unity between their beings, regardless of their physical form. This divine unity is the essence of transcendentalism. The philosophy was formed by the poets and authors such as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The term “transcendentalism” is brought up frequently in the discussion of Chris McCandless, the focus of the biography Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer. The exact reason for Chris’ decision to drop off the face of the Earth is unknown, but the circumstances of his life bring up mainly 2 different hypotheses: he was a revolutionary …show more content…
thinker, or he was an angsty teenager. While many perceived that Chris McCandless took his journey to only exasperate his parents, Chris can be considered a transcendentalist because he avidly respected and appreciated people, he sought personal revelations through nature, and he relied on himself for guidance and direction Chris embarked his journey for personal discovery, and he found that, in nature and simple living, one could find the purest sense of their being. Chris sought to escape this by pursuing a path to Alaska. In Into the Wild, upon receiving a ride from a man named Gallien and his push to take more equipment, Chris replied, “I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters” (Krakauer 7). The little details did not matter to Chris, all he wanted to do was to live, simply and uncomplicated, in order to learn about himself. In “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman paints, “I loafe and invite my soul/I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass” (5-6). Whitman conveys that the best medium of personal reflection is nature, and Chris seemed to agree; he took little gear with him as he commenced his exploration of the wilderness within Alaska (Krakauer 6). However, to achieve this, one cannot be caught up in the busy and fast paced path of life that most take in this current age. In the book Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Thoreau emphasizes how he grew in conscience through nature: “...when an early twilight ushered in a long evening in which many thoughs had time to take root and unfold themselves (86). Through the modesty and pureness of the night, Thoreau was able to reach high understandings. It is much easier to understand oneself and be without the destructive complexity of an urban life, because you can live in the moment Despite these attributes, there is a clear reason to believe that Chris merely acted as an immature and angry young man, who desired only to see his parents suffer.
Examples of this behaviour can be seen in a letter to his sister, Carine: “...I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live” (Krakauer 46). This sentence demonstrates how Chris wanted to rebel, to escape his parents, and their lifestyles, and did not care much for their reaction to his choice. In Into The Wild, he way his decision affects his family is clear. Billie, his mother, explains to Krakauer how difficult it was after Chris disappeared, saying “Night was the worst” and how she would think, “Where is he? Is he warm? Is he hurt? Is he lonely? Is he OK?” (87). Walt and Billie were changed people when their son left them, and his disappearance ingrained a sense of loss and longing for their son. The idea that a child would want to cause their parents so much pain obviously puts Chris’ character in a negative
light. However, Chris’ inner demons do not interfere with the definition of a transcendentalist, for not only did he have respect for all and a deep awe for nature, but he also strictly followed his intuition and relied on himself for guidance and wisdom. Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” clearly suggests that instead of surrendering to the government, or any overbearing authority, “you must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself, always tucked up and ready for a start...” (11). Self-reliance is a key factor of transcendentalism. Chris avidly believed in intuition and self-reliance, as expressed by a friend of his, “Chris just didn’t like being told what to do. I think he would have been unhappy with any parents; he had trouble with the whole idea of parents” (Krakauer 80). He seldom took advice from anyone, including many of the experienced people he met on his journey, including Gallien, who urged him to take things or stay in one place (6). He rejected nearly all of their offers. According to him, the person who truly knew what was best for Chris, was Chris. And this characteristic of self-reliance, while can be viewed as stubborn, is still essential to the philosophy of transcendentalism. When people learn of the way Chris’ journey ended, his body found in an abandoned bus in the middle of the wilderness, they automatically judge his decisions by it, making it very easy to say he was a troubled kid who overestimated himself. People tend to judge the value of things by their ending, instead of actually encompassing the wholeness. Yes, Chris died hungry and alone, but how did he live? He experienced events than most of us “normal” people, who wouldn’t dare to take such risks. Chris had everything: a prominent college degree, financial stability, a clear and promising career. Yet he left it. But, when he had nothing but the shirt on his back and the wind through his hair, he was happy. Chris’ actual travels should remind us that it’s the “how we get here” that should outweigh the “where we are.” Chris’ journey represents the ideology of transcendentalism; regardless of his true intentions to defy his parents, he sincerely appreciated of people, used nature as a medium of self-discovery, and relied on his own intuition for guidance.
