McCandless and Poe, Dickinson and Thoreau

Edgar Allan Poe, the famous writer of grotesque short stories and melancholy poetry, uncovers the hidden corners of the human psyche in such works as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher". What Chris McCandless shares with Poe's characters is inward demons and the loneliness of their conscience in the same way. Solitude and self-discovery revealed an enigmatic, introspective outlook of human life in the works of American poet Emily Dickinson. While finding support in themes of nature, mortality, and quest for self-liberation, Dickinson's poems may represent what Chris McCandless had been looking for. Both Dickinson and McCandless explore the depths of the human heart as a complex phenomenon, looking for peace and lucidity in times of loneliness and self-awareness. Dickinson's poetic exploration manifests a similar quest for meaning, as seen in McCandless. One of the most known transcendentalists, Henry David Thoreau, in his works such as "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" lauds the benefits of simplicity, self-reliance as well as his love for nature. Chris McCandless finds common ground with Thoreau in his wilderness expedition. Similarly to Thoreau, McCandless's choice of dropping out of the modern world and finding self-fulfillment in the wilderness reflects the power of nature in evoking transformative changes and the necessity of living deliberately and consciously. McCandless represents Thoreau's ideal of a person who yearns for adventure.