To be a nonconformist is to ignore what everyone else is doing and do what it is that you truly want to do. Thoreau, a famous transcendentalist, once said, “I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life” (Thoreau, “Where I lived and What I lived for” 253). He wanted to get away from society and all the shams and lies it presented. He only wanted the most basic facts, away from luxuries and back to the bare necessities. He also rejected the governing style: “When I meet a government which says to …show more content…
What is best for other people and the general public may not be what’s best for oneself, which is why Chris goes with his heart and his gut to make many of the decisions he made during his long journey. He escaped into the wild, like many philosophers and adventurers like Thoreau did before him. He does not let other people's opinions or ideals shape how he is going to live his life, and instead uses the ideals of Transcendentalism and self to live. Even though this way of living was created almost two hundred years ago, it can still be used to escape from the bonds of society and gain