Into the Wild’: Transcendentalism Essay

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In today’s society, humans are connected in a way that no other generation has ever been able to experience. The movie Into the Wild shows the journey of Chris McCandless on his way to find happiness in the materialistic world he lives in. Since the Romantic period, philosophers have used many theories to prove that happiness can be found, not only in our materials but in the world and people around us. Theory thinkers, like Emerson and Thoreau, used their philosophies to help try and shape society to take time alone. In the movie Into the Wild, Chris McCandless’ used ideas of philosophers to try to find the truest meaning of life, the trip became a success due to the relationships he formed, and his understanding of the meaning of life, the trip, however, was failure due to the way he died in a state of lonesomeness and unhappiness.

Emerson and Thoreau had many ideas about the way humans should live their lives by being connected with important relationships, but also the space needed to find oneself. The ideals Emerson and Thoreau, connect with evidence the trip was considered a success or failure were very much evident. One example was Emerson’s theory “Life is a journey, not a destination” This quote is important to the realization of the trip being a failure because it shows that Chris didn’t need to make it to Alaska. If Chris focused on making relationships and being happy he wouldn’t have been lonely in his final days. A theory that shows how his trip was a failure was “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.” This shows the trip is a success because Chris spent a lot of time alone analyzing his life. Also while reflecting on all the good that came from the bad things that happened like his parents always fighting in an abusive manner.

Chris’s journey had many positive aspects that made the trip a great success. One positive aspect was throughout Chris’s trip, he made many long-lasting relationships with people. In addition to Chris meeting these people, the people he surrounded himself with showed him many skills, such as how to not be materialistic, and how to live a life based around nature and simple life. Among his friends, Chris met people like Ron, Jan, and Rainey. Success and as found in how Chris used his time to begin to look for a deeper understanding of things that brought genuine happiness to his life. Ways he did this by going to places in nature that made him happy, an example of this was the cliff with water under it. Chris jumped off the cliff and seemed so happy he was practically beaming. The happiness on his trip showed Chris the ideas of Thoreau by saying you can be alone and still happy.

With Chris leaving home with little money, no support system, and simply without any identification, Chris’s trip and many opportunities to run into challenges make it a failure. To begin, Chris went out on his adventure with every idea of returning home at some point, while Chris was beginning to head home, he ran out of food and ended up eating a poisonous berry which caused him to starve, leaving his trip in the ultimate failure, of death. Among dying, Chris’s ultimate failure was dying lonely and upset. Chris’s whole idea of the journey was to find happiness in the lonesomeness of himself. This led Chris to be alone at the end of his life.

Throughout the movie Into the Wild, Chris uses many of the ideas of old philosophers, Emerson and Thoreau, to find meaning in his life. Thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau believed that life needed to have time spent alone to turkey have a purpose. Chris lessMcCandless showed many ways that a life could be fulfilled through being alone Chris used nature and Alaska as a way to find his happiness in the world. The ideas of philosophers helped back the ideas that Chris’s journey to find happiness was both a success and a failure

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