Into The Wild – Katelyn Gilmore

Evidence of modern western civilizations’ pressure to abide to social expectations is increasing rapidly, notably with advancements in technology. Messages are now delivered to impressionable nations efficiently, which has aided in the process of brainwashing its citizens in regard to what is valued in life.

The masses typically succumb to these cultured ideals of graduating college, getting married, having children, and climbing the corporate ladder until death, leaving nothing but the picturesque white picket-fenced home behind. The protagonists in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) and the film Into The Wild (2007) demonstrate how and why a noted few choose to pursue personal goals which differ from such norms. Both works reveal that individuality is supressed by restrictive authority and emphasis on materialism in society, which causes some to rebel and escape in pursuit of fulfilling alternative aspirations.

Social expectations are reinforced with dominant influences in society. Parents, teachers, bosses, celebrities, peers, media; all with enough power to convince others what the ‘right’ way to live is. This hierarchy of status is detrimental to personal growth and discovery since humanity is now told what to achieve instead of the assumption that people are capable to decide that for themselves. Compressing individuals to an ideal form based upon the supposed elite’s craftsmanship is restrictive on all grounds and remains a clear theme in Fight Club. Protagonist Tyler Durden feels the pressure to abide, causing him to lose all sense of self, morals, and ultimately reality. However, through his decline, one can see the wisdom behind his message; one can realize the weaknesses in society and choose to overcome it.

“You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just to they can buy what they really don’t need. We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.” (Palahniuk, 149)

This great war of the spirit stems from the culture we live in, influenced by arbitrary enforced guidelines. Tyler feels authoritative dominance directly from society’s views on the importance of superiority. He despises his boss, contaminates the riches’ food, sells lip suctioned fat back to high-class housewives in soap, and releases Project Mayhem across the nation targeted at primary influences such as the banks. Himself, accompanied by his huge mass of followers, attempt to break free from the chains tightly fastened around the impressionable’s necks by those at the top of the pyramid. If not, he’ll fall accustomed to the unwritten rules majority seem to follow. In other words,

“You do the little job you’re trained to do. Pull a lever. Push a button. You don’t understand any of it, and then you just die.” (Palahniuk, 12)
Along with the overwhelming pressure to abide to authority, the aristocratic expectations to consume is self-destructing. As humans, importance on gadgets remains at an all-time high, which ironically feeds into the harmful image of superiority discussed previously. Humanity is given this unjustified perception of power on the basis of materialistic goods – the brand of car you drive, the clothes you wear, the cellphone you talk into, the food you eat, or the neighbourhood you live in. All act as mere titles without any foundation or insight into the actual person standing behind this distorted image.

The freedom of self-expression is disappearing; our outlooks of what is desired are bleeding into one.

“The people I know used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. We all have the same Johanneshove armchair in the Strinne green striped pattern…Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” (Palahniuk, 44)

Evidently, Tyler feels the weight of society’s fixation on purchasing; trapping him to majority’s standards of perfection on instrumental value. His IKEA-smeared nest is representative of the newfound world and how these distractions feed it. Possessions are the ultimate goal used to show dominance; they own the masses every dream. Buying the equivalent in order to be the equivalent is now the center of cultures, even broadening outside western civilizations. Communities stand united as a global community run by dominant powerhouses, and what, how, and why people consume remains a clear example of this. Instead of taking this new lifestyle verbatim, perhaps society should be questioning what void they are trying to fill with the latest, fastest, or glamorous toys. The void appears to be personal identity. Ironically, people buy products in line with what is popular in hopes to define themselves on a personal scale. Tyler awoke to this realization, causing him to escape in hopes of truly discovering himself.

