Preview

Into The Wild Transcendentalism Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
450 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Into The Wild Transcendentalism Analysis
I believe Chris McCandless enjoyed the idea of transcendentalism. This is a philosophy that says; thought/spiritual things are more real than human experiences. This is shown throughout the book, Into the Wild, based off of his wanting to be away from society.
Throughout the book Chris shows his mild hatred for the current society and life he was living "...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." (Page 29). Chris seemed to believe money was a privilege that he no longer wanted. Today, everyone's lives are surrounded by money, which he believed was the wrong way to live. "Her son, the teenage Tolstoyan, believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently
…show more content…
That's possibly why he enjoyed it so much. The idea of adventures, or even danger, excited him. "No, I want to hitch north. Flying would be cheating. It would wreck the whole trip." (Page 67). This kid was definitely determined to conquer this trip. He wanted the full experience of it too. "When I let him off, he had a big damn machete hanging off his shoulder..." (Page 68). I won't lie, Chris had no idea what he was doing and wasn't prepared at all for this journey. Although, Chris believed he was ready. Even though we know what he did wrong, he still tried incredibly hard to pull it off. "It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here." (Page 69). As said before, McCandless was determined to do this. Even when things got rough, he took it like a champ. Most of us would've backed out within the first month. Chris, on the other hand, was going to do what he sent out to do; and he did it with a smile.
-Chris McCandless thought about life deeply and lived accordingly, most without harming others; that's not being crazy. However, many local people would have survived the condition he was in if he had more

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless gets portrayed as adventurous. He is adventurous in the way that he just left his family on a whim, and started traveling on his cross-country adventure. “I got the impression that this Alaska escapade was going to be his last big adventure” (Krakauer, 1996, pg 66) said Wayne Westerberg when describing how Chris talked about his then future trip plans. This shows that he was planning this big adventure for a long time and the Alaskan adventure would be the last big advent for a while. Or at least it was his last planned big adventure for a while as he was probably burnt out from adventuring for the last two and a half years. This is important as it shows Chris was too adventurous…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that Christopher McCandless was influenced by a great deal of circumstances, according to the information I have encountered during my time with the book called “Into the Wild,” one of those conditions was apparently his philosophical beliefs. I felt that his beliefs of being able to survive on his own without anybody’s help was only one of the foolish mistakes he had made throughout his whole escapade. There was a great deal of help offered to him in order for him to survive longer or even just make his adventure much easier than it would’ve been. According to Krakauer, “Gallien, a union worker who was the last person to see McCandless, offered to drive Alex, McCandless, all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear…’No thanks…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through out the book, Chris is prompted to make many small decisions in order to determine how he will live the rest of his life. From the moment he decided to go onto the road from Virginia to the West Coast, then landing in Alaska, he made small mistakes due to ignorance to fine details. During the most part of the book, Christopher McCandless is struggling without himself knowing of it. Many people he sees and meets along the way have warned him about the dangers of traversing the wilderness, alone with very little supplies and experience. After journeying into the deep Alaskan wilderness, Chris's actions show that with ignorance to small details, suffering will soon follow.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person and he was seeking happiness for himself in the wild. There are many things that show that he wasn’t crazy, like getting along with people, having some knowledge of living in the wild, and he was very bright and made some good decisions. However, he did seem somewhat incompetent.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless went out on a journey he could survive the Great Alaska, he let his ignorance control his life. Chris journey went downhill when he underestimate what to bring to The Last Frontier. He didn't notify his loved ones only caring about himself. McCandless is still a narcissistic in my point of view. Why wouldn't he at least tell them he was going off the grid for a few months or weeks. Why didn't he come to Alaska to get a taste of how it is, to be able to prepare…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book, Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, he elaborates Chris’s trip. Krakauer meets with the people that Chris met along his trip. Krakauer does several interviews to understand McCandless’s trip. He also followed McCandless’s journey, by going where Chris went and meeting the people he met. Throughout Krakauer’s book, he writes that there are different reason why McCandless went into the…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless was a deep thinker and he lived his life accordingly, but he was somehow crazy enough to try to live in the wild unprepared. His poor decision ultimately led to his death. Chris was willing to abandon his loving family and not say a word to them just so he could go live by himself in nature. His actions were inconsiderate. It demonstrates how crazy Chris was since he was willing to do this, and pretty much get himself killed. He, at the time before his adventure, had a great life that most people would have loved to have. Chris was a strange, crazy young…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless abandoned modern world and choose the wild because he believed that he can improve himself through living in the world, and finds the true happiness of the life. McCandless abandoned his wealthy family because his complicated relationship with his father, and he was ashamed with his father’s adultery. Therefore, McCandless believed that human relationship is not a thing that forms happiness, and the connection with nature brings joy as well. He also believed the habitual lifestyle was what people meant to do, and people shouldn't have more possessions than what they need. For this reason, McCandless travel with little effects. In addition, McCandless thought he can find the solution to his confusion with the adultery of his…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    what he was getting himself into? Chris had a sense of adventure even as a young boy.…

