Into The Wild Transcendentalism Essay

A transcendentalist is a person who believes that the truths about life and death can be reached by going outside the world of senses. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Krakauer follows the path Chris McCandless took leading to his death. Chris McCandless was a person who disappeared from the world. Based on information from different people he met, Chris traveled around for a mere 2 ½ years (Krakauer author’s note). He never stayed in one area for long, he traveled all around North America, but he did, however, stay put in Alaska, where he found shelter in Bus 142 (Krakauer 13). He stayed here for four months, where he later died. It is argued over whether Chris McCandless is a true transcendentalist. Chris McCandless is a true
Some may think that he was just arrogant and had made a few bad choices that lead to his death, he thought he could survive anything. “Jack London got it right in “To Build A Fire”. McCandless is, finally, just a pale 20th century burlesque of London’s protagonist who freezes because he ignores advice and commits big time hubris” (Krakauer 72). This may be true but, it may have been the idea that he was going for. Maybe he didn’t want any of the advice that everyone was giving him because, he wanted to find it out for himself. This is what a true transcendentalist would do. It may be argued that he is not a transcendentalist due to the fact that he was arrogant, but that is a quality of a transcendentalist. Chris McCandless can be considered a true transcendentalist. He is a transcendentalist through the way he lives, acts, and through his connections through transcendental authors such as Jack London and Henry David Thoreau. He is a transcendentalist because he spread his ideas to accept the new realm of experience, he had always been someone who can keep himself occupied without material objects or people, and he traveled to the empty wilderness of Alaska by himself to discover