Comparative Essay Into the Wild

Leo Tolstoy is considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time, influencing the world of the arts as well as the way we analyze the philosophies of human beings. Throughout the past century, he has influenced millions of people with his meaningful and powerful novels and essays about the way we appreciate love and how we live our lives. When reading the novel Into the Wild, it becomes clear that the artist’s philosophies have had leverage on Christopher McCandless and the theories he applies to his chosen lifestyle. When analyzing McCandless’ behavior, Tolstoy’s importance becomes evident through the reasons the protagonist has when leaving the society he was a part of in terms of luxury, human contact with the wilderness, and the importance of conscience. These ideals can be seen specifically represented in one of Tolstoy’s essays titled On Labor and Luxury, which forms part of a compilation of papers published in the book What to do? in 1887. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy opens his argumentative piece by describing his reasons to criticize society, which presents McCandless’ ideals on escaping the community he was a part of. Tolstoy describes “the wretchedness of our life” by stating that “If the people of our sphere, of our caste, will only take a serious look at themselves, then young persons, who are in search of personnel happiness, will stand aghast at the ever-increasing wretchedness of their life, which is plainly leading them to destruction; conscientious people will be shocked at the cruelty and the illegality of their life; and timid people will be terrified by the danger of their mode of life.”(Tolstoy). In the novel, McCandless is constantly represented as a man who has been running away from his society. As he continues to educate himself on matters of social inequalities and world injustices it is easy to become indignant and notice the distress in which we live. It is hard for Chris to accept that millions of people live in the bliss of ignorance while others choose not to notice, and gradually he secludes himself from society.

Tolstoy was a man of nobility in the Russian atmosphere. His father had the title of Lieutenant Colonel Count Nicolay Tolstoy and his mother was a Countess. He was raised in a wealthy household with a privileged education and several vast estates (Merriman). Throughout his youth, his life was filled with luxurious events and extravagant traditions, and later in his life he would be against this lifestyle. McCandless grew up in a 20th century middle-class household and in more than one occasion his family took the liberty of enjoying high living leisure activities. Nevertheless, Christopher McCandless felt ashamed of such delights and believed them to be self-indulgent. As he grows older and more mature, he begins to feel bothered by riches, and we can see this when his mother recalls, “Her son, the teenage Tolstoyan, believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil” (Krakauer 115). He became the kind of man who wanted to send a message and make a change out of what he believed was not right, in this case being social injustice. Similarly to Tolstoy, they began to take action upon such issues, and while Tolstoy recurred to writing, Chris turned to form part in different political groups or talking of going to help in South Africa. Even when he was in high school, he would aid the hungry and homeless. Nevertheless, Chris had a complex relationship with money due to his understanding of its necessity in society. Tolstoy had this same issue, but towards the end of his life it became clearer to him that riches were unnecessary for happiness. This was an ideal that his family didn’t agree with, and created much conflict in the relationships he held (Merriman). McCandless had to go through similar strains with his parents, who couldn’t comprehend why he would waste an education in law to travel and instigate on a personal search for truth. This relationship with property and riches lead him to burn his money and leave his car behind in a moment of inspiration. Tolstoy can describe this action as Chris relieving himself from constraints when he states “freedom of anxiety in his material conditions is all that a man needs. Such a man will always be happier in his internal conditions, than the one who seeks wealth.” (Tolstoy). Tolstoy and McCandless lead a difficult relationship with the materialistic world, which presented a contradiction in their actions and created breaking conflicts in their relationships. Even though they both tried to liberate themselves from the restraints of falling into society’s system due to money, the decision to live a lifestyle where it lacked eventually lead to their deaths.

The similarity between Christopher and Tolstoy may also be seen through their longing to be in touch with nature and return to the primitive contact with the wilderness that lies within the raw instincts of our kind. As previously mentioned, Tolstoy was raised in a large manor in the countryside and ever since he was a young boy he was exposed to the beauty of the earth around him (Merriman). As a wealthy and privileged man, he was able to afford houses in the countryside where he could perform activities in the wild, which he loved to do all his life. McCandless also wanted to maintain a course of existence where he could enjoy all the pleasures of the land that were absent in the city. In one the first travels that Krakauer narrates he describes this fascination, “McCandless was stirred by the austerity of this landscape, by its saline beauty. The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light.” (Krakauer 32). The purity that Chris finds in living life for the sake of maintaining the pure essence of mankind in its origin is a belief that Tolstoy supports, and his influence upon McCandless becomes clear. He states in his essay “The dignity of man, his sacred duty and obligation, consists in using the hands and feet which have been given to him” (Tolstoy). Due to the belief of maintaining such an authentic relationship with the land, Chris and Tolstoy begin to believe in the simplicity and truthfulness of living an austere lifestyle. McCandless goes to Alaska with the idea of “living off the land”, mentioned repeatedly throughout the book. Despite Tolstoy’s high standard in the economic and social scale, he believed in