Name:Hanxiao Wang

Instructor: Dr. Mere

PUID:0024155121

The see-saw of life of Grizzly Man and Into the Wild

Schneider Walter. Made a chart which indicates the rate of suicide per year in Lithuania

is 87.4 people per 100,000 population, 86.6 people in Russian Federation and 49.4 in Finland.

(Father for Life). Life sometimes is so cheap that makes people think why we live and what we are

living for. We doubt that there is anything worthwhile to fight for even when we need to devote

our lives. Some people may find the answer from people they love and people who love them.

They live because all those people who connected to them and they simply want to spend time

with them. Of course there is another kind of answer which is pursuing a career could either be a

very board and lofty career or a spiritual individual career. People kill themselves so easily and

don’t even think through. A broken heart can lead anyone to suicide no matter how strong he or

she looks like from the outside.

One book and two movies put death in front of us. Todd May’s Death, Grizzly Man

Treadwell and McCandless, who goes into the wild. They bring death which seems to be so far

away from youths like us right in front of our noses and tell us death is just around the corner and

it can happen at any time and to anyone. Two main characters in two movies lost their life in

their own ways which follow their will and desire, but they make great damage to their families

and friends relationship. In the book Death, Todd May almost lose his life in a normal flight and

it leads him to a further think of the meaning of life. Do religions help people live better and die

better? Is immortal an answer to all the problems caused by death? In a visual way, life is just

like a see-saw, we really need to find a point where can balance both family and career so we

don’t lose anything important and concentrate too much on something. In this paper, I will list all

the reasons that make two characters happy and reasons make people around sad so we can have

comparison of the goods and bads when they make the decision of living, therefore we can

decide which way is a better way to go. After that, I will write my own experience and evaluate

it.

What kind of death is a success? The death that makes people related less sad or the death

makes you happier? We live in a world connected with others: parents, friends and loves. People

may want to live a normal life which makes sense to others and they die for reasons that other

people can understand, so other people will not get too sad or confused after they die. The reason

we do this is just we love our relatives and friends. We don’t want them suffer our death.

However, some other people may have their own dreams such as main characters in The Grizzly

man and Into the Wild. They may want to do things they want to do but not just worry about not

hurting people around, because they can get happiness from their career. Must we choose one

side or can we find a balance point in the real world?  What kind of death can let us do not

regret, die for others or die for ourselves?

The happiness of Timothy Treadwell is just simply being happy with bears (Dir. Werner

Herzog). It’s the pure happiness. He used to have an addiction to alcohol and violence. He tried

everything to quit and tried everything to drink, but things didn’t work out very well. He fell into

confusion and continuously self-doubts. When people who are familiar with young Treadwell

recall his history, they all show terrified. “He had dark side. Treadwell absolute had dark side

when he was young.” He was really painful until he found his real interest—grizzly bear. He

quits drink in no time and this is such a miracle for him.

Living in loneliness makes him a man and he feels like a hero when he tries to protect his

bear. In his video, he keep rephrase “I, the only one who try to protect bears” and emphases

“only” time and time again. He is proud of himself and he believes he can’t be replaced in the

bears’ world. Timothy is kind of addicted to another world which he doesn’t belong. The bear’s

world is much simpler and easier for this innocent man to live.

At the same time, being with grizzly bear for thirty summers alone is a very challenging

test. As a male, he has a desire to conquer the wild world. And the delight of conquering is so

much to enjoy. A little tent and one little fox are everything he own. The success of living in

horrible wild environment can stimulate every man’s hormone and makes them have a feeling of

pride. According to Ellen Brinks’ article: Uncovering the Child in Timothy Treadwell’s Feral

Tale, she mentioned this could actually be his sexual desire but nothing with bears because bear

stand for masculine, but the author thinks this is just pure desire there is no such pre-established

issue to make him has such a desire (Ellen Brinks 309).

Of course we can’t forget Timothy’s original motivation of going into grizzly bear world

which is protection and education. The pleasant from success which can be certified by the

public is more real and it’s always good to hear good comments from other people. This is a

very serious career, and Timothy absolutely devotes everything of him to reach his goal. He lives

with the bears as a protector and stands in children as an adventurer. When he sees baby bear is

eaten by its mom due to the big drought, he gets so anxious and curses all the gods then turns

back to beg all the gods for rain. He changes his attitude so quickly but we all know he is

begging from deep heart.

Above is all the happiness he can get. On the other hand we can’t ignore other elements

shown in the movie which are people’s sorrow and doubts around him. The saddest person is

Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend who is also his good friend. She talks a lot about Treadwell. She knows

him very well. Now, the truth of Treadwell’s death is like a shock to her. She still can’t accept

the death of him and she denies listening to the tape which records Treadwell’s last sentences.

When other people listen to the tape, her eyes show so much desire to know his old friend’s

story, but she knows once she listen the tape she will realize that Timothy is really dead and she

will have to accept this truth. What’s more, a lot of people negate Treadwell’s performance.

