AI or artificial intelligence is not a modern concept, but rather a field of research that dates back to the mid-twentieth century. More recently though, privately owned Open AI has created a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to respond to human formed questions. Gaining a public interest, Chat GPT satisfactorily passed a UPENN Wharton Business Exam, ranking notable scores in the English section, but unsatisfactory levels in the math section. When tasked with comparing the principles of the transcendentalists with Christopher Mccandless from Into the Wild, GPT produces an unsatisfactory essay. Although Chat GPT compares the transcendentalist lifestyle of Christopher Mccandless and the Transcendentalists logically, many of the arguments …show more content…
In the process of comparing the two, GPT’s writing style undermines many grammatical rules. Chat GPT logically compares Chris Mccandless and two of the most well known transcendentalists, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, in a way that allows both of their philosophies to be analyzed. Specifically, GPT introduces Thoreau and Emerson’s most famous works, "Civil Disobedience" and "Nature.” By citing these transcendentalist pieces, GPT does well at comparing many of their philosophies with Chris’ similar moral code. While comparing the two, GPT talks about how Thoreau believes men differ from one another “perhaps it is because [they] hear a different drummer” (Thoreau Civil Disobedience). Chat GPT fails to explicate this quote fully, but it does immediately compare this work with Mccandless’ “rejection of social norms” and “determination to forge his own path” (Chat GPT). The comparison of Thoreu’s work and Mccandless’ social nonconformity is one that makes sense; however, Chat GPT could improve its comparison by using specific examples of Mccandless’ nonconformity like his desire for hitchhiking around the country. In addition to the comparison of the transcendentalists’ work and Mccandless’ values, Chat GPT does well at explaining the medium between living out a …show more content…
Chat GPT describes the moderation between believing in transcendentalist ideals and the more extreme end of living out these ideas in the wilderness, disregarding one’s own life in the process. Chat GPT fails, however, to present how much more extreme Mccandless was than the transcendentalists in terms of living off of these principles. In Walden, Thoreau talks about his adventure in a cabin, theoretically enduring some of the similar struggles as Mccandless. When the time came, Thoreau decided to “[leave] the woods for as good a reason as [he] went there” because he had “several more lives to live” (137). From this passage, it is clear that Thoreau can differentiate peacefulness and extremity, a difference that Mccandless fails to make, and Chat GPT fails to highlight. Thoreau’s goal of living in a cabin allowed him to forget the materialistic things in life, similar to Mccandless. Thoreau's ability to recognize the life he still had to live recognizes his regard for life. In contrast, Mccandless does not think about leaving the woods until it is far too late. This argument is one of the most important in comparing the transcendentalists and Mccandless, but it is left out completely. This is not the only argument Chat GPT leaves out from its essay though. In its essay, Chat GPT does
“Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist” (Emerson). McCandless defied society by, living in the wild and rarely cared about possessions. Chris McCandless is a true transcendentalist because he existed off the land in Alaska, the west coast, Mexico and he did not want to have any else but happiness in life; he found this through his experiences in wilderness. In Emerson’s Self-Reliance it states, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of ever on its members.”
Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau were two very similar, yet very different men. Thoreau and McCandless both went into nature to experience what living off the land would be like. Chris McCandless once wrote in a letter to Ron Franz, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 57).
Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless, and Henry David Thoreau reveal the philosophy of Transcendentalism. After reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and Henry David Thoreau’s excerpts from Walden, readers see that Transcendentalism plays an important role in Chris McCandless’s and Henry Thoreau’s lives. Chris McCandless and Henry Thoreau have similar beliefs in Transcendentalism. Both men adopt deliberation, individualism, and self-wisdom. Chris McCandless adopts deliberation as a way of life.
Chris McCandless, the young man who left everything he knew to venture into the wild. The core reason why McCandless traveled out into the wild was to escape the stifling world of his parents and peers. Instead of following the commonly accepted road to success he chose to do things his own way, and find his own happiness out in the world around him. Chris McCandless does not meet the definition of a Transcendentalist because he is running away from his problems, rather than feeling the need to belong in nature. Chris had always had problems with his parents, at one point he even writes to his sister saying ”I’m going to let them think they are right, I’m going to let them think that I’m “coming around to see their side of things” and that
(199) Theses are the last words Chris McCandless wrote down and they prove that he was satisfied with his life despite them leading to his death. It also proves that even in his final moments he was happy with his transcendentalist life style. As a conclusion Chris McCandless was devoted to transcendentalism even with his last
“Being footloose is always exhilarated us it's associated in their minds with escape.” Chris from the book “Into The Wild”,by Jon Krakauer, is a transcendentalist because he wanted to escape from the materialistic world and avoid Cytie and to do so he went into the wild. Transcendentalists believe that escaping the materialistic world will bring you to your true self Henry David thoreau a famous transcendentalist once said, "our life is a frittered away by details... simplicity, simplicity, simplicity, I say, that your affairs be as two or three and not hundred or thousand... simplify, simplify. ”Thoreau is saying that People are to bound to a materialistic world and need to break away and if one were to have less things going on could experience life the way one should.
In the name of God, please remain to save me” (Krakauer 12). In the moments before his death, McCandless wished for life, but the possibility of survival was out of reach. McCandless shows that when someone puts themselves in a position to be completely isolated from society, they truly have no one to call out for help. In summary, Transcendentalism is a philosophy that harms the
This is one characteristic of McCandless that made him a transcendentalist. He made his decisions based on his own intuition. He thought for himself and never questioned what he believed was the right thing to do. McCandless was a traveler of not only the wilderness, but of his own soul. He did this to find
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.
In the chapter titled Where I Lived, and What I Lived For from Henry David Thoreau’s novel Walden, the author utilizes rhetorical strategies such as imagery and tone to convey how the distractions that accompany a progressing civilization corrupts society. Since he is a transcendentalist, his argument encapsulates the same principles of becoming free from the binds of society and seeking harmony with nature. He emphasizes those ideals when he states that “[he] went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived”(276). In other words, he wanted to escape from society and live
Transcendental Connections between Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Chris McCandless in John Krakauer’s Into the Wild Henry David Thoreau, Jon Krakauer, and Chris McCandless are all strong believers in Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a 19th century philosophy that values self-wisdom, individualism, and non-conformity. Both Thoreau and McCandless embrace these ideas greatly. Chris’s actions in Into the Wild show that the transcendental beliefs of Thoreau were important to him.
McCandless did something in his life that impacted him the best way possible. He followed his heart and was not constricted to anything, he was happy until the very end. McCandless lived the true philosophy of Transcendentalism and can be referred to as a modern transcendentalist. He lived a simple life in nature, he was optimistic and relied on himself. He had no need for relationships or conforming with society.
McCandless’s self-reliance is a big part of identifying him as transcendentalist. In the short story, “Death of an Innocent”, Chris says, “I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.” McCandless feels that life should not be wasted doing what you do not love, and shows this by traveling and living off the land every chance he gets. Transcendentalists take in all of what nature has to give them by becoming one with it; like McCandless does throughout the story.
As evident by this quotation by Thoreau, his motives purely consist of living in the idealistic states of nature rather than that of “civilization”. Thoreau also stated, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life…”- (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”). Thoreau, in this statement shows that he is completely self reliant in the sense that he alone went out to nature to reap what he could and survive by his merits alone, sustaining himself only on what nature had to offer. While conversely McCandless could only survive with a
In his essay Walden, Thoreau affirms the Transcendentalist belief of living simply by emphasizing the thought of living with only the essentials and the importance of self reliance. Thoreau supports the ideal of living simply through the emphasis of only living with what one needs. Simplicity exists