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Examples Of Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

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Kevin Sun Mrs. Cohen English 2CP --D February 22, 2018 Another Perspective The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance. In transcendentalism, living a simple live is significant to individuals. In the text From Walden, Henry David Thoreau advise that “simplicity” is the key to a free life and that we all should “keep our accounts on our thumbnail”(Thoreau 106). He states that people should pay less attention to materialism, instead pursue a simple and purposeful live. Thoreau does not consider money as fundamental when compared to nature and freedom. In the movie Into the Wild, Chris McCandless gets very angry when his parents offer him a new car as a gift because he has been everywhere with his old car and it works just fine; besides, he does not need a new one just because there are newer and cooler cars around. Chris keep saying that he does not want all those “things” from his parents. Obviously, Chris does not care much about material wealth and therefore he is too sick and tired of the society and his surrounding which

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