Transcendentalism-Chelsea Gilbert

While do research for my paper about Chris McCandless, I looked up journeys that were similar to his. The two most significant people that I never thought of before were Emerson and Thoreau. I knew that transcendentalism was a movement where transcendentals focused on spirituality, empirical reality, and intuition, but it never really struck my mind that McCandless' journey was similar. Because I believe that ultimately, McCandless was trying to find spirituality along his travels, it makes perfect sense now that he would be compared to two of the greatests authors of all time. Thoreau settled himself in solitude out in nature to find religion. He was a demander of the simplistic life full of religion, and McCandless set out on his journey because he wanted to escape conventional life and live a simple life. Emerson's stories also revolved around nature and religion and the idea that the meaning of life could be found through nature. After doing more research on the topics of Chris McCandless and Transcendentalism, it can be questioned on whether Chris was a transcendentalist of our time. It seems very likely that he could be based on the readings and notes he left behind, most of them centered on getting away from things that hinder a simple life and finding a source of higher meaning in the world. It was very interesting to come across an idea like this in my research.