Bravery?
Stupidity?
I remember once when I was in high school, I had to read Don Quixote. My teacher asked a question for me to write an essay on: “Was Don Quixote’s fight with the windmills, brave or stupid?”
I figured that the majority of students in the class would say it was stupid. There is no bravery in stupidity, I thought at the time.
I got the question wrong.
Despite my long winded response full of valor and increments of true understanding of the text, the teacher didn’t give me full credit.
Is it stupid to leave it all behind and go through a romanticized life in the solitude and cold of wilderness?
The premise of the movie Into The Wild didn’t really hit me until I thought about the latter.
The movie really plays on the romantic feelings of going forth into a new land and creating an adventure that is free from the binds of civilization.
On the flip side, many people are quick to just say that he was stupid for not having a worthwhile compass, map, or knowledge of the area.
But isn’t that the point?
I am confined to a space that is small. My computer is going to kill me eventually. My eyes burn red. I take breaks, only to hurt myself on my skateboard. I come home and try to make sense of it all.
It’s a happy life, but a boring one.
No matter how beautiful and surreal a film makes ones life seem…there is always someone there to say that it was stupid. Into the Wild can only be viewed in these two ways. On one side, Christopher McCandless is brave and boldly gives away his money and heads on a real American adventure.
On the flip side, he’s a terrible son, who abandoned his family and friends to pursue a fantasy land, only to die….a long winded suicide to most, and for what?
The greater good might be that office idiots like me see the film and read the book and use the brain that we have to resonate with the outside world; you know the one that isn’t a part of gray felt walls, or another boredom movement.
Here is the trailer for Into the Wild:
The book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is now available, but if you’re into film, Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn is available now too.