Chris’s mother and Walt’s second wife, Billie really took McCandless’s departure to heart. On page 125, Krakauer has stated how Billie would never leave “the house without leaving a note for Chris posted on the door.” She was probably worried she would not be there when he would return, that is, if he were even alive. His sister, Carine, claims that although she knew Chris was not going to write to anyone, she was just as “worried when we didn’t hear from them” (Krakauer 123). Even Walt, the most temperamental of them all, stated that if had even the slightest idea, he would have “gotten a lock on his whereabouts” and brought his son home. Chris’s family members probably feel guilty; they believe as if they could have saved him from
The McCandless family all loved and cared about Chris deeply. The McCandless family was constantly distressed over Chris and the choices he made I life, as they knew they could not change his mind on any decision no matter how much they resented said decision. As shown in the book, “And then he left on his trip. . . We had our hearts in our mouths the whole time he was gone, but there was no way to stop him.” Page 118 Chapter 12. These quotes showed the constant worry they had over Chris fully knowing they could not change him. Chris’s feeling about his family weren’t as strong in return. Chris was more distant from his parents, Chris eventually grew a distaste for his parents when he discovered that his father never told him about his previous marriage. “He seemed mad at us more often, but he wouldn’t tell us what was on his mind and spent more time by himself.” Page 121 Chapter 12. Thoreau’s quote is similar to Chris’s viewpoint as Thoreau’s quote talks about lack of truth, which is why Chris is upset with Walt, lack of truth from his previous
Chris refused to confront his mother and father and instead repressed his emotions. Krakauer shows his influence with this comment, “Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris’s case” (Krakauer 122). He makes it very clear that Chris is really just a kid, and therefore, liable to make decisions that are rash or immature. Krakauer makes it clear that he thinks Chris’ opinions on his parents might have changed over time, had he lived. Chris was simply a kid who had been wronged by those who were supposed to protect him. All of Chris’ repressed emotions eventually came to the surface, “Chris kept careful score. And over time he worked himself into a choler of self-righteous indignation that was impossible to keep bottles up” (Krakauer 122). Chris eventually lashed out in the way that lots of children do, he ran away. His options were limited, he could either talk to his parents or a therapist about it or flee. His choice of fleeing shows that he really was working through something. By running away Chris broadcasts his youth and also makes the reader curious as to if he might have come back and worked out his issues eventually. The contradictions in Chris’ severe opinions of those around him show his youth, and inspire’s readers to be more
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 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: a man so infatuated with nature, he practically committed suicide to bring himself nearer to it. This extreme liking for nature, along with other ideals, makes up the core tenets of the transcendentalist philosophy. McCandless demonstrates other tenets of transcendentalism as well, most notably the supremacy of the individual, by detaching himself from the mammon of this world. Another way he shows the supremacy of the individual, by the belief that one should not conform to the usual policies of life, causes him great trouble in some cases. As well as the belief that the individual supersedes all else, McCandless received much of his inspiration from nature. Finally, always following what he believes correct, McCandless follows his own intuition to the point of death. Chris McCandless not only shows his transcendentalist beliefs by the way he acts and thinks, but also by how these actions and thoughts emulate those of the fathers of transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In 1990, when he was 22 years old, Christopher McCandless ventured out into the Alaska wilderness in search for true happiness, and 2 years later he suffered a tragic death. An aspiring writer, Jon Krakauer, found McCandless’ story fascinating and chose to dedicate 3 years of his life to write a novel about him. The book entitled “Into the Wild” tells the tale of Christopher McCandless, an ill prepared transcendentalist longing for philosophical enrichment, who naïvely, failed to consider the dangers of isolating himself from human society for such a long period of time. Though Christopher McCandless made a courageous attempt to separate himself from society, in order to achieve self-fulfillment, the stubborn nature of this reckless greenhorn led him to his unfortunate demise.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” The father of transcendentalism, Emerson believed that people who resist change to be what is most natural, themselves, are the true heroes of the world. Ken Kesey, another popular writer, wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in a similar spirit. His novel takes place on the ward of a controlling army nurse at an Oregon mental institution in the late 1950s. The storyline mainly follows the interactions between Nurse Ratched, a manipulating representation of society, and Randle Patrick McMurphy, a patient, gambler, and renegade. Kesey echoes the transcendentalists and romantics in his work by
When Chris left for his journey he wasn’t crazy or stupid as many would say. “McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large, but rather to explore the inner country of his own soul” pg. 183. The fact that Chris never bother to discuss his Alaskan walk about with his anyone especially his parents wasn’t intentional. However throughout the whole book it was made very clear that he was at odds with his parents in some way to go off on his journey but he didn’t want to hurt them, which I think Walt and Billie finally realized visiting the bus where Chris had passed. I think Chris just wanted to get away from his everyday life, clear his mind, a mind that didn’t involve the worries of expectations and the thoughts of his parents hanging on his shoulders.
