McCandless and Monk

Chris McCandless was known to be a very eccentric young man. Not many people understood him; much like the prolific twentieth century pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Monk, like McCandless, "marched to a different drummer" (107). If you listen to the music player at the top left of the page, you can hear how Monk's music is rooted in tradition, yet has an adventurous element to it that had never been heard before. His music sounds playful in its nature. Similarly, McCandless had a childish feeling of invulnerability. Despite being well educated, he retained a certain naive state of mind that never left him. This is not to say that he was unintelligent; he just never seemed to have believed that the rules of the real world applied to him. Monk's music did not follow the conventional rules of composition in its time either.Any of Monk's great compositions would be a perfect soundtrack to the exploits of Mr. McCandless.