Trailer « 

Into the wild »

Questions and answers :

1) What kind of person is the hero ?

The main character of this movie is Christopher McCandless. Despite his family being quite wealthy,
he sets out on a journey after his graduation’s dinner. It seems to me that he wants to strive for
himself which can sound a bit paradoxal because a successful life must be written for him. According
to the trailer, we can understand that he wants to become one of these people, who are adventurous,
take up challenges and go out of their comfort zone in order to reflect upon themselves. He is eager
to find himself again through this journey.
2) What is his goal in this journey ?
In my opinion he is seeking for a life which is truly worth living. Instead of getting a job and settling
down, he prefers going « into the wild » no matter what the consequences will be. This journey is
probably a way for him to discover what his life can be if he lives up to his own expectations of a
blissful life and not society’s. He is on the path of self-discovery.
3) What can you gather about his life back home thanks to the flashbacks ?
From what I understood, Christophers’s parents had an awful relationship during Christopher’s
childhood. I guess it can be a major infleunce on his decision of going to Alaska. I would say that he
did not want the life his parents had. That is probably the reason he absolutely wanted to go to
Alaska : he wanted to go as far as he can from home in order to not make the mistakes his parents
have made (which have probably haunted him to the point of taking a break from it and live his own
life without necessarily his parents’ approvement.
4) How would you describe his experience with nature ?
During this journey, he realizes how harsh it is to live in the wild. Nature is not kind towards him
either. It may seem harder and harder for him to move forward surrounded by nature because of the
mountains, forests, rivers and deserts. It seems evident that the path of self- discovery is not a
straight line at all. What I find interesting is that he did not give up. He kept walking and I think that
it is the moment he decided to keep going on and to move forward that he became aware of the bond
he had with nature all along.
5) What feelings or emotions does he experience ?
I would not say that he experiences a feeling or emotion in particular, instead, he experiences more
of a personal development and from what I understood I would say that he gained maturity
throughout his journey. Even though he felt like giving up several times, he showed willpower and
strength, especially mental strength because it must have been tough and nerve breaking to leave the
comfortable life he had behind and set out on this journey.

Comparison with « Wild » :

« Wild » and « Into the wild » are two movies based on life-changing journeys. The main
characters of these movies decide to take up the challenge of going in the wildness of nature in order
to push past their limits and find themselves again. They set out on this journey of self discovery
after having realized they were overwhelmed by their lives. Nevertheless from the trailers we
watched, we can straight away notice differences and similarities between the movies and
characters.
« Wild » is the story of Cheryl Strayed, a young woman who decided to go hitch-hiking after
having experienced events such as the loss of her mother and a miscarriage while « Into the wild » is
about Christopher McCandless, a young graduate who wanted to see what his life could be if he did
something different from his daily life or in other words, if he follow his heart and instinct instead of
society’s rules. We can also see that their life back home are not the same because Christopher
McCandless is a successful student who just graduated and his family has financial means.
Meanwhile Cheryl Strayed had sort of a mental breakdown after the loss of her mother, the loss of
her child and her awful relationship with her husband.
 Despite the fact that they both set out on a journey, their goal are not exactly the same.
Cheryl wants to forgive herself and get other the loss of her mother who was the love of her life
whereas Christopher McCandless is tired of living a life which does not seem fulfilling and worth
living enough for him. We can say that a sort of parallel is created between these two characters
because the point of the journey for Cheyl is to heal herself from the past’s wounds while
Christopher wants to find the true meaning of life (which is to give life a meaning).
However the way they deal with the struggles of living as a nomad is quite the same. In the
spite of their difficulties, they still moved forward. It seems to me that nature has kind of an
omnipotent role in both stories. It is also omnipresent for example in the form of animals. We can
see in « Wild » that Cheryl meets a fox during her journey, she asks it to « come back » (it may
symbolize her mother). On the other hand, Christopher tries to hunt but he is not able to do it
because of the pity and sympathy he may have felt for the animals even though they are labelled as
« dangerous ». In my opinion, nature symbolizes the hardships of life in general or at least in these
movies. In « Wild » Cheryl asks the fox to come back but it does not come back because Cheryl has
to face her fears and traumas alone in order to heal from them. Nonetheless in « In the Wild »,
Christopher meets wolves, deers and bears. Perhaps it could symbolize society’s judgement, which is
constantly surrounding him but when he decides to not be scared of it (to not be scared of failing), he
becomes aware that they are not as dangerous and scary as they seemed to be.
Regarding their feelings and experience, we can say that at the beginning they must have felt
confused and mixed up. It caused them to go on this journey without actually giving it a second
thought and that is how it became the life-changing experience they did not know they needed.They
both felt like they were fighting alone with no one by their sides. It would probably not be a surprise
if they felt disheartened from times to times because not only these journeys make people gain
mental strength, but they also make them dig through the deepest, darkest, rawest part of
themselves. Thus before making things right for themselves, the journey they go on makes them
reflect upon themselves and their past. Then they realize that the key to a meaningful life is to let go
of the pressure they put on themselves all this time. I believe that nature was especially helpful for
them to come to this realization because they felt lonely and only had themselves.
To conclude, I would like to invite you to give it a thought. I know that leaving everything
and going backpacking may sound a crazy and immature thing to do but as far as I am concerned, I
find it brave to be able to do it. I know that I am still young and I have not live at least a quarter of
my life but I feel like I am wasting on the best years of my life by not doing this rather crazy and
immature thing which is setting out on a journey. I hear this voice everyday telling me to give it a
try. It makes me wonder what my life can be if I suddenly decide to overcome this fear in order of
letting go of all these past experiences, which made me doubt the meaning I should give to life. What
if we became the Cheryl Strayed or Christopher McCandless we look up to ? What if instead of
admiring these adventurous movie characters, we became the heros of our own stories ?