‘Into the Wild’ the Film by Sean Penn

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main text
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The film, ‘Into the Wild’ revolves around the life of an excellent student and successful athlete, Christopher McCandless, the hero of the film, who decides to leave behind his career, family and relationships to embark upon a journey into nature. The actor has, as a child witnessed a troubled childhood, the memories of which he wants to escape, and which have left him de-motivated and disillusioned in life. He wishes escape from the material world and travel to Alaska, where he would be able to unite with nature and forget all the memories of his miserable childhood.

Main text

After his graduation, he begins his travel with minimum belongings and money, after donating his entire savings of $25,000, to Oxfam and misinforming his parents that he was returning to Atlanta, when in actuality he sets out for Alaska, a journey which lasts twenty months. Upon reaching Alaska, Chris who is now Alex, faces many hardships, and is not prepared for them physically, mentally or financially. In the course of his journey, he encounters several people, from whom he learns the true value of relationships and sharing.

All the people he encounters are agents of socialization; Wyne Westerberg employs Alex at the grain elevator, while Jan Burres and her boyfriend befriend him like surrogate parents. Tracy is the young teenage girl who is heartbroken when Chris deserts her abruptly. The most influential character who puts in the maximum effort and plays a vital role in re-uniting Chris with society is Ron Franz. Chris learns the true meaning of relationships and family and most importantly the value of sharing in life, the realization of which falls on him and he immediately decides to return home to society.

However, by the time this realization dawns upon him, it is too late, for when he decides to return home, the circumstances do not favor his return and he has neither the means nor the route to get back home. He then dies a sad death in isolation due to hunger and loneliness, ironically when he so eagerly wishes to get back home.

The film depicted a very important sociological theme by way of its plot, with a subtle but visible emphasis on the effect of parents and family on the lives of children and the decisions they make. Chris is a young and dynamic young man, who succeeds at everything he undertakes. But life takes a sad turn when he is unable to cope with the psychological pressures of his family life. his father has been discovered to have a second wife and a child from this marriage.

This angers Chris deeply and he is deeply hurt. The film is representative o the current situation in society and the dire consequences of broken and unhappy families. The society is changing at a rapid pace and so are familial values. Parents fail to understand that their children are in the delicate stages of growth and hold their parents and families in high esteem. But when parents fight and fail to adjust with each other, the harm caused to the minds of children minds is much greater than one can imagine. As agents of socialization, parents covertly teach more to the children than is apparent.

The inability of Chris’ parents to live together taught him that it is not easy to co-exist with love, peace and trust, and he lies to them and abandons his home. In doing so, he unites with the other agents of socialization, who teach him the true meaning of life, the value of staying together, the importance of sharing and caring. The pattern of isolation that Chris / Alex adopts in the film is that of a ‘retreatist’ and is illustrative of Mills’ argument that the lives of most people “are a series of traps” due to their inability to understand the “greater sociological patterns” of society. Chris had set out as a young man of twenty-two, well into his youth, and absolutely disgruntled by his family life.

He chose to run away from the situation rather than get into the depths and seek a better way of understanding the root cause of his depression and anger. Life has its own way of teaching realities, and Chris, in his transition to Alex, undergoes the constant and incessant process of socialization and gains the true meaning of family and life, but is unable to enjoy it, as it is too late. Chris, like any other human, is an ordinary person who is unable to “grasp the interplay of man and society”.

Besides the failing and degrading standards of family life in America, the film also highlights the prevalent situation of polygamy, in the film. Chris’s father has kept his second marriage and the resultant child a secret from his first family, which becomes the prime reason for Chris’s anger and retreat. Polygamy is becoming more and more common and the effects on families and society are visible, to the extent that the youth set themselves on the paths of absolute self-destruction.

Conclusion

The film is a great work of art, a true representation of the current age and society. I truly enjoyed the film, because it dealt with a very sensitive topic in an extraordinarily natural manner. The agents of society, the parent, family, friends and the entire experience of life, in general, have been very intelligently depicted. The film is not one of the adventure films depicting false adventures and incidents; rather it depicts the present societal condition of today. The story is deeply moving and leaves us sad wondering whether we as a society are doing enough to provide our children with what our parents and society provided us with; hope, love, sharing and caring.

References

Film ‘Into the Wild’ by Sean Penn.

Luhman R., 1982. The Sociological Outlook: A Text with Readings, Belmont.

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‘Into the Wild’ the Film by Sean Penn

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