Transcendentalist ask Why do you matter? Why are you here? I ask ‘Is Chris a transcendentalist?’ No, no he is not.

Transcendentalism is a form of idealism in which people discover who they are. They also believe that everyone has a part of God in them and God can be found in both nature and human nature. The belief that life now is more important than life later on and an emphasis on self-reliance is also reflected in transcendentalism.

At the core of transcendentalism is the relationship between all. Christopher wasn’t able to form or hold great relationships with others. As I previously said transcendentalist believe that there must be a relationship between all things in life. Chris didn’t know who he was and was always running from relationships, so he couldn’t be a transcendental.

Ralph Waldo Emerson says “We must be our own before we can be anothers.” This basically means that in order to form relationships with others, you must know yourself.

Chris had plenty of opportunities to form relationships with others throughout the book. Jan and Bob Burres, Ronald Franz, Wayne Westerberg, and his own parents were just a few people that Chris failed to form a relationship with.

Krakauer states “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it.”

If he was so happy to leave people and the short lived relationships he had why do people believe he was transcendental? Chris later writes “Happiness is only real when shared”, and although this may be a transcendental thought referring to relationships with others, actions speak louder than words. This leads me to believe that Chris may have wanted to be a transcendental, but at the time was not.

Chris had no self realization and couldn’t hold relationships, both thing believed by transcendentals and lacked by Chris. Transcendentalist find who they are and flourish off their understandings of themselves and what or who is around them. Chris’ wasn’t capable of doing this and it eventually lead to his death.

Along with not being able to form relationships, Chris wasn’t great at learning from what was around him and he lacked commons sense and self wisdom.

A large theme in Emerson’s nature was that men should break away from the information of the past and inherit and discover their own self wisdom.

Jon Krakauer did not believe that Chris had these qualities and states Chris was not “endowed with a surfeit of common sense.” meaning that Christ didn’t always use his head which is something transcendentals learn to do.

Chris’ lacking of common sense and wisdom was shown when he lacked the proper gear and enough gear to help him survive in the wild.

Jim Gallien the man who drove Chris into the wild first noticed that Chris was lacking the necessary gear to survive and it is told by Krakauer as “Gallien wondered whether he’d picked up one of those crackpots from the lower forty-eight who come north to live out ill-considered Jack London fantasies.”

Chris clearly didn’t look like he knew what he was doing or know what he was going to be in for. Jim even offered to buy Christopher better and new gear and eventually settled with lending Chris his more adequate boots.

This leads me to my next point. Chris was not self reliant. Along with the boots from Jim, and the fact that Chris even brought his own gear, Chris received numerous other things from people along the lines of rides, gear and eventually the bus where he spent his time in Alaska.

“Magic Bus Day” was the title of Chris’ Journal the day he found the bus. Chris clearly had no regrets about using something that was man made even though it went against being self reliant. Chris was very pleased by his findings and to call the bus “Magic” just shows his excitement to cheat the system and use a man made vehicle as a shelter.

Along with using the bus, Chris brought his own rifle into the wilderness. This rifle gave him the ability to hunt just about any beast that he pleased. With this piece of machinery Chris would not have to rely on his knowledge of traps or animals, but on the machine made bullet and firing mechanism of the gun. All he had to do is point and pull rather than create the trap, hope and wait.

Chris gave himself an unfair advantage above nature and ruined the balance that transcendentals believe in.

Just because Christopher McCandless had a beard doesn’t make him a mountain man. Just because he stayed in the wild doesn’t mean he is a transcendentalist. I could grow a beard and spend some time in the wild, but because both Chris and I lack some of the main transcendental ideas such as relationships, self wisdom, and self reliance, we are NOT transcendentalist.