Into The Wild Convention Analysis

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What is the significance of an individual’s attempt to live unconstrained by convention or circumstance? Humans as a species will feel the need to create societal normalities, and shape our livelihoods after specific sets of rules. To satisfy this niche set of rules and regulations and maintain convention, many individuals are forced to either stay within the confines of society, or break barriers and challenge these “social norms.” In Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn, this topic is insightfully explored. The main character, Christopher McCandless, does not want to live by these constraints any longer. He yearns for truth and rawness, and he attempts to live freely of the lies and deceit that have plagued his life by getting away from …show more content…
In Christopher’s mind, in order to live completely free of society’s expectations, he thinks it’s best to and go to Alaska and escape. Alaska represents a “promised land” for Chris. Chris believes that people are too confined by society, and they choose to live lives that are untruthful. Chris has adopted these thoughts throughout his life, mostly due to the broken relationship he has with his parents. The narrator, and Chris’s sister Carine, explains that one of Chris’s potential stressors is that they grew up with abuse in the household. This leads Chris to resent his parents, their needs for material possessions, and their cookie-cutter lifestyle. Chris is a recent college graduate, with “good enough grades to get into Harvard”, that his parents have supported thus far. One of the first instances of these thoughts is portrayed in the first scene with his parents, when they are at lunch after his college graduation. Chris’s parents offer to buy him a new car, even when there is nothing wrong with the one Chris is currently driving. Chris makes a scene, explaining that “[he] doesn’t want a new car, [he] doesn’t want anything,” and goes on about “things, things, things.” This is an example of how Chris is not phased by material possessions, and how he’d rather live on the bare minimum. This is also foreshadowing embarking on his journey into the wild. This incident also marks the point in which Chris decides that he wants to live completely freely of his family, and plants the idea to “slay the beast”. Chris’s changes his name to “Alexander Supertramp”, further distancing himself from his old life. Chris makes decisions that support this attempt by giving away his life savings to a charity, and abandoning his car in the desert where he sets off on his journey into the wild. Chris is also influenced by books and writers that emphasize truth, which is a
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