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    He had always been a bit different in the way he thought and that was hard for people to understand. For example, his parents tried to give him a new car in college but he simply did not want it. According to his mother Billie she states “We wanted him to have a new car and he didn’t want it” (Return to the Wild documentary). His parents felt quite insulted by this act, but Chris found no need for a new car when he had already bought his own car that he loved. I do not believe this was an act of disrespect towards his parents but a way to show how he wanted to live his life simply. He wanted to show people that he did not need all those extra things most people would consider necessary in today's society. Chris was also able to find a job working at McDonald’s while on his adventure. According to his manager he was very reliable and showed up to work everyday. Even though he was always there she claims “It was like he was off in his own universe” (Krakauer 40). I believe she says this because Chris was never truly interested in living the typical “college student” life working at a fast food restaurant for a couple of bucks so he could pay off school loans he did not really care about. He found more comfort in the thought of living only with what he truly needed to survive. These are just some more reasons on why I know Chris McCandless did not…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher McCandless was a young college graduate, who gave up everything to go live in the wild. Many people believe that McCandless was crazy and ignorant, others like Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild believe otherwise. I agree with the author that Christopher McCandless wasn't a crazy, a sociopath, or an outcast, because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for a long period of time.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people study the men and women who do the unordinary in which one was too completely leave society and start all over again just off of simple living and what he/she needs to survive. These people are transcendentalist. They value only simple living and the almighty God, becoming one with nature and not following any rules. Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" depicts the story of a young man who had all the smarts and talent to get him far in life, he has almost straight A's but decided to leave it all behind and live out in Alaska, by himself for as long as he could. He was not much of a social bug but more so of a transcendentalist. He studied previous transcendentalist and copied what they have done. This mans name was Chris Mccandless ,…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    chris mccandless

    • 633 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Who was Chris McCandless? Some say that he is a legend and others say that he was nothing more than a boy who threw away his future. Is the only one to blame for his own death? McCandless was the type of kid who always questioned things; he desired to know more but refused to work for the answers. In elementary school, McCandless was placed in accelerated classes but because he was so stubborn he refused to listen to the teachers and do the extra work. All in hopes that he would convince his teachers he was not smart and he would be taken out of the accelerated classes. McCandless rarely planned or prepared for the future, causing him to be unprepared for his journey into the Alaskan wilderness. He traveled into the wilderness because he wanted to discover what was missing from his normal life. Through his journey he realized that true happiness is when you share experiences with others. Unfortunately he discovered this too late into his journey and when he tried to return back to civilization his route was flooded. He soon ran out of food which inevitably leads to his death.…

    • 633 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Courageous and Adventurous. In his pursuit of happiness, he travelled 11,731 miles. People wouldn’t go that length for most things. He traveled on foot, through untouched wilderness, gang filled cities, and even across national borders. He taught himself how to hunt animals, collect fresh water and separate the poisonous plants. To say that Chris was not adventurous is a sin. He also hitchhiked with possibly hundreds of strangers. This takes courage to trust people’s good intentions. He did all this to search for something that most people do not have these days, happiness.…

    • 93 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the last 60 minutes of the movie, we see Chris still insisted on traveling into the wild, and in the way to Alaska, he met Ron Franz, an old man who lost his family in a car accident. Chris stayed with Ron for two months and he learned from him how to craft a leatherwork. However, even though Ron offered Chris to adopt him as a grandchild, Chris departed for his destination after postponed discussing that till he comes back from the Alaskan wilderness. Furthermore, Chris spent four months living in a bus in the Alaskan wilderness, and during that time, he ate all of his supplies and realized that nature can be harsh sometimes. At the time Chris decided to go back to his family, he found out that he couldn't cross the stream that he crossed before due to the melting snow. However, he started to eat plants, and by mistake, he ate a poison one. As a result, Chris suffered from starvation to death.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays