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While only from 1830 to 1860, the literary movement, Transcendentalism, continued to have a profound impact on American culture. Transcendentalism was founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is best known for his essay, Self-Reliance. In his essay, Self-Reliance, Emerson states: “Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” He makes a strong statement favoring the individual and against the possible benefits of society. To support his friend, Emerson invited his friend, Henry David Thoreau, to live on his property near Walden Pond. Thoreau said “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” In Thoreau’s opinion, there is no other place for him to go other than nature to learn about essential living. He then goes on about his intentions of living “deliberately” by explaining that he wants “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” so basically he wants to live life to the fullest before he dies. It is common to give these two men the credit for bringing Transcendentalism to the American public through their writings which focused on: nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, and the importance of nature. In both Death of Innocent and At Walden a unifying argument is that you don't need to have a ton of money, a big house, or much to be happy. This shared perspective is significant because the world believes we need material to be happy, yet some have broken that barrier and have sought out the simple, essential living life. Throughout they learn what self-reliance means. Though both Death of Innocent and At Walden explore self-reliance, their treatment of the topic is different. This difference is significant because Emerson believes self-reliance is how someone can find their true self. Thoreau argues that people should break free from the laws that are not considered “acceptable”. These ideas are also significant because to a transcendentalist, large cities that are busy and complex and have societies that get in the way of actual essential living, self-reliance, and natural and spiritual connections that can be found in nature.
In the magazine article, Death of an Innocent, Jon Krakauer informs us about Chris McCandless’ decision to spend a couple of months in the Alaskan wilderness to test his abilities and also to be able to find true happiness. Krauker talks about his own mountain climbing experience with Chris’ expedition to Alaska explaining that he understands why Chris took the many risks that he did. He additionally explains that he and Chris both took on unnecessary risks by having no way to seek help. Krakauer also explains that McCandless had a strong need to recognize the deeper, natural means of life through experiencing living completely on his own near no civilization. Krakauer additionally says that after some time, Chris wrote that it was time for him to let go, as he was at his weakest point, and other factors that drove him to his end and ultimately to his “final and greatest adventure” Krakauer's wrote this article to inform why somebody so young, would give up everything he had for things much more simple. Krauker has a sympathetic tone acknowledging that he sees himself in Chris’ and understands why Chris wanted a life alone in the Alaskan wilderness.
He supports this idea by first growing his food, He ate wild berries apples, and sometimes fish. He had a system in which he had to work only a little at a time for his upkeep, and reserved a lot of time for reading, exploring, thinking, observing, and writing. He says “For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found that by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as well as most of my summers, I had free and clear time for study.” (Walden, 69) Towards the end of the text he eventually returned to civilization.
In the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau lived in isolation by Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. He built a small cabin on land owned by way of his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson and became almost self-reliant, It was his intention at Walden Pond to live truly and have time to contemplate, walk in the woods, write, and commune with nature. As he explained, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Thoreau was a transcendentalist, american naturalist, and philosopher and is best known for his book Walden, a book about simple and essential living. He was an advocate for civil liberties as well. Henry David Thoreau’s purpose was to determine what was basic to human survival, and then to live as simply as possible. to find truer and deeper meanings of things, to let go of everything expected of you, and to just live simply and free. Just like Chris McCandless did, he dropped everything to be completely on his own, “ultimate freedom” he called it. He establishes a sympathetic tone toward Chris and his transcendentalist views. The relationship between the audience and Thoreau is that some of the audience may have the same views and have thought about what he did, but Thoreau shares his journey and personal experiences of what it is actually like to live simply and free. This work is significant because it challenges people to look deeper into life, and instead of focusing on money or materialistic things, to find themselves, to live free and simply and to break the barrier of what you think is expected of you, and do what you feel is necessary to your true meanings.
At the same time, I believe you can find your true self, or test yourself to see if you can fully depend on only yourself, not having much, that ultimate freedom could bring you happiness and could lead you to discover great things but I also believe that you could find yourself and true happiness or deeper meanings of things anywhere, not just in the wild. I believe that things that deep come from within and are different for everybody. Some may move to a different country, or across the world as easily uncover what life is about there as somebody could in the wilderness.
Ultimately, what is at stake here is the risk of not being able to come back from such an intense journey. Like Chris McCandless, he only survived up to a point, but he lived and loved his life to the fullest and did whatever he could to feel as if he was fulfilling his life. Another thing at stake for self-realization journeys like these is how it could affect the people around you because you could never see them again if you dedicate your life to the wild and depend on self-reliance, but all in all, seeking what Thoreau and Chris were seeking takes a lot, and they were willing to give up what they had.
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