...“I wished to acquire the simplicity, native feelings, and virtues of savage life; to divest myself of the factitious habits, prejudices and imperfections of civilization… and to find, amidst the solitude and grandeur of the western wilds, more correct views of human nature and of the true interests of man”(Krakauer 157). Christopher McCandless is neither a pilgrim nor a suicidal narcissist. A pilgrim is defined as one who journeys for a religious purpose. Although “God” is mentioned multiple times throughout the novel, McCandless never states that his reasoning for traveling to Alaska was because “God put him in the land of righteousness- Alaska”. McCandless also did not journey on his Odyssey to find God or improve his relationship with...
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...There are many different points in the story Into the Wild where things Chris McCandless does and ways that he acts suggest that he had a transcendentalist way of thinking about things. From his distaste for money, need to find his true self, and his views on how society was corrupt and impure, Chris exemplifies his high moral standings and his outlook on how things should be. There are many good examples that help to prove that McCandless was a transcendentalist in the essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. One belief of transcendentalists that McCandless expresses multiple times throughout the book is a need to disconnect from corrupt society and find his inner self by taking trips with strange motives, and retreating into the wild...
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...Comparative Essay Into the Wild Leo Tolstoy is considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time, influencing the world of the arts as well as the way we analyze the philosophies of human beings. Throughout the past century, he has influenced millions of people with his meaningful and powerful novels and essays about the way we appreciate love and how we live our lives. When reading the novel Into the Wild, it becomes clear that the artist’s philosophies have had leverage on Christopher McCandless and the theories he applies to his chosen lifestyle. When analyzing McCandless’ behavior, Tolstoy’s importance becomes evident through the reasons the protagonist has when leaving the society he was a part of in terms of luxury, human contact with the wilderness, and the importance of conscience. These ideals can be seen specifically represented in one of Tolstoy’s essays titled On Labor and Luxury, which forms part of a compilation of papers published in the book What to do? in 1887. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy opens his argumentative piece by describing his reasons to criticize society, which presents McCandless’ ideals on escaping the community he was a part of. Tolstoy describes “the wretchedness of our life” by stating that “If the people of our sphere, of our caste, will only take a serious look at themselves, then young persons, who are in search of personnel happiness, will stand aghast at the ever-increasing wretchedness of their life, which is plainly leading them...
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...Into the Wild Character Analysis Essay Chris McCandless, the main character in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, is a man with many problem in his life, in which, sets out to find his true self by surrounding himself with nothing but nature in the Alaskan wilderness. In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher Mccandless as foolish and determined. Christopher Mccandless is a guy who sought out nature to find the true meaning of life, but in doing so, it killed him because he was foolish. Chris was going to make the long journey to Alaska by foot, but everyone else knew he would end up needing a ride, but ¨… when they see that [machete]¨(Krakauer, 68), no one's gonna want to. He intended to make his long journey and live off nature...
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...Brandon Waldrep Period 2 9-28-14 AP Lang & Comp “Into the Wild” Essay Prompt #1 The presentation of Chris J. Mccandless story is influenced by the authors supposed relation to Chris, empathy for Chris, and emphasis of Chris’s intellectual/charismatic encounters with the people he meets. Krakauer portrays his views of Mccandless through these personalized presentations of Chris’s life or his own in the book. Krakauer uses, overall, empathy and emphasis of Chris’s good deeds and attributes in the presentation of his story to portray his views of Chris. Krakauer emphasizes opinions of people who encountered Chris throughout the book that tell about Chris’s good attributes. Westerberg, whom Chris worked with on a farm before going to Alaska, says “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent” (Krakauer 18) and Franz, an old man that gets close with Chris, says “God, he was a smart kid” (Krakauer 52). These examples in the book of the author highlighting these opinions make you start to think it’s the authors. Especially since these opinions are from several different people, but all seem to focus on the opinion that Chris had intellectual ability. The book constantly reminds you of the author’s opinion of Chris throughout the characters in the book including Franz, Westerberg, Borah, Burres and Stuckey. All of Chris’s encounters with these people are drawn out, taking many pages of the book like chapter six that talks about almost nothing but Chris’s relation with...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian Minister that left his home to find an entirely new meaning to life, which is exactly what Chris McCandless did as well. Emerson’s belief was that you should do what you thought was right, and not follow anyone else’s opinion but your own. In the biography Into the Wild, Chris demonstrates qualities that convey transcendentalism. He left his whole life behind to go into the wilderness and find a better meaning of life that didn’t involve any materialistic items. He wanted to travel on his own without the help of other people, which demonstrates that he relied on only himself to get through the dangers of the wild. Ralph Waldo Emerson would agree that Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist, because he followed most of what Emerson believed to individualize...
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...Christopher McCandless, the author of Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild." has been widely regarded as a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes the importance of individualism, nature, and self-reliance. This essay will argue that Chris McCandless fits into being a transcendentalist. Firstly, Chris McCandless embodies the transcendentalist value of individualism. Throughout his journey, he seeks to find his true self and rejects the expectations and constraints of society. He leaves his privileged life behind to live a simple and self-sufficient life in the wilderness. He does not conform to societal norms, nor does he seek approval from others. This pursuit of individualism is a key tenet of transcendentalism,...
