You will also learn strategies for handling some of the more challenging aspects of writing a research paper, such as integrating material from your sources, citing information correctly, and avoiding any misuse of your sources. In this chapter you are going to learn more about compiling references and citations.
Chris determinedly discards the identity they have bestowed upon him-he donates his US$24,000 college fund to Oxfam, destroys any form of ID, abandons his car and re-creates himself as Alexander Supertramp, an alter-ego he describes as An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road.' Reborn, he sees the world with fresh eyes-and this unjaundiced, newly fledged perspective on the landscape he travels through is shared with the viewer.
(4) Working with director of photography Eric Gautier, Penn reveals the world Chris travels through as full of possibility.Īs the film establishes the unhappiness of Chris' life at home and his estrangement from his parents, it becomes increasingly clear that his journey is an escape not only from his past, but also from the future his parents have envisioned for him. (3) Undoubtedly, the camera is integral to helping the audience see the world through Chris' (Emile Hirsch) eyes-the eyes of someone who, in Penn's words, was determined to 'feel his life in a very real way and not be jaded by ugliness and inauthenticity'. It woke up some stuff in me, for sure.' (2) Acknowledging the importance of Krakauer's voice and perspective in the book that inspired the film, Penn has explained that for the purposes of the screen adaptation, the camera became 'the spokesman for that person connection'. Krakauer has said that he recognises his younger self in McCandless' quest, and this identification becomes integral to the story he tells: 'I was haunted by the particulars of the boy's starvation and by vague, unsettling parallels between events in his life and those in my own.' (1) Penn has attested to a similar affinity and sense of recognition in describing his commitment to a film adaptation of the story: ' quest was a quest for goodness and purity. Penn's account of McCandless' story pays homage to his protagonist's idealistic pursuit of freedom, but it is subtly underwritten by a counter-narrative that prepares the way for his final transformative realisation that people and human relationships are what matter. With its combination of optimistic idealism and self-inflicted tragedy, McCandless' story initially captured the imagination of writer Jon Krakauer, whose bestselling 1996 book Into the Wild, about the events leading up to McCandless' death, inspired Penn to make the film of the same name.
Driven by a Romantic determination to test himself and his resources, McCandless abandoned the comforts, expectations and strictures that came with his privileged middle-class life. Into the Wild (Sean Penn, 2007) is based on the real-life story of Christopher McCandless, who perished alone in the Alaskan wilderness.