Into the Wild and Robert Frost (the Human Condition)

The Human Condition
Encompassing the commonalities between individuals while revealing both the ‘beautiful’ and the ‘terrible’ aspects of humanity, the Human Condition illuminates the ontological journey of the search for purpose and identity. However, comprehending the nature and scope of life in itself presents a challenge; outlining that understanding is crucial to the development of the self. Robert Frost explores all aspects of humanity, good and bad, by determining the effects of urbanisation through his ballad Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Morning, rejecting technological development as a necessary advance for humanity. This extends to his examination of the realisation of the fragility of human life, in his dramatic poem Out, Out the recount of a young boy’s gruesome death. Frost’s ideas are reiterated in Sean Penn’s drama film Into the Wild, which exhibits both the fragility of life through Christopher’s unwitting journey to death and the rejection of industrialisation resulting in his impetuous plunge into nature. Ultimately, these texts serve as searing examinations of the totality of humanity, revealing the complexities of the human race.
Individuals are often oblivious to the transient nature of human life, culminating in the inescapable fate of mortality. Robert Frost illuminates the fragility of existence in his dramatic poem, Out, Out through recounting a young boy’s death. The poet this through ascribing the role of protagonist to young boy as opposed to using an older man. This, along with his sister ‘in her apron to tell them “Supper”’ symbolises the absurdities of child labour, analogous to the Industrial Revolution where children were forced to work long and hard hours. He plays on this same idea, expressing his rue, when the persona, ‘[wishes] they might have [called it a day]’. This is matched by the successive line which ironically explores the boy’s obligation to do a man’s job, and can be ‘[pleased] by giving him the half hour that a boy counts so much when saved from work’, serving as a collision of desires and responsibilities. Frost’s Stopping by Woods exposes a similar conflict when the protagonist, though he would like to continue to revere nature, has ‘promises to keep’. Furthermore, Frost titles the poem as an intertextual allusion to Macbeth’s poignant soliloquy in which he ruminates the passing of Lady Macbeth; thus the poet compares the brevity of life to the impermanence of a candle to further his exploration of existentialist beliefs.
Individuals inevitably partake in an ontological journey in search for purpose and identity, often culminating in existentialist beliefs and a lack of belonging. In alienating the protagonist from the urban society, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild exposes such intrinsic beliefs of individuals that result in the realisation of the fragility of human life and the elusiveness of identity. Chris McCandless’s act of looking to nature to satisfy his sense of belonging is downplayed by the fact that it is the essence of nature that eventually takes his life from him. This pursuit of ‘ultimate freedom’ results in Chris’ inherent selfishness, emphasised by him thinking that Mr Franz is ‘wrong if [he] thinks that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships’. His realisation of the fragility of existence occurs minutes prior to his death, as in Out, Out where Frost personifies life, allocating it tangible qualities when the boy ‘[sees all] as if to keep his life from spilling’, emphasising life’s fragility and highlighting the fact that humans are fully made aware of the transience of life upon losing it. The travesty of death is further exemplified through diegetic music when Chris consumes the poisonous plant. This, along with numerous flashbacks, makes the death emotionally impactful and juxtaposes the rest of the film by antagonising the natural world.

The human race is moulded within the constraints of individual obligations, mirroring the tensions between the urban and natural world. Robert Frost this concept through his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by illuminating the interlude of appreciation of nature in midst of human commitments in an urbanised society. The poem prompts the reflection of tensions between desires and responsibilities, where desires are represented by the woods being ‘lovely, dark and deep’, typical Romantic adjectives, through which the author portrays the woods as desirable and mysterious. Though in Frost’s context, when snow tyres had just been manufactured, the poet allocates horseback as the protagonist’s mode of transport. Thus Frost debunks the technological advancements of the 20th Century, as the poet does in Out, Out, through the onomatopoeia as the cognizant saw ‘snarled and rattled’, personifying it with negative beast and snake-like characteristics. The poet’s appreciation of fauna is further emphasised by his fondness for ‘his little horse’. The persona ‘[thinks he knows] whose woods these are’, amplifying the incongruity of the sovereignty over nature through the use of relative pronouns, ironically mirroring consumerism of the contemporary era. Hence, Frost’s passion for solitude and nature’s glorious beauty exists side by side with the realisation of a materialistic, sordid world with people and social obligations.
Humanity’s relationship with nature is constantly challenged by the urbanised society, where people are often egocentric, preoccupied with their personal obligations. This ideology is starkly contrasted in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild where the protagonist devotes himself to nature and abandons societal conventions. Through the numerous extreme long shots of the Grand Canyon and of the Colorado River, Sean Penn emphasises the significant role of nature in his film. This reverence for nature stands in conjunction with McCandless’ beliefs that ‘careers are a 20th century invention and [he doesn’t] want one’, symbolic of his rejection of emerging technology and ideologies. This anti-materialistic outlook is further amplified when Chris gives away his life savings to charity and takes along with him to Alaska a bare minimum. Furthermore, he expresses his disproval of social obligations upon believing that being ‘footloose is associated in our minds with freedom and oppression and law and irksome obligations’. This burden of obligations is reiterated in Stopping by Woods where the persona is forced to make a decision to satisfy desires or social responsibilities.
The complexity of human beings and the factors that influence individuals in their pursuits ultimately determine their fate, and Robert Frost’s body of work, specifically Stopping by Woods and Out, Out successfully shape the vicissitudes of life. [of the Human Condition] As he exposes the effects of urbanisation and extends to the transience of existence, the ideas are reflected in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, in Chris’ transcendental experience in searching for himself.