Escapism in Where I Lived, and What I Lived For by Henry David Thoreau
Expectations and standards rise up like mental bile, contributing to the mess of stress andn confusion. Reality tends to lose its appeal when charred with anxiety and peppered with self- destruction. The bittersweet battle continues as the mind fights to cease its distortion complex against reality. In Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Thoreau assesses human perception of reality. Stating that humanity accepts "shams and delusions". As reassuring truths to avoid a "fabulous" reality often ignored and underappreciated. While Thoreau correctly asserts that humanity remains ignorant to reality. Because humanity consistently seeks escapism or a way to gild reality. He fails to address escapism as a method to enhance a reality far from "fabulous" to the individual.
Thoreau`s assertion pertaining the human necessity of escapism yields truth in individuals. Who have literally run from society into nature, however, Thoreau fails to assess this movement as an assumption of a new reality entirely. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer follows the journey of Chris McCandless. Who embarked on this particular escapism into nature in order to escape his "reality"- a life of education and societal expectations. In nature, McCandless believed that he could truly live as an individual, and assume his destined reality. McCandless abandoned a life filled with opportunities and benefits such. As academic success and financial security, a life seen by many. As idealistic, and replaced it with his own radical naturalist conceptions.
McCandless` romantic delusions became his attempt at living, and in this aspect McCandless represents Thoreau`s claim that humanity will accept a fake reality as a substitute for the one given to them. However, Jon Krakauer makes clear that McCandless in no real manner enjoyed his life prior to escaping it, and by escaping into the reaches of nature; he threw out the reality which society expects from him and replaced it with his own. This new reality can arguably represent either the delusion which Thoreau suggests, or regarded as a reality of its own, as McCandless retained that lifestyle unto his death.
