The words of many authors, poets, and songwriters can influence certain aspects of a person’s life. One may simply admire the work because of the inspiration or beauty behind the piece, but others take the words to heart and live their lives by it. A fan of many transcendentalism authors Chris McCandless wanted to live his life with the same simplicity they did. After finding the inspiration in the works of Jack London and Henry David Thoreau McCandless ventured out into a two-year-long journey to find happiness in the Alaskan Wilderness. McCandless had the bravery to follow his own dream and was willing to risk his life for true happiness.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.
The Dead Poets Society portrays the views of transcendentalism seamlessly into movie through the characters Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, and Mr. Keating. These characters represent the ideals of transcendentalism by vicariously demonstrating the teachings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, who are all transcendentalists that practice self through nature and non-conformity. Throughout the movie, all three characters represent transcendentalism, but express the ideals in their own way. Neil Perry exhibits his true human self in the scene where he opens the window and strips down of his clothes before killing himself. Whitman, a poet who practices self through nature utters, “[He] will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked.”
The reader gets to join McCandless in his adventure across the country as he invents a new life for himself. He embraces the ideas and morals of Thoreau and Emerson in his journey. In the book, a man by the man by the name of Westerberg discusses about how McCandless is not destroying his possessions and journey around the wild because the wild he is suicidal or unintelligent. “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent… He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.”
Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau are followers of the 19th century philosophy Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the belief that everyone has the wisdom in them to be one with God without having to go through a priest or be in a church. Transcendentalists base this philosophy on self-wisdom, nature, and social reform. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild shows Chris McCandless’ choices and parallels to Henry David Thoreau’s transcendental beliefs from Walden. One transcendental belief that Chris McCandless follows is living deliberately.
McCandless did something in his life that impacted him the best way possible. He followed his heart and was not constricted to anything, he was happy until the very end. McCandless lived the true philosophy of Transcendentalism and can be referred to as a modern transcendentalist. He lived a simple life in nature, he was optimistic and relied on himself. He had no need for relationships or conforming with society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher during the early 1800’s in America, wrote Self-Reliance, an essay about the importance of the individual, and relying one’s own thoughts and impressions. He emphasizes the importance of thinking for yourself, not relying on others to think for you. Rhetorical strategies, like figurative language, allusions, and elaborate syntax and parallelism, allow Emerson
In the short story, “Death of an Innocent” by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless travels into the Alaskan wilderness with the intention of relying completely on himself. In the true spirit of transcendentalism, McCandless travels to escape the bounds of society and to remove himself from a materialistic world. Many argue, however, that Chris McCandless was not a transcendentalist because he travels to exotic lands as a means of avoidance, but actually, Chris McCandless is the epitome of a transcendentalist. Transcendentalists, however, rely on themselves and nature to survive and do not depend on material items. Transcendentalists romanticize individualism and believe that intuition is the best guide through life.
Was Chris McCandless a true transcendentalist? Transcendentalism is a system developed by Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, McCandless is viewed as a transcendentalist.
Chris McCandless was a young man who had been a part of a wealthy family and previously lived a comfortable lifestyle, until he decided that he was better off without it. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless cut off all communication with his family and created a new identity for himself as a form of dissociation from society. Transcendentalism influenced Chris McCandless' life and beliefs in Into the Wild as it strongly evoked the sense of abandoning his privileged lifestyle and a simple life of nonconformity. Chris McCandless felt the need to abandon his social life after he retrieved influential beliefs from the ideologies of people like Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the excerpt ‘Walden’, Thoreau states how most
In the 21st century, there are more ways of living ones life than ever before. From religious, economic, and moral standpoints, life can be lived altered to ones beliefs. Unfortunately, it is only recently that the normalization of living ones own life has came about. For a young man named Neil Perry, he has certain dreams for his life, but his father will do everything in his power to forbid them. In Peter Weirs “Dead Poets Society” the new English teacher, Mr. Keating bases his class around Transecendental ideals.
This quote refers to that the enlightenment fundamentally empathizes, that every individual has the responsibility, for thinking for themselves. This core idea is represented in the behavior of the environmentalists. Each one of them were not involuntarily pressed by a third party, to position themselves in the path of the bulldozer. However, each of them individually thought for themselves. All of them came to the conclusion, that the forest is worthy of salvaging.
Walt Whitman is one of the leading mystic poets of death in the field of American poetry. Death is assigned a distinguished space in his poetic universe of Leaves of Grasswhich immensely colours his vision of life. This paper is an attempt to present Whitman’s attitude towards death vis-à-vis global mystic perspective. Reality of Death
This quote promotes the idea of self-reliance by focusing on what each person thinks and not depending on others to carry you along. You must think and decided things for yourself instead of being told what to
He even says that he have died “thousand times before.” As a consequence of his belief, he was able to view the world optimistically. Transcendentalism, the belief of Ralph Waldo Emerson changed Walt Whitman’s perspective of the world. By introducing himself as an omniscient narrator, Whitman criticizes contemporary society for depraving purity of one’s soul. Instead, society should know how disruption of balance could create chaotic situation such as inhumane act such as slavery and by acknowledging God
