Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 1992) or Alexander Supertramp was a young, intelligent, man and adventurer. He ventured into the wild in spring 1992, with the goal of making it to the Alaska. With little food and equipment, hoping to live in nature with only the necessity's for a time in solitude. About 4 months later, McCandless's starved remains were found. He died slowly from the starvation his body had endured. His body was found inside an abandoned bus that he had been staying in, along the Stampede Trail on the eastern bank of the Sushana River.
Summary of Into the Wild : After spending his life in a emotionally abusive house, and graduating top of his class from Emerson University, Christopher McCandless decides that money is not everything and gives away $24,000 in savings to charity, while he lives a more simplistic lifestyle as he hikes to Alaska.
Transcendentalism is a religious, literary movement that began in the 1800's. Transcendentalism added complex religious ideas to writing. It explained the differences of focus and interpretation to literary.
"But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore;" -Nature, Emerson
"Nature" is a story written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who happens to be a Transcendentalist. This quote from "Nature" shows how Emerson felt about nature and how the complexity of the world today hides the beauty of it. Just as Chris McCandless thought that nature is something beautiful that people need to remember.
It's not the Destination, It's the Journey. - Self Reliance, Emerson.
Another story by Emerson, Self Reliance quotes "It's not the Destination, It's the Journey." which is exactly how Chris McCandless feels as he hitchhikes for several months on his "Journey" to his destination which was Alaska.
“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.” Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.
Thoreau is another transcendentalist who believed that man has forgotten to admire the beauty of nature. The quote above can relate to Into The Wild because if plants do not use what nature gives it, the plant will die. And throughout McCandless' journey he wants to live with the necessities that nature will give him.
"'Tis the Majority" Much Madness Is Divinest Sense, Dickinson.
Dickinson's poem "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense" Is a short poem that has a big meaning. In line four "'Tis the Majority" Shows that the poem is going into societal problems. The "Majority" Or society is a big problem to Dickinson, just as it was to McCandless.
"Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars." When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, Walt Whitman.
In the poem the speaker discovers the superiority of a simple, direct relationship to nature. The same as McCandless is trying to do throughout his journey.
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." Walden, Thoreau.
This quote from Thoreau relates to McCandless' main point, that money is not the most important thing in the world.
Written Source: http://www.christophermccandless.info/
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Created with images by Paxson Woelber - "Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying"