Module 5: SupertrampInfluences

Presentation

How did HD Thoreau and RW Emerson influence Chris McCandless?

Influences Presentation • Was Christopher McCandless (a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp) a

transcendentalist?

• Many of the adventures Krakauer indicated that Chris followed in the path of the transcendentalist philosophy.

• Chris’s connection to nature, his desire to leave society, his reliance on himself all point to a very transcendent living.

• Why is this important?

• Well, transcendentalism is known as the philosophical movement that protests the general state of culture and society, and Chris’s strict following of its teachings may have led directly to his death.

• While the transcendental movement lasted only a few years, its influence is still evident today. You might even be a practicing transcendentalist and not even know it.

• So ask yourself, is this or any other belief or philosophy worth your life?

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Influences Presentation • How did transcendentalism start in the USA? • New England Transcendentalism was a religious, philosophical, and

literary movement that began to express itself in New England in the 1830s and continued through the 1840s and 1850s.

• Transcendentalism is not simple to define. Transcendentalism encompassed complex philosophical and religious ideas. Its tenets were tinged with a certain mysticism, which defies concise explanation.

• Transcendentalists were only loosely connected with one another. They were not a cohesive, organized group who shared a formal doctrine. They were distinct and independent individuals who accepted some basic premises about man's place in the universe.

• http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm

• http://www.ushistory.org/us/26f.asp

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Influences Presentation

The American Transcendentalists: Values & Explanation

• https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-american-transcendentalists-values-lesson-quiz.html

Transcendentalism: Impact on American Literature

• https://study.com/academy/lesson/transcendentalism-impact-on-american-literature.html

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Influences Presentation • Transcendentalists believed in the importance of a direct

relationship with God and nature.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, a writer and lecturer who lived in Concord, MA, wrote in his essay Nature that "The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face; we — through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?“

• Henry David Thoreau’s, a scholar who also lived in Concord, MA, expression of his essential oneness with nature suggests the concept at the very heart of Transcendentalism, that of the Oversoul. The Oversoul formed the encompassing framework within which a direct relationship with God and with nature was so essential to the Transcendentalists. Simply described, the Oversoul was a kind of cosmic unity between man, God, and nature.

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Influences Presentation • These two writers influenced Chris McCandless, and many others

including your teacher, to strike out and explore Transcendental ideals and a direct relationship with the world.

• As part of Module 5, you will analyze in detail a selection from one of the two outside readings that accompany the novel Into the Wild.

• Those articles are “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau.

• While each author writes extensively about the themes of transcendent living, Christopher McCandless took to heart their messages and ethics, and we are only beginning to touch on these ideas in this class.

• The assignment is to prepare 4-5 minute presentation on one key concept or line from either of these writings.

• You can work with a partner or individually on this assignment.

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Influences Presentation 1. Choose one of the writings to examine closely. We will touch on each in

class but will not read either in their entirety. Read the essay you have chosen in full and keep notes about ideas that speak to you the most.

2. Select a quote, line, or concept from the reading and make it the focus of your presentation.

3. Develop a PowerPoint presentation about your chosen idea or line, focusing on the following content in your presentation: A. Describe the idea in context to the original writing (how does the author

use it and what is his tone?) = 10 pointsB. Discuss why this idea is important to our world today (what does it mean

and why does it matter?) = 10 pointsC. Explore how this idea may have influenced Christopher McCandless (how

does it relate to the literature we are reading?) = 10 points4. Deliver your presentation verbally to the class (20 points). Plan to speak

no more than 4-5 minutes. Turn it in digitally to Google Classroom for presentation.

5. Presentation order will be random and the will take place 2/24/20 to 2/26/20.

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Influences Presentation

• How do you start?

• Choose one of the two essays to read through it. Texts and annotations are found at the links below.

• Civil Disobedience by H.D. Thoreau

• http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper2/thoreau/civil.html

• https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/ (annotated, may be blocked at CVHS, read at home)

• Self Reliance by R.W. Emerson

• https://genius.com/Ralph-waldo-emerson-self-reliance-annotated(annotated)

• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE

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Influences Presentation

• Find a passage that you like, are interested in, or want to investigate further.

• Write it in original version and write it in plain modern English using the annotations to help.

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Influences Presentation • Follow the instructions from the assignment described on slide 6.

Complete slides for items A, B, and C.

• Prepare to speak about them in front of the class.

• Present your slides and ideas when called upon.

• Have your presentation submitted to Google Classroom.

• Do not read the slides word for word. Speak about the topic and it’s meaning to you. Discuss your ideas with the class.

• Prepare notes to help keep yourself on track.

• Avoid “you” in this presentation when possible.

• Make eye contact with the audience, not just the teacher.

• Relate your ideas back to Into the Wild.

• Be creative: do a dramatic reading or read an excerpt to give your ideas context and meaning.

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Shearer’s Presentation• What was Emerson explaining in the following lines of “Self-Reliance”?

• “There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.”

• Emerson explains that imitation is a sign of ignorance and that no intelligent, sentient person would only work with the knowledge given to him/her. He is making an argument for a direct relationship with life, very transcendent.

• Just before this line, Emerson writes that unless each of us recognizes our individuality, then we will be forced to take the opinions of others as our own.

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Shearer’s Presentation• What was Emerson explaining in the following lines of “Self-Reliance”?

(continued)

• It is natural to seek out people who are ahead of you in achieving something you want and imitate them.

• But no! Trust thyself.

• Be authentic.

• Flaunt your quirks.

• Cultivate the life and gifts given us in order to tap into that endless good we all have.

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Shearer’s Presentation• How is this idea important to our world today?

• This is so interesting because most of our time in public schooling is spent imitating the form and methods of others we are learning about.

• We imitate and even envy our friends on a daily basis.

• We copy from each other on assignments and when all else fails we mimic the teacher to earn a high grade.

• But Emerson argues that to be “self reliant,” and able to live and think on one’s own, one must break free from the ideology of others and begin to work the soil of one’s own imagination, metaphorically.

• Businesses today seek out people who can succeed exploring their own creativity just as teachers today reward students who dare to stretch the limits of their own work.

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Shearer’s Presentation• How is this idea important to our world today? (continued)

• Emerson is also arguing for people to work hard and to be themselves. The annotations at genius.com state, “you can’t just ask life to give you something for you will obtain nothing you have to put in that sweat, blood, and tears to get the victory of life that we all crave.”

• Emersonian transcendentalism argues that rewards come to those that risk embarrassment and hard work.

• However, today it seems like society has moved away from the pillars of transcendentalism, and Emerson’s words highlight it.

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Shearer’s Presentation• How does Krakauer show this idea influencing Christopher McCandless

in Into the Wild?

• Chris McCandless clearly identifies with Emerson’s ethic as he spends all of his time toiling for what he is getting out of life.

• Chris does imitate his heroes like Emerson and Thoreau, but he also does strike out against his parents to forge his own identity in life, a life he feels they have controlled and invented for him without his consent.

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Shearer’s Presentation• How does Krakauer show this idea influencing Christopher McCandless in

Into the Wild? (continued)

• Krakauer has a strong opinion in favor of how Chris follows in the footsteps of Emerson, but Emerson also has a strong bias for people who demonstrate individuality.

• Emerson writes, “I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me.”

• And continues, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

• Chris is a great example of someone following the loose teachings of Emersonian transcendentalism, and Krakauer romanticizesjust how far Chris left his family and society tobecome an individual living by his own means.

• Ignorance? Imitation? Envy?

• Chris McCandless. Alexander Supertramp!

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