Alone

I think Siddartha and Chris McCandless both separated themselves from society and people in order to find themselves and their Self. I think that they felt that the only way to find this was through experience and misunderstood that experience must be done alone.

I first saw Into the Wild freshman year in Mr. Locks American Lit class. During that time we had been discussing transcendentalism and read Walden. Throughout the unit I became really interested in the idea of finding “peace in nature” and started to really reflect on some of the statements made about society and its influences on our lives. When we watched the movie,

I really resonated with Chris's mission and was all for what he was doing. I wondered if journeying out alone would really lead to self realization.

When Chris died, I was blindsided. I couldn’t believe that that was how the story ended, that that was the fate of Chris. I really wanted him to find everything that he was looking for and just couldn’t comprehend why it didn’t work out for him. Siddartha, like Chris, was hoping to find some deeper meaning and left behind many people in his doing so. I have rationalized it to myself that we need people in order to find Self or learn about anything. As both Siddartha and Chris argued for, it is through experience that we learn. But I think people and our interactions with them are major contributors to our experiences.

Interactions with people are our experiences. I think Chris and Siddartha misunderstood. Just because you don’t want to be taught by people, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them.You don’t have to listen to their lessons and be influenced by them in order to have meaningful interactions that contribute to your journey to find Self.

Everyone is connected and separating themselves from everyone lead them both astray. In the end I think both characters realized that sharing happiness, peace enlightenment (etc) is important. Siddhartha's final moment with Govinda and Chris’s realization about happiness both verify the fact that in the end, they both weren’t alone. However, I do wonder if given the opportunity, would either one of them opt to go back in time  and complete their journey any differently?