Analyse how one main character changed to become more or less admirable

Some say that Into The Wild’s protagonist Chris McCandless’ actions were selfish and hurt those that loved him. Others say his actions were inspiring and selfless. Following the inspiration from his favourite authors such as Tolstoy, Thoreau and Jack London, Chris set out on a journey to go into the wild. Leaving no information for his family Chris donated his life savings to Oxfam leaving $500 left to achieve his Alaskan dream. Throughout the film, Chris’ actions change him into becoming someone who is so caught up in their own dreams, to not realise that what they have around them is special. Ultimately making Chris a less admirable character. The director Sean Penn uses techniques that involved the viewer in Chris’ journey and helped to viewer to understand and appreciate these changes. These techniques are voiceover and dialogue.

Based on a true story, freshly graduated from college with a promising future, 22 year old Chris instead walks out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of his Alaskan dream. What happened on the way helped transform him into an enduring symbol for people. Throughout the movie the viewer is constantly trying to figure out whether Chris is selfish or just following his dreams. After his car gets caught in a flash flood he takes his intrepid journey by foot and burns the rest of his money. Not long after, Chris gets picked up by hippies Jan and Rainey who briefly take him under their wing. Seeing their own son in Chris, Jan worries about his parents that he leaves behind knowing the pain they are feeling. He then goes on to meet Wayne a wheat farm manager, Ron a retired soldier and Tracy a young singer. By encountering these colourful characters along the way, he encountered a series of colorful characters at the very edges of American society. These people helped shape his understanding of life and whose lives he, in turn, changed. In the end, he tested himself by heading alone into the wilds of Alaska, where everything he had seen and learned and felt came to a head in ways he never could have expected. Only to become trapped in the wild.

Chris’ courage to fully search for his identity, to reject the “normal” and the expected path laid was told through the technique of voiceover. The voiceover is crucial in the film as Carine - Chris’ younger sister, gave the viewer a larger insight into the Chris’ background and what made him drive a wedge between his parents. An example of this would be “The violence we were forced to witness. It was very real...” As the voiceover is playing we see short videos playing, with a hand held shot. The shot is used to convey a sense of emergency as it goes back to when Chris and Carine were kids. Their parents are fighting and yelling at each other as well as getting the kids to pick a side. The camera quickly flicks back to a shot of Chris walking along the side of the road relaxed but not smiling. It then flicks back to the hand held shot with Carine standing in the door way crying with their parents physical fight nearly injuring her only to be quickly pulled by back Chris into a hug. From this scene I can understand why Chris would want to give his parents the cold shoulder, to give them the same grief that they gave him. With Carine’s voiceovers it helped me understand more about Chris’ past and what lead him to act certain ways. Without these voiceovers I feel that I wouldn’t of been able to got to know the family if there were no voiceovers at all. To me, even though his parents treated him awful and were everything Chris did not want to be, this makes Chris less admirable as he is not trying to fix it. He is purposely trying to make it worse.

Chris’ belief in himself, his courage and resilience in pursuing his dream makes him a likable character. His insights as he lays dying in the final scenes show that he appreciated the journey he had been on. That he saw that he had chosen the path he wanted and it led him to realise what true happiness is; without that courage to pursue our dreams and live life as we want to, what purpose does our life have? As the camera goes in for an extreme close up, we see Chris’ weak hand write in his book “Happiness is only real when shared”. Almost as though he is saying that he was wrong in believing that he could find happiness without people who he loved and who loved him. It is also ironic that he wrote it in a book by Tolstoy, a writer who left his family who loved him only to die several days later. This example to me makes Chris more admirable, because reading between the lines of the example, to me it feels as though he is owning up and admitting that he was wrong. By writing it in his book by Tolstoy, it seems as he is saying to Tolstoy himself that he was wrong about finding happiness on your own. That through all the pain that had been inflicted on him, he could only be truly happy when around those that loved him.

Sean Penn’s Into The Wild made me undecided on whether or not the main character, Chris became more or less admirable. In some ways he became less admirable as he left those who loved him in the dark about his whereabouts and wellbeing. Causing them pain he had not thought about. But became more admirable in the final scenes in the movie where he admitted to his wrongs and proved to people he aspired to be like that they were wrong as well. That “Happiness is only real if shared.”

	Created by bronnie48 over 10 years ago

Level 2 English (Film Essay) Note on Into The Wild - Merit + (practice), created by bronnie48 on 08/10/2013.

Into The Wild - Merit + (practice)