Sunday, Jan 3, 2010.
Watched Into the Wild.. a fascinating yet distressing story of Christopher McCandless..your usual graduate with fighting parents, who left his urban life to try and live off the land.. hitch-hiking his way around the continent. The story is a true one. Christopher went by the name Alexander Super-Tramp..burned all his money in the wallet.. donated the rest to charity...travelled far and wide.. in complete solitude.. made friends with fellow tramps.. gave up all things material.. and followed his ambition to go to Alaska..where eventually after 113 days he died out of starvation caused by eating inedible potato root. The story is gross and at times one feels that the guy is stupid as he could have saved his life had he cared to carry some essential supplies and some experience of living in the forest. Though one has to admire his guts but the fact that he left his parents to mourn after him -- i found it unjust. We do not have the right to give that kind of sadness to anyone. We do not have the right to just die when their are people who us so much. And to inflict that pain on those who love you who saw you grow up..who dreamed about your happiness ..is just not right. These people might even hate you upfront but you just don't make someone suffer because you are obsessed about something. Hey.. i'm not just blabbering about the movie here.. lots to this effect has been going on in my head.. about the kind of hurt that is human and why one should not be subjected to more pain than is justified.
You know, we underestimate pain. We do it all the time. Maybe that is the defence mechanism of the soul and hats off to it. But to be feeling something that is not meant to be felt... to be going through such mental agony which is fitting for something much worse and not for what has actually happened, is not right. It is NOT the way nature or fate planned things. So don't let yourself do that to you. If you are in such a situation, then there is something major wrong going on inside of you.. something you need to set right.
I don't write that difficult, but still, if you understand it.. congratulations!
Whats right or whats wrong is always defined in a context it is wrapped in :) more than anything its a perspective and from the living point of view of the protagonist his very own and very true.. he didnt harm anybody intentionally.. his intentions were clearly about his seeking for a way of life he wanted to live... where you find that thought depressing.. i find it liberated.. liberated from the shackles of the norms set.. from the chains of unsaid and said to-dos and dont-do's ... i enjoyed the movie more than anything and it ranks good in my fave list :) doesnt have to be that way for you or for anyone .. but it definitely wasnt a wrong attitude to life .. it was personal.. it was unique.. yes it was!! ... and trust me to man who so longs to be in the lap of nature can only understand it.. he wasnt seeking balance ... he was seeking nature ;)
ReplyDeleteHey hey! I guess you presumed that I wouldn't like to be surrounded by nature or that from the p.o.v of the movie, I don't appreciate him wanting to be as close to nature as man/woman can possibly be! And that's not true! :) I did not not like the movie.. it was a great adaptation..of the book and of the real life story it portrayed. As regards whether it was a wrong attitude to life.. his wanting to be one with nature etc.. ofcourse that was not wrong.. but for some practical as well as certain emotional reasons, I would say one could be more careful with one's life. By all means go and live in the wilderness.. but if you plan to live then do live.. do the needful that would help you live! You know what I mean? (of course I am not blaming him of dying!)
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that as much as I love nature, I like life more. Isn't that the biggest gift of nature? And I wasn't saying that he wanted to harm anyone..not many people really want to harm people around them.. in and around what we want to and need to do in our lives comes a time where one has to weigh things over. There arise questions like, does that what I want to do really gonna bring down someone that bad? Or affect someone's life so much? Knowing that it would, do I still want to pursue my ambition? These questions I guess should be thought over within..people around us deserve it. Having said that, if you still feel you have to do it, then may be you should go ahead an do it...after all it IS your life!
Coming back to the movie, and I may sound prissy here, why exactly did he never let his parents and sister know that wherever he was, he was fine? I thought of it from the angle of the family and that't what this post was about! To have your loved one gone away..with no clue of his being well.. to spend every minute - every moment of the rest of the life thinking, praying, worrying about that person.. to give up on all festivities, all happiness that life brings that that person's absence takes away from you. The infliction of this pain is more difficult to bear than death..which after all has a certainty to it. What do you think? :)
Yes, life in itself is nature's truest gift. But, if Chris McCandless continued to dwell in the societal life his parents had tailored for him, would you actually be led to believe that he wouldn't have rather culminated it. What then would his loved ones feel? Wouldn't they curse themselves for the rest of their lives for having encumbered and thereby driven their son to death? Wouldn't that be more pain-inflicting, more tormenting ?
ReplyDeleteIs life just a biological condition? Is it merely vitality ? Would he still be 'alive' in true sense, had he given in to his parents? Why should he have delved in such circumstances ? In the wilderness, he lived his life as he thought of it, without compromises. 113 such days were more delight to him than fifty common years could ever contain.
Sure, the parents grieved him. But they would have sooner realized that not only did Chris live a richer, fuller life, he also saved them the dire agony of inevitably killing their son.
That's my take on it. Of course, we are all entitled to our own opinions.
:)