Into the wild

Today we have watched the movie «Into the wild» in class. I thougt it was a realy great movie with a good moral and the fact that it is based on a true story makes it even better I think.

Now I am going to answer some questions around the movie “Into the wild”.

Why did McCandless reject his parents’ lifestyle?

Alex McCandless rejects his parents lifestyle because he believes that every day they are living a lie. They are too committed to the whole idea of having the right things and showing to everyone how wealthy they are, which is completely different to the person McCandless are. This may be the reason to why he has become the person he is, and the ideas and values he has created for himself.

What do you think of McCandless‘s decision to discard his identity and past life without a backward look?

I think he felt like it was something he had to do. He couldn’t live a lie any more, and therefore he chooses the nature, because it is nothing more real and honest than nature.

On the other hand, he left a lot, people that he care about, and basically his entire future. When you are young and you have these ideas, they can seem like the only right thing, but if he had chosen to think twice about it, learned more about the nature and taken some ground rules before he left on his journey, he may have gotten the same experience living alone in the wild, feeling free, but maybe more prepared, more mature and didn’t have to end his life the way he did. 

Why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future–a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm–for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska?

I think there is a lot of different reasons, but I think just to live real and honest life. In his childhood he had seen his parents yelling at each other, screaming and beating each other up, and even so they continued to stay married, they continued to be a family, “a happy family". I think he was tired of living a lie, living a life that was chosen for him and not a one he had chosen himself. I also think he had lost a little faith in love and relationship between people because of his past, but despite of that,  he meets a lot of people that he starts to care about, he always lives, and finds peace in nature. He believes that you can’t only find "love" in other people but also in everything god has created. People are just to blind to see it. Superficial that thinks material stuff and status are the most important things in life. 

Would you do the same thing if you were in his place, or do you think it would be important to discuss your decision with your family first, even if you were certain that they would try to dissuade you.

I don’t know, it is hard to say. But if I had the same thoughts and the same values I think I had done the same think, only that I may have been a little more careful with what I had been eating and I would have taken some time to learn about the nature before I went on that kind of travel.

 Discuss the concepts romanticism and transcendentalism.

Romanticism are focused on the importance of emotions, relationships between people and individual freedom. Follow your feelings, not your knowledge.

Transcendentalism says that you should find inspiration from something beyond "yourself", reason and tradition, for example the relationship with nature, and god and his creations.

This is very central in the movie. Alex’s family is an example of romanticism and Alex is more opposite and are more likely finds his values  in nature and the relationship with gods creations.