Into the Wild
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/2/4/15247704/5037384.jpeg?226)
In the movie Into the Wild the main character Chris McCandless is confronted with the alienation of the world he once knew when he leaves it behind in search for himself. In the journey that will end in Alaska, Chris will meet people that ultimately help in his understanding the deeper meanings of life.
In this paper I will discuss the symbolism used by the director Sean Penn on a specific scene on the movie, which I believed, is intended to represent Chris connections with society. Furthermore, the scene depicts Chris’s last decision in which he decided to leave the most human instinct of company behind for the quest of adventure that will ultimately end in death.
One of the most symbolic scenes in the movie is depicted in the river crossing, which signifies something more than just the beginning of Chris’s Alaskan journey. In the movie, Sean Penn uses The Hat given to Chris by Jan Burres as a representation of Chris last connection to all he knew as part of society. Also it represents the spirit of the people he meets throughout his two-year road trip.
In the months that took Chris to reach his beloved dreams of freedom, he meets various people who inevitably become entangle in his life. In fact they begin to construct a sense of comfort and preparation to Chris’s journey. Some of these characters taught him that his way of seeing life is one shared by many, and that he was not alone in his desperate quest for liberty. Other did not share his believes but this did not prevent the characters to learn from one another. All these clues and information throughout the movie play a crucial role in the development of the main character Chris. Therefore the encounters between characters are meant to be represented by The Hat.
Chris decides to leave The Hat behind as a reminder of the exact place he had crossed, ultimately thinking that he will go back at some point in the future. But the question will be, why of all the belonging that Chris had at that moment in the movie the director Sean Penn choses the Hat? If we see the specific moment in which this hat was given as a gift to Chris, we’ll see that it was right before Chris traveled to Alaska. And exactly after Chris met all those characters that in someway shaped him. Therefore it will be the perfect representation of any social rationalism, morally structure mentality, or any connection to humanism left in Chris. After he makes the crossing the adventure begins for Chris, now it was the time for the wild, where the sun, breeze and the sounds of wild animals will serve as his company. No dialog or words are needed when in nature, therefore for months Chris feels like an animal. Feeding from nature and living in it, but with one difference, Chris never stops reading, thinking, and writing. These are the human qualities the Chris never manages to escape.
These inevitable human qualities will prove to be embedded in Chris and impossible to escape them. Ultimately he decides to go back to society after months in the wild. But the when he looks back to society, that is represented by the hat marking the crossing point, the distance between Chris and society is wider than it was before. The very nature that he thought to be less cruel and loving than humans had trapped him. In the scene, the river currents were coming down the mountain with fury. There were no bridges or paths back home (society). The Hat was out of reach even thought it never moved an inch, much like humans and society never will. The Hat is the symbolism of places we as humans belong. With the world and people that we love. They will never change and it doesn’t matter how much of a wild spirit you may think you are, nature belongs to nature and humans to themselves even thought there is always the opportunity to co-exist with them in wildness.
In this paper I will discuss the symbolism used by the director Sean Penn on a specific scene on the movie, which I believed, is intended to represent Chris connections with society. Furthermore, the scene depicts Chris’s last decision in which he decided to leave the most human instinct of company behind for the quest of adventure that will ultimately end in death.
One of the most symbolic scenes in the movie is depicted in the river crossing, which signifies something more than just the beginning of Chris’s Alaskan journey. In the movie, Sean Penn uses The Hat given to Chris by Jan Burres as a representation of Chris last connection to all he knew as part of society. Also it represents the spirit of the people he meets throughout his two-year road trip.
In the months that took Chris to reach his beloved dreams of freedom, he meets various people who inevitably become entangle in his life. In fact they begin to construct a sense of comfort and preparation to Chris’s journey. Some of these characters taught him that his way of seeing life is one shared by many, and that he was not alone in his desperate quest for liberty. Other did not share his believes but this did not prevent the characters to learn from one another. All these clues and information throughout the movie play a crucial role in the development of the main character Chris. Therefore the encounters between characters are meant to be represented by The Hat.
Chris decides to leave The Hat behind as a reminder of the exact place he had crossed, ultimately thinking that he will go back at some point in the future. But the question will be, why of all the belonging that Chris had at that moment in the movie the director Sean Penn choses the Hat? If we see the specific moment in which this hat was given as a gift to Chris, we’ll see that it was right before Chris traveled to Alaska. And exactly after Chris met all those characters that in someway shaped him. Therefore it will be the perfect representation of any social rationalism, morally structure mentality, or any connection to humanism left in Chris. After he makes the crossing the adventure begins for Chris, now it was the time for the wild, where the sun, breeze and the sounds of wild animals will serve as his company. No dialog or words are needed when in nature, therefore for months Chris feels like an animal. Feeding from nature and living in it, but with one difference, Chris never stops reading, thinking, and writing. These are the human qualities the Chris never manages to escape.
These inevitable human qualities will prove to be embedded in Chris and impossible to escape them. Ultimately he decides to go back to society after months in the wild. But the when he looks back to society, that is represented by the hat marking the crossing point, the distance between Chris and society is wider than it was before. The very nature that he thought to be less cruel and loving than humans had trapped him. In the scene, the river currents were coming down the mountain with fury. There were no bridges or paths back home (society). The Hat was out of reach even thought it never moved an inch, much like humans and society never will. The Hat is the symbolism of places we as humans belong. With the world and people that we love. They will never change and it doesn’t matter how much of a wild spirit you may think you are, nature belongs to nature and humans to themselves even thought there is always the opportunity to co-exist with them in wildness.