This is comparing the works of Walden and the movie "Into The Wild"

Essay by megannoonanHigh School, 11th gradeA-, November 2007

download word file, 1 pages 5.0

Into the Wild/WaldenLeaving society and relocating into the wilderness is exactly what Christopher McCandless and Henry David Thoreau decided to do after much consideration that life without meaning was wasteful. The many similarities between the two can be found in Thoreau’s essay, Walden, and the movie Into the Wild.

Thoreau lived in a cabin he made himself for two years, two months, and two days in order to find simplicity. He wanted to live in nature in order to find the essential meaning in life, and in doing so, he wrote the essay Walden. McCandless also kept a dairy too, every day he would write down the meaningful events that happened. The both of them stayed in the wilderness for about two years, although unlike Thoreau, McCandless was not always in the wilderness. He worked at a Burger King and a farm for a short period of time in order to save enough money to buy the necessities prior to going all the way to Alaska.

McCandless also did not stay in one place the whole time. He was only in Alaska for about 100 days, the rest of the time he was a nomad. McCandless thought material things were worthless, “Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.” He believed that all material items, society, and everything man made, was a lie. Nature although could not lie, it is what it is. Thoreau’s essay was about how we should savor the time we have here, because it is limited.

In Thoreau’s Essay, he writes, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears…” This passage dictates how McCandless went about his journey. A well-to-do...