Christopher Mccandless: The Father Of Transcendentalism

In the early 1800s, a philosophical movement called Transcendentalism developed in the Northeast United States. Transcendentalists believed in self-reliance and that the individual is more powerful than the institution. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author of “Self-Reliance”, was one of the founders of Transcendentalism. Emerson befriended and mentored Henry David Thoreau, a fellow Transcendentalist and author of works such as “Walden”. Both men were pioneers for the movement and were the true embodiment of Transcendentalist ideals. Christopher McCandless, born in 1968, abandoned his comfortable life at the age of 22 to travel the country. He did this in order to connect his spirit to nature, which was also a Transcendentalist ideal. Transcendentalists believed that human beings and nature were equal, something McCandless demonstrated throughout his journey. In April of 1992, roughly two years after he started his journey, he camped away in the Alaskan wilderness, displaying acts of self-reliance by gathering his own food and lived without society. One of the most important Transcendentalist beliefs is nonconformity. McCandless chose not to conform to society’s idea of happiness and live out his own dream. Hayley …show more content…
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