Chris considered himself a student of Henry David Thoreau,
the second most important advocate of Transcendentalism. Thoreau promoted the opinion
that Man is meant to live in harmony with nature, being self-sufficient, and rejecting
the excess of material wealth and societal pressure. Reading Thoreau along with similar
writings by Tolstoy and Jack London, Chris created a personal philosophy similar to
Transcendentalism, professing a need to live in the wild and discover inner meanings and
strengths based entirely on his own experiences and
abilities.
"Deliberate Living: Conscious attention to the
basics of life, and a constant attention to your immediate environment and its concerns.
Examples: A job, a task, a book; anything requiring efficient concentration
(Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All
true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to
you).
(Krakauer, Into the Wild,
Amazon.com)
Chris attempted
to live as his literary heroes did, with few possessions and only the kindness of
strangers and his own work ethic for support. He spoke of the corruption of society and
the way that greed dictates morality and personal entitlements. At the end, Chris
believed himself to have discovered something true about himself; although he did not
describe it, the famous quote from Tolstoy ("I have lived through much, and now I think
I have found what is needed for happiness") seemed to have been important to him. Chris
was a modern Transcendentalist in most respects; he only lacked an experienced mentor to
guide his decisions.
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