Into The Wild Transcendentalism

The movie Into the Wild, compares McCandless intentions when travelling into the wilderness with transcendental ideas, while the consequences and results displayed naturalist thoughts. McCandless, who was a brilliant minded boy, was troubled and struggled to agree with his family. He despised the society's expectations and abhorred materialism which was one of the reasons he struggled to get along with his father. McCandless was a strong perpetrator of transcendental ideas, which one can understand as the reasoning process behind an experience. Changing his name to Alexander Supertramp, destroying all ID and burning the money which was supposed to be saved for Harvard law, began his journey out of society and into the wild. Throughout his travels, he …show more content…
He encouraged Franz to step outside his comfort zone and to explore. He believed the world had not meant for them to live in a society with materials, money or expectations. He was determined to discover the true meaning of life, the transcendental way, similar to Henry David thoreau's journey into the wild at Walden. Although his goal was to find the true meaning of life, which he thought was predetermined and meant to be discovered by the world, the outcomes and consequences of his journey proved to be naturalist as well. Once McCandless arrived in Alaska, he began to face the struggles of life without certainty of food and shelter. When he found the abandoned bus, he began to keep track of the days and wrote quotes about life promoting his transcendental beliefs. However, nature began to take its toll and McCandless began to starve, while becoming skinnier and less healthy as the days went on. Nature's instinct began to take over and although he wanted the world to have spiritually predetermined what his life was to be, death was inevitable and without the tools to survive he was going to face his death sooner or