The Meaning of Life and Death
Into the Wild (2007)
Humanity does not have an answer to the question, ‘does life have to have a meaning?’ Instead we have answers. We revel in things we do not understand and throughout history humanity explores this concept in the attempts of many introspective individuals who decide that a philosophical inquisition into this subject is worth pursuing exploring this existentialist concept subjectively and thus, some people may find the meaning of living as they experience moments through the duration of their lives. They might carry a popular perspective about its meaning or carry a personally informed construct to answer the question. They might have consulted a perspective with foundations of deism or finite godism (Smith, 2011), transcendentalism, destiny or fete, or some other socially constructed causes or to aide the reflections of their direct experience and take a higher meaning than the sewing together of random incidents by time. The seventeenth-century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes said that in its “natural condition” the life of man is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. The central protagonist of Into the Wild (2007), Christopher McCandless (1968-1992) explored the meaning of life question with an introverted stance of moral absolutism, attempting to find purpose by leaving his family and connections behind, taking the words of Jack London to heart, living the “natural” life as Hobbes described and conducting a philosophical inquiry into life with faith in God and life in it’s “purest form”, with short-term relationships and a stubborn ideology of travelling north to Canada was seemingly fallible choice from the perspective of patriarchy where meaning comes from having a family and creating the next generation. Not only did he not make it, he lived a lonely life, making tokenistic relationships that end on his own terms, something he learns was the wrong thing in the end.
This young man really existed; the choices of a real person were told and shared to an audience, in order to examine the meaning of life and death and look at our own choices. We get to consider the environment that created him, and his troubles as a young, powerless person in an unhappy family. We see him sacrifice his relationship with his sister along with his parents; she is the narrator, who tells his story from beyond the grave for him. We were allowed into nature to see Hobbes representation of life at the core, with everyday occurrences and tragedies or triumphs. The moose tragedy, with nature’s decay taking over too quickly for him confronts audiences with real life, pure life and other lessons along the way. He never stopped to question that his own hands could have benefited the assistance of another’s; sharing it wasn’t something he realised until the very end, as a slow and painful death presumably resulted in powerful meaning of life lessons from the dying body. We get to watch him succeed and fail. It makes us think.
The biographical drama of a real individual has allowed inquiry into the meaning of life and death and exploration of existentialist conundrums. Some of the most resonating scenes in the movie are arguably the social scenes, were we encounter special individuals hidden away across the American landscape who share briefly in Chris’ life for a time until he leaves. One could argue that I have lived a more successful life than Chris’ because I share it with others, and as he never reached Canada and solitary duped himself out of a meaningful existence because of some teenage angst, in needing to be absolutely self-reliant at the destruction of all other meaningful connections.
References:
Penn, S (2007) Into the Wild. United States: Square One C.I.H., Linson Film and River Road Entertainment.
Smith, B (2011) Finite Godism. Accessed: http://www.thoughtfulchristianity.net/?p=6390
Lloyd, S. (2008) Hobbes Moral and Political Philosophy Accessed: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/
The Film and the actual story are blurred in my mind. One cannot think of one without the other.
madamegeorge 