In this essay, I will compare the philosophies of transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism through the writings of Thoreau and Emerson vs. Melville. In Thoreau’s excerpt of “Walden”, he tested the transcendentalist philosophy through experience. Emerson’s transcendental writing style is displayed in “Nature”. In Melville’s excerpt of Moby Dick, he exhibits anti-transcendentalism in his work.
The settings in the story have impacts on the theme of young manhood. Chris leaves his family and decides to go on a journey to find a new life. Christopher felt affected in his family presence so he sends his final school report to his family: “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”(Krakauer,55). He believes that this is a way to find his true identity and peace of mind, which he thought could be achieved by fleeing into the wild. Chris seemed to have a bad relationship with his parents, especially with his father because Chris found out that he had a child with his first wife when Chris was born. This fact is revealed by his dad’s old neighbour, “Walt’s split from his first wife, Marcia, was not a clean or amicable parting. Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret” (Krakauer121). Chris knew about his father’s affair with another woman and this made it easier for Chris to not care about what his family has to say ...
McCandless’s utter repugnance for his parents caused something to snap within him resulting in his desire to remove them from his life, thus becoming free of their demands, judgments, and inquisitions. Krakauer explains; “Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris’s case" (122). The standards some parents set for their children are often unattainable and often come from a place of their own failures and shortcomings. In McCandless’s case, this is exactly what happened. Walt and Billie had demanded so much of Chris physically, academically, and morally, that when he was made aware of their i...
In Thoreau’s works Walden, he advertised the notion of leaving the world behind to find our true selves and Chris did just that. Chris was a intelligent man who could have gone on to have seemingly whatever he wanted, but instead he chose to distance himself from society as a whole. Chris was rather cruel though, he left his entire family behind without even a simple goodbye. One can see just how devastating that was throughout the movie as Chris’s sister is the narrator and often spoke longingly about his brother. Originally this was something that a person such as Thoreau may commend as Thoreau stated in Walden that “society is commonly too cheap.” Thoreau believed that men and women interacted with each other so frequently that all interactions had lost their meaning, that society had no value. Chris believed in this too and rebelled against society. Along his way, Chris abandons everyone who tried to help him from Rainey, a traveling
Transcendentalism is based on the belief that institutions in the society corrupt an individual’s purity. Transcendentalists believe that people are at their best when they are truly independent and self-reliant. They also believe that from independence and self-reliance, a true community is formed. Even though Transcendentalism is not recognized, it still exists in the modern society. Though not clearly outspoken as in Emerson and Thoreau’s times, many people in today’s society still have transcendental beliefs. Transcendental ideals are found in songs, films, books and other works such as media and advertisements. One example is the song “Get up, Stand up,” by Bob Marley, it is found to be influenced and has inspiration of transcendental elements such as Solitude (individuality), self-reliance, non-conformism (anti-institution), anti-materialism, nature and spirituality.
The video game “Ori and the Blind Forest” has strong themes of American Transcendentalism by the importance of nature, balance, and the connect of all beings. A noticeable feature in the game, “Ori and the Blind Forest”, is how predominate nature is in this game. Throughout the entire game the main focus is nature and trying to restore it. This is shown through the background, storyline and even the characters in the game. Nature is has a huge impact in Transcendentalism, and about how important it is to being alive. “Ori and the Blind Forest” is a fantastic example of Transcendentalism, seeing as the entirety of the game is about nature, and lack of it brings death. Another important aspect that both Transcendentalism and “Ori and the Blind Forest” share is the importance of balance.