"The Noble Savage", illustration from Victor Hugo's novel Bug-Jargal
Emile Hirsh as Alexander Supertramp in Sean Penn's movie "Into The Wild".
The noble savage is a literary character who embodies the concept of an idealized indigene who has not been corrupted by civilization and symbolizes goodness.
This term first appeared in the 17th century, so the term was created on a colonial context. The meaning of this myth slightly evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries because of the different litterary movements that appeared, like Romanticism and Primitivism, but never actually lost its original meaning. The term "savage" meant in the 17th century "wild beast" or person; in other words he myth of the "noble/good savage" represents a person who hasn´t been used to society's material conforts and knows how to live in the wild without dammaging it, or himself.
Chris McCandless, the main character of Sean Penn's movie "Into The Wild", hates society and thinks it has corrupted the human being by uprooting him from its natural state of life. He is a bit of a misanthropist, his goal in the movie is living in the wild without any material conforts that technological and social progress has given us. He gives no importance to "things", this is illustrated in the diner scene at the begining of the movie. His parents want to buy him a new car because he graduated from college. He refuses the offer saying that his car is still running and he doesn't need a new one. He also decides to break away from society because of the way his family was. In the voice-over monologue's from his sister Carine, we learn that they had a difficult childhood. Their parents fought very often, and after his graduation from high school, Chris accidentally discovered that his sister and him were both "bastard children". In addition to that, Chris also loves adventure since a very young age. He thinks that by living in nature he will clean his soul that has been "corrupted" by society for a long time. For him nature brings the human being to its purest state.
We can say that Chris embodies the myth of the good savage because he prefears living in the wild on his own than in society, and while he is in the wild he adopts a traditional way of life, in other words he hunts to eat and marks his way (i.e: when he leaves his beanie on top of a branch), not to get lost. He lives in harmony with nature.
By breaking away from society Chris wants to find the natural state of the human being. He wants to purify himself from society's poison. He is craving for his greatest adventure in order to conclude a "spiritual revolution". In the first inner monologue that we hear, Chris is yearning to "kill the false being within".Once he is in Alaska he fails to grasp a couple of basic truths about living close to nature. First of all we can say that his idealism towards living in the wild fooled him and made him think that he would always have food. In the begining of the movie we can see that he does fine, he always has a squirrel of something to eat. But then, when he is stuck in the riverbank of the Magic Bus because of the strong current of the river, we can see his desperation for food after days of rain. He then goes with his instincts and tries to find edible plants because he is very hungry. He forgets that you always have to check twice and confirm with a book that the plant that you're eating is edible. Sadly Chris didn't do it and found himself poisoned by a plant that looked very similar to another one, that was perhaps edible.
He is more a romantic than a good savage. HE clearly is a misanthropis, he prefears nature than people. He leaves all the persons he meet on the roand, even Ron that asked him to adopt him as a grand-child because he lost his son. Even if he claims not to need material conforts he is grateful to find shelter in the Magic Bus, and even manages to make himself a shower head when he could simply clean himself on the river like indigenes did. Chris dies because of his instinctive behaviour under the pressure of not having any food. He didn't took the time to ckeck if the plant he was eating was poisonous or not. You have to learn to control your instincts when you are alone in the wild or you will end up dead.
I don't think that once you've lived in society you can go back to a state of nature. First of all, we have been born in a time in which technological progress has hugely evolved, we have a certain number of material conforts that sadly we hardly can't live without. Let's take the example of a shower or just a simple cover, we have been used since we were born to have these kind of material conforts and not only basic ones such as these two. I hardly think that we could go back to a state of nature after all that we have progressed. Not only our way of life but actually everything, how we think, what we eat, everything has changed since the beggining of human existance. Maybe you could possibly go back to that state of nature but only if you don't accept these material conforts since childhood, which is actually very difficult or even impossible. It's not advisable to do it, or if you really want to you must perfectly know what you're doing and don't let yourself go by your instincts.
Chris McCandless, the main character of Sean Penn's movie "Into The Wild", hates society and thinks it has corrupted the human being by uprooting him from its natural state of life. He is a bit of a misanthropist, his goal in the movie is living in the wild without any material conforts that technological and social progress has given us. He gives no importance to "things", this is illustrated in the diner scene at the begining of the movie. His parents want to buy him a new car because he graduated from college. He refuses the offer saying that his car is still running and he doesn't need a new one. He also decides to break away from society because of the way his family was. In the voice-over monologue's from his sister Carine, we learn that they had a difficult childhood. Their parents fought very often, and after his graduation from high school, Chris accidentally discovered that his sister and him were both "bastard children". In addition to that, Chris also loves adventure since a very young age. He thinks that by living in nature he will clean his soul that has been "corrupted" by society for a long time. For him nature brings the human being to its purest state.
We can say that Chris embodies the myth of the good savage because he prefears living in the wild on his own than in society, and while he is in the wild he adopts a traditional way of life, in other words he hunts to eat and marks his way (i.e: when he leaves his beanie on top of a branch), not to get lost. He lives in harmony with nature.
By breaking away from society Chris wants to find the natural state of the human being. He wants to purify himself from society's poison. He is craving for his greatest adventure in order to conclude a "spiritual revolution". In the first inner monologue that we hear, Chris is yearning to "kill the false being within".Once he is in Alaska he fails to grasp a couple of basic truths about living close to nature. First of all we can say that his idealism towards living in the wild fooled him and made him think that he would always have food. In the begining of the movie we can see that he does fine, he always has a squirrel of something to eat. But then, when he is stuck in the riverbank of the Magic Bus because of the strong current of the river, we can see his desperation for food after days of rain. He then goes with his instincts and tries to find edible plants because he is very hungry. He forgets that you always have to check twice and confirm with a book that the plant that you're eating is edible. Sadly Chris didn't do it and found himself poisoned by a plant that looked very similar to another one, that was perhaps edible.
He is more a romantic than a good savage. HE clearly is a misanthropis, he prefears nature than people. He leaves all the persons he meet on the roand, even Ron that asked him to adopt him as a grand-child because he lost his son. Even if he claims not to need material conforts he is grateful to find shelter in the Magic Bus, and even manages to make himself a shower head when he could simply clean himself on the river like indigenes did. Chris dies because of his instinctive behaviour under the pressure of not having any food. He didn't took the time to ckeck if the plant he was eating was poisonous or not. You have to learn to control your instincts when you are alone in the wild or you will end up dead.
I don't think that once you've lived in society you can go back to a state of nature. First of all, we have been born in a time in which technological progress has hugely evolved, we have a certain number of material conforts that sadly we hardly can't live without. Let's take the example of a shower or just a simple cover, we have been used since we were born to have these kind of material conforts and not only basic ones such as these two. I hardly think that we could go back to a state of nature after all that we have progressed. Not only our way of life but actually everything, how we think, what we eat, everything has changed since the beggining of human existance. Maybe you could possibly go back to that state of nature but only if you don't accept these material conforts since childhood, which is actually very difficult or even impossible. It's not advisable to do it, or if you really want to you must perfectly know what you're doing and don't let yourself go by your instincts.
