Into The Wild

I had seen "Into the Wild" some time ago and was planning on writing something about this gem of a movie for quite some time.

This movie is supposed to be the biography of one Christopher Johnson McCandless. I had never heard this guy's name before and neither had any of my friends so let me begin with who this man was (Sorry my friends in Alaska, I know now that everyone among you knows who this man is and hates him with every fiber in your body).

McCandless was born in South California, was an intelligent person (at least compared to the jackasses he was surrounded by), was raised in a dysfunctional family, donated 20,000$ of his college fee, and broke free of all bonds by taking on the name "Alexander Supertramp".

Throughout the movie he travels all across America doing weird stuff & following whatever his mind tells him to. He also meets a girl portrayed by the beautiful Kristen Stewart during his journeys. But he keeps one thing in mind, to never get attached to someone. Maybe he did so because he had lost faith in relationships of the constant fighting between his parents. This is what a typical Supertramp response is before leaving someone in the wild to move ahead in his journey :-

"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."

Sounds okay, right? Wait till you hear the rest of the story.

So Supertramp has some sort of an obsession with Alaska. He wants to end his journey with Alaska. He wants to keep moving North till he reaches Alaska. He wants to live in the "Wild", in Alaska on his own during the harsh winters away from the prying eyes and whispering voices of another human being.

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.

Now whatever you do, you don't wanna end up in Alaska on your own in the wild during the winters. By the time Supertramp realized he had to end his journey, it was too late. It was during these days that he realized "HAPPINESS REAL ONLY WHEN SHARED".

He died of starvation (There's some evidence that it was brought upon by some plant seed). These were his last words:-

"I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!"

Now here's the twist, had he done some research about the place he was going to, he would have known that it was abundant with fish (You can pull the out of the water with hands, if you wish) and that there was a bridge a few hundred meters away from the place where he failed to cross the river (This is why Alaskans hate him, for making their home look bad & dangerous).

So, the real question is, Was he a fool?
You can call him many things but not a fool. I feel that he was a man who had to undergo the journey in order to find the answers he wanted for himself.
Would you have the courage to do the same , if you were in his position?
Would I have the courage to do the same, if I were in his position?

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is society, where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar
I love not man the less, but Nature more... - Lord Byron

In memory
Christopher Johnson McCandless
February 12, 1968 - August 18, 1992