In Jon Krakauer’s biographical tale into the wild, Chris McCandless struggles to follow a path of transcendental ideals by going off the grid soon after he graduates college. While on his journey, McCandless travels to beautiful landscapes and tries to live in self-sufficiency. However, this journey towards a higher spiritual living eventually leads him to his own demise. Reflecting upon McCandless story, his nomadic traveling was simply a search for balance between the spiritual and modern ways of living. McCandless sought after transcendentalism as a way to fix this imbalance. It was never a question as to whether transcendental ideas helped McCandless reach a spiritual enlightenment, it was about being able to incorporate these new found
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The transcendentalist movement came about during the eighteenth to nineteenth century, it started out as a reform movement which rejected church and religion in general, then shifted to a movement that questioned and rejected societal living as a whole. Transcendentalists were mostly highly educated people from New England who were struggling to define their spirituality in a hardened and stiff society. Some of the great minds of the movement included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Both Emerson and Thoreau were exceptionally intelligent and became graduates of Harvard university. After leaving college, both men sought out meaningful jobs in the world. Emerson longed to become a clergyman like his father before him, and Thoreau just wanted a steady job that paid well. Yet, both were led to the same path: transcendentalism. Emerson, was, in fact, the leading nineteenth-century transcendentalist …show more content…
It can proceed inwardly, and be easily within reach because the qualities that he gained from his travels are natural parts of every human being. Transcendentalist Thoreau speaks to this in his most famous work Walden. Thoreau’s essay describes valuing the wise, intrinsic nature that each person holds within himself. He outlines all people hold within them a wise nature and that it must be rekindled, this “savage delight”(Thoreau, Walden) because it is going back to “true humanity” (Thoreau, Walden). Those qualities, authenticity, peace, freedom, and, serenity, are already there, it’s just about knowing how to access them and make them a part of everyday living. That’s what McCandless was searching for, in the end, a life of balance. It’s definitely possible to create such a life, but it can’t be lead through one extremity or the other. Thoreau emphasizes that there must be a balance between spiritual enlightenment and modern living. It is a blend of the two that enable people to reconnect with themselves,and, also not completely derail from the technology that has helped human beings to survive as a
The transcendentalist movement came about during the eighteenth to nineteenth century, it started out as a reform movement which rejected church and religion in general, then shifted to a movement that questioned and rejected societal living as a whole. Transcendentalists were mostly highly educated people from New England who were struggling to define their spirituality in a hardened and stiff society. Some of the great minds of the movement included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Both Emerson and Thoreau were exceptionally intelligent and became graduates of Harvard university. After leaving college, both men sought out meaningful jobs in the world. Emerson longed to become a clergyman like his father before him, and Thoreau just wanted a steady job that paid well. Yet, both were led to the same path: transcendentalism. Emerson, was, in fact, the leading nineteenth-century transcendentalist …show more content…
It can proceed inwardly, and be easily within reach because the qualities that he gained from his travels are natural parts of every human being. Transcendentalist Thoreau speaks to this in his most famous work Walden. Thoreau’s essay describes valuing the wise, intrinsic nature that each person holds within himself. He outlines all people hold within them a wise nature and that it must be rekindled, this “savage delight”(Thoreau, Walden) because it is going back to “true humanity” (Thoreau, Walden). Those qualities, authenticity, peace, freedom, and, serenity, are already there, it’s just about knowing how to access them and make them a part of everyday living. That’s what McCandless was searching for, in the end, a life of balance. It’s definitely possible to create such a life, but it can’t be lead through one extremity or the other. Thoreau emphasizes that there must be a balance between spiritual enlightenment and modern living. It is a blend of the two that enable people to reconnect with themselves,and, also not completely derail from the technology that has helped human beings to survive as a