Into the Wild, A Reflection.

Being in a society can impose traditions, or events that can make some people more edgy to what they see happen to a society in a given time frame. In Into the Wild, one of the main themes that can be portrayed very well is rejecting to conform to society's own ways, so that one can be themselves and not be like everyone else. While watching this, one song that I had immediately thought of was Kanye West's Lost in the World where he talks about not knowing what to do as seen by the lines:

"I‘m up in the woods, I’m down on my mind
 I’m building a still to slow down the time"

saying that he needs to go back into nature to rediscover his own self, or find his mind.Also, he wants to have a stillshot, just like the one at the very end of the film.

You can listen to to song at the link below:
http://soundcloud.com/jdelmoral/lost-in-the-world-kanye-west


As I was watching this movie, this theme seemed to keep on reoccuring in many different ways and seemed very intrigueing to see how the main character Chris had first done everything according to society: ie get good grades, graduate from college, have a stable life....and then immideatly decided that this wasen't the way he wanted to live his life. He was seeking after something more powerfull than society could ever offer him, something that he if he wanted to get in touch with he would have to give up everything that most people consider valuable to expose himself to what most cannot get in touch with: God. In the begenning of the movie, one of the main quotes that can clearly represent this is the text that comes up on the screen and disappears: “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t met you though. Tramping is too Easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to Forage Around for my next meal… I’ve decided that I’m going to live this Life for some time to come. The Freedom and Simple Beauty of it is just too good to pass up.”.

While doing reasearch on Into the Wild, I  found out that Jon Krakauer had done tremendous amounts of work with writing about nature and climbing*, thus majorly influencing him to make this sort of film for almost a sort of rite of passage for a young adult right out of college. It is appealing how Mr. Krakauer had wanted to show everyone that you dont need to conform to society, you can find everything you need from God and in many ways such as in nature, and I believe that is what Chris has accomplished. By donating all of his life savings to charity, destroying every part of his identity, and almost starting would seem unimaginable to most, but for Chris, it worked. At the end of the movie, his sister says that whatever Chris has done, "Everything has to be said" and "Everything has to be done", so that other people can see what he was trying to show others. Having a college diploma to be successful, or have proof of an identity, or having money, you don't need any of that in life. By Chris burning everything that society considers valuable, it not only shows this, but also that you dont need any of that to be happy or be content. One of the major quotes from this movie that I think iterates this point is from Ron, the old man at the end of the film who genuinely loved Chris, and wanted what he had. Chris told him: "I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things." I feel that this quote sums up anonther key point that most people have a one-minded, narrow view of what things are, and we tend to forget that there can be two answers to the way we look at things. I feel like this is one of the few points that can be missed very easily since we tend to foget the other side of things, and that we should try to find a way to look at things differently. For example, most people would think you are insane if you were to burn money, or give away your life savings to charity, but to Chris that meant nothing compared to what he was hoping to find while in Alaska. I think Chris had died peacefully while making others think more about what had happened in his past and how greatly it had affected his views on society as a whole.

*http://www.randomhouse.com/features/krakauer/author.html