Mccandless's Heroes And Transcendentalism In Into The Wild

Christopher Johnson McCandless was an intelligent stubborn young man that found no importance in materialistic items. He was adventurous and filled with curiosity, but curiosity killed the cat. McCandless was inspired by various literary people, but he was most influenced by Jack London. Jack London was a novelist and journalist that had influenced McCandless through his fictional stories about living in the wild. He wrote about the effects of living in the wild and how it changes people. He was McCandless’s favorite. Another person that had an impact on McCandless was Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau was an essayist, poet and philosopher that believed in transcendentalism. Transcendentalism overall means that in order to understand nature, you need to go and experience it. McCandless’s literary heroes shaped the person he was and what he had done.

Chistopher McCandless had grown up reading Jack London’s books which later inspired his adventure into the wild. Jack London wrote, “He was so enthralled by these tales, however, that he seemed to forget they were works of fiction..”(32). This quote is implying that McCandless was so motivated by London’s writing that he took his fictional stories too serious and applied them to life. This quote related to McCandless because he had gone into the wild unprepared for two years looking to find life with nature. He was different from other people. He was psychotic because he believed he could survive in the wild with nothing but the clothes on his back. He had only taken rice, a few books and money that he later burned with the car that he had abandoned.

The fact that McCandless was not ready for the wild and took London’s fictional writings and brought them to life, explained why he favorited certain quotes from different authors. Thoreau was another one of the literary heroes that inspired Christopher McCandless. In Chapter Six of Into the Wild, an epigraph written by Henry David Thoreau explains life and how things are not always as they seem. He describes success as something that may not always be recognized as regret, but possibly as a lesson. That by starting each day with a new beginning and cheerful start, is what counts as success (34). This relates to McCandless because he valued nature and every day that came with it. Every day was a different day. He started his journey as a way to find light and life in nature.

McCandless did not take advantage of that fact that he was intelligent and rich. He had set his mind to something and was determined to do it. He was not concerned about leaving his family and possible future behind when he decided to go into the wild. Thoreau had stated, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices”(82). This is implying that rather having anything, they would prefer the truth. This related to McCandless because he did not care for materialistic items or the money his family had. Christopher had mainly believed that money was the root of all evil. Before his journey, he had donated $24,000 to the OXFAM Charity which proves he did not care about money. The only truth that separated him from his family was their ideology of living a happy successful life. McCandless found his parents to be controlling and he was more of an independent person.

McCandless liked to be free and did not like to be told what to do. In Chapter Fourteen, Thoreau had described an adventure on the mountains and what the feelings were like to just get lost in what he was doing (92). McCandless experienced everyday differently with the same positive attitude and took everyday like it was. He lived in the moment throughout most of his travels and just went with the flow. If there was an obstacle he would find a way to get through it. He took advantage of the opportunity of living technology and people free in the wild and underestimated its complexity. This then led to his death of starvation. These authors impacted his wide journey.

Each epigraph written in the book was taken from Christopher McCandless’s journal that he kept when he went into the wild. He held these quotes with him because they each had a significant value to him. Each quote further gave him a reason to begin his journey because they supported his perspective on how he viewed people and society as a whole. He took some fictional and personal stories and turned them into his own reality that unfortunately caused him his own death. These epigraphs highlighted his life and were used to apply and relate them to his own. He was influenced by the idea of a natural reality in the wild and learning to live from rock bottom with only the nature that surrounded him.