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...from it. In the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a young man named Chris McCandless sets out on a journey in the wilderness, leaving society behind. Like a transcendentalist named Henry David Thoreau, he began “essential living”. Chris McCandless is considered a transcendentalist because he lives a simple life, and choses to abandon society and live out in the wilderness. A simple life is what transcendentalists believe in. In the book Walden, Thoreau mentions, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” This hints at the idea of a simple life where everything is organized and reduced....
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...Realist or Narcissist? Throughout Chris McCandless's journey we never truly find out if Chris McCandless is a noble but misguided idealist or a narcissist who hurt his family.Chris McCandless is a person who travels America and the Alaskan wilderness in order to pursue his ideals on his journey he puts his ideals into action by leaving behind materialistic possessions for example his car in the Mojava desert and giving away his money to charity.This essay will give insight into whether Chris McCandless was an idealist or narcissist. Chris McCandless is more of an idealist he followed his ideals, he thought of the perfect world for himself and he knew he couldn’t change the world and get people to live the way he wants so he does it by himself...
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...Into the Wild Argumentative Essay Into the Wild is a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word article on Christopher McCandless titled "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside. Christopher Johnson McCandless was an intelligent, idealistic young man who believed that life was best lived alone, in nature. He spent two years testing his theory throughout the western United States before he entered the wilds of Alaska unprepared and starved to death. Chris had a very bright, hopeful future and why he left it all behind confuses most people. After analyzing Chris's personality traits, it helps things make sense. This makes many people ask the question, what was Christopher McCandless's temperament type? The theory of temperament type was introduced in the 1920s by Carl G. Jung. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment. Based on evidence from the story, Chris McCandless was most likely an INTP (introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving) temperament type. This means he was focused internally, where he dealt with things rationally and logically. Some people would diagree wiht this position and would argue that Chris McCandless leaned towards the preference of sensing and feeling. There is some evidence provided...
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...Would you drop everything just to go live in a run down bus in the midst of an unknown area? In John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, a young man, by the name of Chris McCandless, embarks on a quest of independence. He believes life’s answers lie in the frozen Alaskan wilderness. Transcendentalism is the philosophy that one can discover a higher truth in nature and self perfection is achieved by transcending beyond the human experience. Therefore, Chor McCandless is a transcendentalist due to his desire to escape the society of conformity and his passion for self discovery. First, Transcendentalists believe in escaping society and conformity. In the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson states, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood...
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...Chris McCandless, round and static character of commentary text novel Into the Wild is depicted as a detached young man contending solely with his own internal conflicts. Into the Wild is a non-fiction journalistic piece written by Jon Krakauer which delineates the events Chris McCandless encountered over a two year journey of self discovery, independence, and utter emancipation from materialistic society in the wilderness. To begin with, Christopher Johnson McCandless, known for a brief period of his life as Alexander Supertramp was born on February 12, 1968 to Walt and Billie McCandless in El Segundo, California. Christopher’s secondary education originated at Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia where he would furthermore...
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...Into the wild essay Who is Chris McCandless? If you read the book into the wild, then you would probably think he is a young, go getter who went on an Alaskan adventure that went horribly wrong. According to some of the locals in Alaska, there were some obvious key mistakes that he had made that any normal person could have made that would have saved McCandless's life. Could it be that McCandless was just your average idiot? If you were a local is Alaska then your answer would probably have been a strong yes. The book starts off with McCandless dying, which is never a good thing to have in your soul searching adventure. The book then goes back to tell the story about how he make it up to Alaska. A Lot of the things just go against common sense and may even show signs of mental illness. He starts off by leaving his family with nothing, not even a note saying goodbye. He then goes on a long journey to get to Alaska so that he can finally be at peace in the wild. On this journey he meets a band of hippies that take him in and help him get part of the way up to Alaska, on the rough they stopped at a place called slab city where he meets a girl who falls in love with him and wants him to stay...
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...2013 Into The Wild “Christopher McCandless's Influences, Relationships, and Preparation forAlaskas survival.” The influences from the authors and books chris read, shows us all how he related himself from the quotes that are in this book. Chris carved in to a piece of wood that was discovered on the bus at the scene of chris' death, that Jack London is KING, and also used a passage from White Fang (9). The passage chris read says, Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness-a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen- hearted Northland Wild (JACK LONDON, White Fang) (9). Chris related to this passage because it described what his present surroundings were exactually like. The passage from Leo Tolstoy tittled “Family Happiness” was also found with Chris McCandless's remains (15). Chris related this passage...
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...Fear of the Unknown Taking any kind of a risk is a gamble. They have the potential to lead to a harmful or dangerous outcome, yet can still provide the opportunity for an outcome that can perceived as positive. The essay, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer is his account of Chris McCandless’ search for himself through taking a risk and inhabiting the Alaskan wilderness. Through his lack of survival skills, it is evident that McCandless is a person who likes to take part of risky and dangerous behaviors. “Immune to Reality” by Daniel Gilbert is an analytical essay that revolves around the existence of the psychological immune system. This defense system proves to work as a mechanism that can create positive views out of a negative experience thus producing happiness to an individual. Through Gilbert’s analysis he discovers that people are usually not in favor of taking risks out of fear of feeling regret. However he proves how the psychological immune system can turn a negative consequence of taking a risk into a more pleasant and bearable one. The essay “Another Look Back, And A Look Ahead” by Edward Tenner is an insightful discussion about how people often miscalculate the way technologies will work in the future and to what extent they are useful. People may find themselves getting an unexpected outcome of some new technology which can lead to dangerous risks in the future. People take risks because they want to attain happiness however in the process of this, sometimes people’s...
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