Definition of transcendentalism:

Transcendentalism, is an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures.

His poem makes you feel that nothing in the world is more important than being outside in nature. The poem will make you realize how much more relaxing nature can be as opposed to being somewhere else like in the bustling city or somewhere over populated. It is obvious that in this poem, he is very passionate about being next to nature, and that nothing in the world is better to him than to be near nature.

Explain how Thoreau's writing and philosophies about life are similar to those of Chris McCandless and may have inspired his journey.

London, Thoreau, and Tolstoy all wrote books and lived in ways that questioned a complacent and materialistic middle-class existence. Reading these authors intently in college and on his own travels helped form and guide McCandless as he sought to forge an alternative lifestyle to that of his affluent parents.