With the pressure to conform to the mistaken superior’s message of focussing life around power and vanity from materialistic objects, it should come to no surprise of why citizens yearn for an escape upon realization that objects do not grant happiness. Tyler Durden and his tremendous amount of followers are no different, and emphasize this great misunderstanding society has as a whole. Tyler first begins to seek alternative methods of fulfillment through disease support groups. He feels satisfied by creating non-existent problems through aliases. He blows up his condo; symbolic of wanting to free himself from society. Later, he creates underground fight clubs which become a phenomenon across the nation amongst men seeking difference from their daily routine. Fight Club spirals into Project Mayhem where everyday men find solitude by rebelling against the very system that made them into the Average Joes they hate. All of it made possible by Tyler’s split personality, a mental disorder which completely symbolizes a lack of self and need for escape shown throughout the novel. To further emphasize this message, one can analyze the following quote from Tyler’s space monkeys:

“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile. Our culture has made us all the same. No one is truly white or black or rich, anymore. We all want the same. Individually, we are nothing.” (Palahniuk, 134)

The message is clear; society’s customs are overpowering our own sense of self. From following the leader of the pack, the masses will remain just a part of the herd. Culture has created its people all the same, and humanity will continue to not be ‘unique snowflakes’ unless significant change is brought forth in what is valued. This revolution begins with the remarkable few willing to lead others from the path of conformity. Tyler Durden may have been extreme with his actions, yet true intentions were present. Protagonist Christopher McCandless in the film Into The Wild represents parallel ideologies.

McCandless’ remarkable journey of exploration to reach his goal of Alaska can be made an example of how authority figures and materialism repress individuality, causing one to escape. Throughout his entire life he pushed boundaries in order to explore freely. This urge for freedom was amplified in times of struggle throughout the film, caused by power-driven people. The primary source of ungrounded dominance can be traced back to his parents Walt and Billie. As a wealthy couple, they offered to buy Chris a new car as a graduation gift, which would replace his Datsun B-120. He did not want such as it would not suite his simplistic-oriented personality, yet they insisted. He denied once again, yet the only reason behind their persistence according to Chris would be concern of what the neighbours would think of his rustic vehicle. Once more, the fixation on image in order to resemble everyone else is apparent and revealed to limit personal expression.

Chris faces this challenge repeatedly on his travels from those with supposed hierarchy; notably when trying to paddle down the Colorado River and gain access to the trains. Upon entering the local police station for help of where to launch out of, he was only met with more obstacles. It was against the law to kayak without a permit accessible through a twelve year wait-list or in accompany of a guide for two thousand dollars. Additionally, regulations and the train worker limited his access to freight trains and ultimately travelling. Money and power are shown to control the simplest task to paddle down a river or get a ride on a train. However, he didn’t allow this to stop him as he believed that “Money is an illusion, power is an illusion. You can do anything, you can go anywhere” (Penn, 2007). Moreover, he claimed “Careers are a 21st century invention and I don’t want one” (Penn, 2007). Since jobs typically come with justification to control (i.e. politicians, teachers, policeman, CEOs, etc.) it comes to no surprise in modern society that exploration can by limited so easily by those enforcing. Although chased by the river patrol and beaten by the train worker, he made it all the way to Mexico from the Colorado River via kayaking, and gained access to nearby cities from using trains.

Chris’ persistence is what undoubtedly granted the possibility for great adventure. If he allowed authority to dictate his life, his goals would never have been achieved. He longed to break away from those who feel entitled to pass judgement and limit personal gain of those beneath the unwritten pyramid of unwarranted success. Alaska was his answer, claiming “Just living out there in the moment… get out of this sick society. Judgement, control, all of that. The whole spectrum. The parents, the hypocrites, the politicians, the pricks” (Penn, 2007). Chris was determined to fulfill his dreams, and did so despite being supressed by dominance along the way. For that, he should be commended.

To proceed, much like the fall of society from excess consumerism revealed in Fight Club, the issue of materialism is addressed in Into The Wild. Chris breaks free from the subliminal priorities of the masses as he realizes its potential for harm. When offered the new car from his parents, he states “I don’t want a new car. I don’t need a new car. What’s with all these things? Things. Things. Things” (Penn, 2007) To deny what most people would love on the grounds that it is undesired and unnecessary is remarkable in itself, more so for someone of Chris’ young age.

