In the book Into the Wild, the author, Jon Krakauer, voices his opinion on why Christopher McCandless was a transcendentalist hero. Christopher McCandless is a transcendentalist hero because he did not comply with society, he influenced and moved people wherever he traveled to, and lastly he left his materialistic lifestyle to find what he thought was true happiness.
In the last stanza of A Psalm of Life, this quote was used; “Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait,” Chris would always follow his heart and be “up and doing” in what he felt was the right thing to do. Through Chris’s trek into the wild, he would continue pursuing his dreams and achieve satisfactory even though he was on the brink of death. In his mind, Chris felt he was achieving something meaningful other than conforming to society's perceptions. Another passage from A Psalm of Life that McCandless follows dearly is the following; “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul” (stanza II). This passage means that life without a meaning is not purposeful. Chris’s goal in life was to be something other than…show more content… He left his materialistic lifestyle behind for what he thought was the gold at the end of the rainbow. His life was set up to provide maximum potential, but instead he threw it all away. Any sane person would not travel alone, hardly knowing any survival techniques, and with no money along the West Coast and eventually to Alaska. Chris, by some, may be seen as an idiot.
Christopher McCandless may be seen as a controversial transcendentalist hero. You cannot deny the fact he is a hero because he did not comply with society, he influenced and moved people wherever he traveled to, and lastly he left his materialistic lifestyle to find what he thought was true
