Tyrone Schiff Kelly WilliamsEnglish 12512 April 2006Finding a Bat-ManThe quest for a treasure that is seemingly impossible to find can drive those insearch of it mad. The different paths and experiences through which one goes willultimately lead to success or failure. Regardless, when the treasure is tangible, it is far easier to gauge progress, but consider a treasure that cannot be grasped but only realized.In the movie,

Batman Begins

, Bruce Wayne is the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune,Wayne Enterprises. At the onset of the film, Wayne is in a prisoner’s camp in the midst of nowhere and nothingness. How he came to be there is a mystery, but what is clear is thathe does not belong with these criminals. Wayne is then approached by a man who offershim a path for his life and with little hesitation Wayne accepts his offer and follows theman’s orders. Bruce Wayne appears to be a very confused person. He was exposed to thehorrid murder of both his mother and father as a small child and quite noticeably isrebelling from society due to the looks of his current location. Bruce Wayne is in searchof his own identity, but is hindered from attaining this due to his class standing and forcesin his life that skew his image of his true identity.The search for Bruce Wayne’s identity is affected by the type of lifestyle that hewas born into. Wayne is undoubtedly a free spirit. He is not the type who is willing tofollow the crowd and go unnoticed. However, Bruce Wayne comes from a long line of wealthy people; the mansion he lives in had housed six generations of Wayne’s prior to

him. Bruce’s life was practically mapped out before he was even born, and this creates alot of tension between himself and his own reality. When Alfred, the housekeeper for theWayne’s, asks Bruce why he was not going back to Princeton, Bruce’s reply was, “I likeit fine. They just don't feel the same way.” This reveals that Bruce Wayne attendsPrinceton, which is a very high class Ivy League school. A school like Princeton wouldhave a lot of kids who are in the upper class attending it, but for some reason, BruceWayne indicates that he does not connect with them. This puts Bruce Wayne’s character into perspective. Though he is surrounded by the upper class and is treated as a member of the upper class, he does not consider himself apart of this group. These implications toone’s identity are catastrophic. Bruce Wayne must feel lonely and confused because of hisinability to see how he fits in with the class he is surrounded by. All this loneliness andconfusion only leads to rebelling, which also counteracts his realization of his ownidentity.Bruce Wayne is in such deep search for an identity and purpose that he is oftenled astray from what he truly wants to become. While in prison a man named Ducardfinds Wayne and proposes that he join his group as a means of finding purpose in his life,“But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, […]then you become something else entirely.” This charade of fighting crime and bringing justice is very appealing to Bruce Wayne. Bruce follows the man, goes through all therigorous training to become a member of the League of Shadows, but then rebels fromthis group as well. This is a step in the right direction for Bruce’s realization of his ownidentity though. He has come to terms with the fact that he wants to devote himself to