His minimalistic approach is revealed continuously as ‘his days were more exciting when penniless.’ He never had a telephone, left majority of his possessions behind, and gave his lifesavings to charity when he began his journey. Any jobs he did have along the way he did simply for the fun of it, burning any small profits often. Ironically, Chris truly didn’t see the value of money; something most people today strive for primarily. When asked why he feels this way, he would respond “I don’t need money, makes people cautious” (Penn, 2007). Perhaps this simple message needs to be revealed on a larger scale to modern civilizations. Nothing is valued most than money in modern society, masking people from superior values such as family, health, and happiness. To summarize Chris’s wisdom,

“Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom, an extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. The climactic battle to kill the false being within victoriously concludes spiritual revolution. No longer poisoned by civilization. He walks alone on land to become lost in the wild” (Penn, 2007).

Lost in the wild is what Christopher McCandless set out to do in order to set himself free from a population filled with domineering authority and emphasis on materialism. With an urge to escape all his life, (i.e. wandering six blocks as a child late at night, leaving on a road-trip solo after graduating high-school, finding solitude in numerous books, etc.) upon graduating from college on the honour roll, he simply cut up his government-issued identification, threw out his licence plate, and left his past behind. Unchaining himself from his past, the alias ‘Alexander Supertramp’ was born. A new personal identity allowed for new experiences, which shapes the core of man’s spirit according to Chris. He believed one should “Find yourself at least once in the most ancient of civilizations with nothing to help you; with only your hands and your own head” (Penn, 2007). Returning back to how humanity’s ancestors have lived offered comfort to Chris and opportunity to discover who he truly was without distraction from power or products. He encouraged others to do the same with further explanation “It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history, oppression, and law to obligations. The absolute freedom is the road” (Penn ,2007). The road helped define Chris, with exploration from Arizona, California, South Dakota, Colorado, Mexico, throughout Canada, to finally Alaska. Most significantly, he died a happy man fulfilled from nature and discovery instead of gadgets and mistaken superiority.

To encapsulate with a quote from Carine McCandless, Chris’s sister,

“It was inevitable that Chris would break away, and when he did he would do it with characterization and moderation…He had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating college and now he was emancipated from that world of distraction, false security, parents, and material excess. The things that cut Chris off from the truth of existence.”

The truth of existence is accessible through personal satisfaction of goals and breaking away from the weaknesses of society. Christopher McCandless did so through travelling; Tyler Durden through rebellion. Although both extremists in their own right, the wisdom behind their actions should be admired as they achieved enlightenment in the end above everything else. To support this insight, one can analyze the works of the influential poet, author, and icon Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau’s novel titled ‘Walden; or Life in the Woods’ embarked his experience of roughly two years living secluded in nature. His aim was spiritual discovery, much like the protagonists in Fight Club and Into The Wild faced. Self-sufficiency and simple living were alternate themes in Walden, equivalent to both works as well. Thoreau described,

“I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it parsed to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world.” (Thoreau, 143)

He concludes by criticizing conformity, stating “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. By doing so, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment” (Thoreau, unknown). He also measures success by happiness. All of which resemble the message of how authority and materialism don’t create pleasure, and conforming to society’s ideals is harmful. Thoreau pushed boundaries by removing himself from the rest, much like Durden and McCandless, all of whom awoke to their own epiphany to the meaning of life.

In conclusion, by breaking away from society’s customs and packaged lifestyles, one discovers a greater sense of self. Excess materialism and authoritative figures can only restrict and distract from a higher level of fulfillment and supresses individuals to yearn for freedom. The film Into The Wild and the novel Fight Club demonstrate the struggle people encounter if they fall victim to money, power, and control. Although extremists, both Tyler Durden and Christopher McCandless were determined to achieve personal goals. Their decline to awake to what truly matters in life should be noted as they achieved greatness through discovering joy, regardless of the journey it took to get there. To quote McCandless and ultimately Thoreau, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” It is time to awake to the truth of the detrimental aspects society brings including consuming and hierarchy of control. It should be encouraged to grasp what is desired to each and every one of us in life instead of succumbing to the system we are born in to. It is time to encourage freedom.

Works Cited
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. Print.

Penn, Sean, dir. Into The Wild. Paramount Village, 2007. Film.

Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Thoreau, Henry. Walden; or Life in the Woods. 1854. Print.

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