Society and Solitude
I’ve never deeply thought about nature and what it might be; I’ve only acknowledged it as merely something that we live in. Nature has always just “been there”, and I’ve often overlooked it. I used to walk down the street, only focused on my destination, paying no attention to the flowers, the grass, or the light breeze that might be picking up. But I’ve always believed that in everything, there needs to be a sense of balance, nature not being exempt. Without balance, things could go wrong; like once when I was a kid, for example, I went on a see-saw with someone that was bigger than me. I would always be stuck in the air, feet dangling. Throughout my life, I’ve had many small occurrences such as this one that have made me see a need for balance in life. Now that I’m older, I sometimes wonder about where I belong in society, questioning whether solitude or being amongst people is best, but it never occurred in my mind to seek out answers in nature, until our unit on Transcendentalism. Reading the works of Emerson and Thoreau didn’t really evoke a sense of passion about nature in me at first; I felt that they were just another pair of philosophers stating their ideas in a crafty way. Into the Wild and Grizzly Man, however, which told of the experiences of actual people who followed Transcendentalist ideas to the extreme and made it their lifestyle, inspired me to think more about the different ways nature can be interpreted and also helped me understand the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau better.
Emerson and Thoreau had different views of how to deal with society. Emerson believed that “society never advances,” ( Self-Reliance 514) but unlike Thoreau, who thought that answers could only be found if emerged in nature and in complete solitude (like when he went out to Walden lake to live on his own), Emerson believed in balance. “It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Self-Reliance 503).

Chris McCandless was always trying to escape from society, alienating himself from others, such as when he left Ron Franz after he generously offered to adopt Chris. “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it.” (55) When I read this, I was shocked at how cold Chris acted and I asked myself how could anyone possibly reject such a kindhearted gesture? I thought of Chris as intransigent and nonchalant, caring about no one but himself. He wanted to be in complete isolation and solitude, just like Thoreau. Reading more about Chris’s experiences, however, I began to see a little clearer about how he felt. This is partly because of a life changing encounter I’ve had with an old man that relates to Chris and his ideas of society in many ways.

I was visiting my family in Albania around Christmas time. It was a very cold day and there were few people on the streets. Snow was thick on the ground, concealing ice that was waiting to make someone slip. I was walking down the narrow road across the street from where my grandma lives, when a bulky shadow in the corner caught my eye. A man, probably in his late 60’s, was roasting chestnuts over a small fire that was more burned out than ignited. His old jacket had many holes and he had no shoes on his feet. His right hand, which was stuck out to flip the chestnuts, was blue and looked dead. Since it was Christmas time and nobody was around to give the destitute man some loose change, pitifully I went over to buy some chestnuts, even though I don’t like them. He probably knew why I was doing this, and he thanked me in a low murmur, eyes cast down and shivering the way a suffering person does. After some time of awkward silence, I slowly managed to get him to talk. He began to tell me about his life; that back in the day, he was a daring, irreverent young man, full of life and spirit. He believed the world was his and travelled to many wild and exotic lands, living immersed deep into nature, searching for something that would give him that special, inexplicable feeling of self-fulfillment. Raised in a strict, abusive household, he never had much room to think for himself. His parents constantly fought and his father was always drunk, leaving his mother to take care of the seven children by herself. With all this distraction, he failed in school and pretty soon, all his friends moved on to become great people, leaving him behind. As the years passed, he hated life more every day and eventually he retired in seclusion. Finding no job that would accept him without education, he was forced to become a beggar. He abhorred society and felt that what society can’t do, man alone can. “Nobody needs ‘friends’ to mush and gush about, pitying you,” he told me, “and who sooner or later end up leaving you for something better. We are all just materials waiting to get thrown away for something new and shiny.” Now that he was quite alone in the world, except his measly chestnuts, I was astounded at his response; I would’ve thought he’d at least acknowledge that everyone needs help at times. But he turned out to be as subordinate as back then, still holding the same arrogant and rash views as before. Nevertheless, not wanting to be rude, I nodded my head, agreed with him, and then after giving him more money than the chestnuts were actually worth, I wished him a merry Christmas and bade farewell.
Seeing the connections between Chris and the old man, my opinions have not changed; if anything, these men have made me believe stronger in a need for balance. In “Nature,” Emerson states, “To go into solitude a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me.” (450) He implies that there needs to be a sense of balance and complete isolation is not the answer. Chris and the old man leaned towards solitude as the answer to fixing the problems they had with society, and sought out their tranquility in nature; Chris going to Alaska and the old man traveling to all those exotic lands. Both of them had bad experiences amongst society, causing them to have the harsh opinions they do. The old man had a horrible childhood, which may have led him to abhor society, and Chris felt restricted and longed for freedom because his parents tried to impose upon him a future he didn’t want. I think that they should have made a compromise; taking off time to recollect their thoughts and feelings, then returning back to society to live amongst people.

Just like Chris and the old man, Timothy Treadwell, the Grizzly Man, went out to live in solitude among the grizzly bears to “protect” them—which I see as absurd, because the bears didn’t need any protection. Later on in the movie, I found out that Timothy dealt with alcohol problems. He went out into nature, and focused on the bears because he needed a diversion from his obsessions. Timothy also wanted to feel as though he were doing something important, which is why he went to schools for free to teach children about how grizzly bears are misunderstood. He wants to amend his past faults by making good in the world and, in a way, repenting his sins. Along with Chris and the old man, Timothy sought some form of perfection in nature that he didn’t find in society, which he degraded, and even emphatically portrayed it when he cursed out the government for about 30 minutes. All three of these people showed a sense of individualism and that feeling of “I want to do it myself with no help;” it reminds me of when I was a little child, I used kick and pout because I wanted to do things all on my own without my parents’ help. Like me before, on the see-saw, lacking a sense of balance caused the old man, Chris and Timothy to end in disastrous positions; Chris deteriorating from starvation, Timothy dismembered by a bear, and the old man freezing away with nothing in the world.

After our Transcendentalist unit, I have more intently began to appreciate nature more as a source of serenity, but also that without a sense of balance, it can be a source of destruction and chaos. My views on solitude have not changed; I still think that going out in nature alone is not a logical thing to do. Solitude can be a good thing but only if not taken to extreme. Chris McCandless, Timothy Treadwell, and the unnamed old man are all sick of society and too fed up with their lives, compelling them to go out and look for that bit of freedom that they desire. Since they went to extremes, and didn’t “balance the see-saw,” they ended up in the situations that they did. Had they approached matters in a more understanding way, by seeing that both solitude and society are needed, they probably wouldn’t have come to such unfortunate fates. Nevertheless, I still admire them for their determination to follow their aspirations, and, through their impulsive actions, opening my eyes to see that need of balance more profoundly. They’ve taught me that I should become more involved with nature, but not to go to the extremes that they did. The lives of these men are a good example for the rest of us to see that we should appreciate nature a little more and possibly find answers in it, but to keep in mind that balance is needed; that solitude and society shouldn’t be separate, but united in balance.