Both Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau believed in escaping society and living simply in nature to achieve transcendentalist ideals of independence and freedom, as shown through McCandless' solitary journey into the Alaskan wilderness and Thoreau's self-imposed exile to Walden Pond. While their pursuits of transcendentalism involved isolating themselves from intimate relationships, both McCandless and Thoreau found solitude in nature liberating rather than lonely. Their philosophies emphasized non-conformity and rejecting materialism in favor of spiritual enlightenment through immersion in