Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Exploration 5: "Into the Wild"


I watched "Into the Wild" in 2008 and was greatly influenced by the main character in the movie, Christopher McCandless. He had a Bachelor's degree in History and Anthropology. He was influenced by Henry David Thoreau, a well known American philosopher. He was raised in an upper class family, and hated the way people were materialistic.

Even though I was raised in a poor family, I felt I could relate to the way he understood society as being materialistic. Being poor I had always wanted more than what I had. I wanted a nice car, a nice house, and beautiful things. After watching this movie I realized these things were not very important at all. It caused me to think about the things in my life that were more important such as family and health.

McCandless let go of many stresses in his life by simplifying and having less. He burned his birth certificate, social security card, and credit cards and moved into an old broken down bus in the wilderness in Alaska. I used this technique in my own life after seeing this movie. Even though my apartment didn't have many decorations, I was happy not being stressed out about where to hang a picture, or having to think about what matched the curtains and sofa. I did not go to the extreme of burning my social security card, birth certificate or credit cards as did McCandless in the movie, but I simplified my life in other ways and was ultimately happy.












Above is an actual photo of Christopher
McCandless which was retrieved from his camera.

Here is a link for more information about "Into the Wild":Link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_%28film%29

Here is a link for more information about Christopher McCandless:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

1 comment:

  1. I too was very moved by this film. My heart kind of broke for this young man. He was very lost in some ways, and enlightened in others.

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