Consequences In Into The Wild

What are the consequences of challenging societal expectations? This is a question that comes up often in everyday life. One typically runs into consequences when one defies society and does something different than the expected social norms. One may run into a consequence when challenging society shown in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s text, “Self-Reliance” and Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild. Both works are centered around defiance and they both consist of prime examples of consequences when one challenges societal expectations. Both authors provide examples that can be linked to the fact there will always be consequences when one challenges societal expectations, but they should not be taken to heart. In both “Self Reliance” and Into the Wild,
It also provides a consequence when one challenges societal expectations. It demonstrates the concept of trust and how it may or may not lead to a specific consequence. The preceding quote from “Self-Reliance” uses Emerson’s ideas but relates very much to Krakauer’s work Into the Wild and helps to provide an example of a consequence when one challenges societal expectations: “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Emerson, 362). The fact that Emerson wrote “Self-Reliance” to tell the world to trust oneself is a clear example that if one challenges society and everyday norms, there will be no consequences. Emerson’s point of view is very different from Krakauer’s point of view, but when combined, they ultimately relate. If one feels the need to pack up their belongings, burn all of their money, and leave their family like Chris McCandless did in Into the Wild, Emerson suggests one should trust theirself and their decision. He would approve of McCandless heading out by himself into the unknown with barely any belongings. There were several consequences when Chris defied society, but the point is that he did what he felt was right and ultimately, he did not take to heart the criticism along the
The preceding quote demonstrates an example of how Chris and his father were very different from each other. He wrote, “‘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 64). This is a prime example of the consequences when Chris challenged societal expectations and it is also a prime example of how he was misjudged by his family. The consequence of defying society is that he was smart and people judged him because they might have been jealous of his intelligence. Chris himself even knew his level of intelligence. They might have judged him because he was smart but they did not realize the struggles he undertook with his family. He was judged by his family because they did not realize his level of intelligence. They judged him because they were not able to comprehend his intelligence and they did not understand his thinking process. He felt that he was too intelligent for the rest of society and he felt like he needed to leave everything and go off on his own living for himself. This makes complete sense and it is honestly a very smart decision he made. He knew there was going to be consequences along the way, but he did not care. He was living for himself and himself only.
Overall, between the two works, “Self-Reliance” and Into the Wild, there were many consequences when one challenged societal expectations.