Transcendentalism is the way of life chosen by those who believe that the path to success and happiness begins with self-sufficiency. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are some of America's greatest historical transcendentalists; both preached of the glory that could come to man if he shunned his material possessions, if he began relying less on the world around him and more on himself to thrive. Transcendentalism is built on the idea that light - bliss, success, satisfaction, nirvana, whatever your light may be - comes from within. To some, it is a stubborn and impractical method of self-improvement. Many believe that self-sufficiency is lost on today's society, on a lazy world where gadgets are meant to do things for us so we don't have to. I bet if you told someone you were abandoning them to become a transcendentalist, they would toss up their hands, laughing, and say "Whatever, man" as they walked away. In the first half of Into the Wild, this is pretty much the response that Christ McCandless receives when he decides to leave behind all his worldly possessions and hitchhike to Alaska to embrace a simpler life. He seeks solace in the forest, where the quiet, the beauty, the muse of nature become better companions than any human being. McCandless has some personal reservations, however; while it was a choice to run off into the woods to be a sustaining hermit, it was one made on the assumption that he was a burden on his family and friends. Pretty sad if you think about it. Those who scoff at his sudden crusade do so out of unconditional love for him - love he cannot see or feel.
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