They think getting direct contact with animals is a very big mistake. Regardless Timothy lost his

life and left some broken body fragments. Direct contacting with animals gives wrong

information to animals which is that human is not dangerous. This could results increased

number of death of animals which is opposite of Treadwell’s will. At the same, he brought

another girl with him. He may not care about his life, how about the girl. That girl has her own

family and career. She may want to live instead of devote her life to a giant emotionless bear. He

brings death to two families and all the people around them will never ever forget this.

As for another movie, Into the Wild, the main character McCandless try to find his happy

zone in Alaska (DirSean Penn).

He gets his happiness differ from most people even when he was very young. He never

listens to anyone. He doesn’t obey anyone and he just does what he wants. Most teenagers want

a new car so bad. However, when his father offers him a new car and asks him to throw away the

old car, he shows no excitement or happiness but anger, which is very hard to understand. He

doesn’t get happiness form any of the industry production or any of the caring of parents. In his

heart, there is only one single goal: Alaska.

His family is not a happy family. His parents often fight because of very small problems.

He and his little sister often got involved and got hurt. In my opinion, this is the trigger of his

losing hope of real world and start perusing a kind of life without fighting, arguing and hurting.

Where to find this kind of life? He got his own answer: where there is no emotion there is no

hurting. This becomes his belief and life goal. However, he becomes not sure of his answer

during his journey. Once he asks people: “why do people keep hurting each other?” We all live

in a life like a well. We can only see one small part of sky when we are in the well, so we don’t

really know how other people live. Are they happier than us or do they live a worse life than

us .We don’t know. Some people satisfied with the life they are living, so they will stay at the

same place rather than moving to new place or start a journey like McCandless does.

McCandless doesn’t like his original life. He doesn’t know if life in the wild would be better, but

he does know he doesn’t like the life he is living. No satisfaction of current life, so he abandons

the old well and tries to look for new well—wild world becomes his well and he lose his balance

of life and only think about spiritual development. His happiness is not really from the wild life

itself, but from the attraction of the wilderness that may provide better life.

He meets two naked people when he travels through the river. Although they just talked a

little bit, it shows that he is not the only one who wants to go into wild. This small talk

encourages him and strengthens his motivation for this trip. Supporting is another kind of

happiness; especially there are no people around him to tell him that his decision is right. An old

man who wants to adopt this adventurer has a huge influence on him in my opinion. The moment

the old man climb on the top of the mountain, I realized the view that they can see is not the

point anymore, because they are the view. When people think they are too old or too weak to do

something, another one brings faith and belief. The delight could be the best for a man who may

die in anytime. McCamdless did it. He gives him courage to move on. This time, the happiness is

not narrowed to McCamdless himself, but other people around him. He brings happiness and

hope to people. This is a kind of broad love and pure happiness that our adventurer enjoys.

Same as what Treadwell did, His behavior irreparable hurts his family. His mom keeps

waking up due to all those dreams about her son. His dad cries out and can’t help himself sitting

in the middle of the street. Although his parents didn’t do a good job when he was with them,

they start to realize how to be good parents. His sister is a victim as well. They may be the

closest among all those people surrounding them. His sister may be the only one who

understands why he takes this adventure. At last, the only thing they can do is to bring their son’s

ash by plane.

After listing so much above, I’m still trying to find the balance point and figure out do

they do the right decision, so the following part will be the analyze of these two stories and the

exploration of methods to find a way to solve the problem. Essentially, all they did is just try to

live a meaningful life although their decision is a little bit extreme. Taoists believe the world is

all complimentary by yin and yang. Body needs a balance of both yin and yang so that people

can stay healthy. Too much yin can make people nausea, dizzy; too much yang can make people

cough and getting cold. The whole world is just like our body needs both yin and yang

complemented (Chen 270). When we make decision, we need to take every element into

account. Over reacting can make people stuck in a hard situation, which is like body gets sick

when yin and yang are not in balance. What I want to state is Treadwell and McCamdless’s

decision lacks consideration. They claim bears and nature are their dreams and their career. They

can ignore people around them but they can’t ignore those people are always loving them in an

unselfish way. Especially for McCamdless, he leaves everything behind his mind which is not a

brave behavior. He thinks he got freedom, he thinks he can challenge the nature. The truth is he

does lack knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness. He understand the concept of life

better after he keeps his trip for a while but his stubborn personality doesn’t bring him back to

home which he misses a lot. Finally he wrote down: happiness only real when shared.” He

regrets his irresponsible decision, but he just denies admitting it.

After I watched the movie, I find out McCandless brings more books than food. He keeps

reading The Call of the Wild all the time. The book simply tells a story how a dog becomes a

leader of a wolf. This is what he is perusing, the release of wildness. Even when he is dying,

what he does is reading. His Mind already masters his body. He already lost his balance and

made an extreme decision.

If we don’t want to make extreme decision but we still want to make our life meaningful

what should we do? We have to keep ask ourselves what is a meaningful life; what makes our

life worthwhile?

In order to solve this problem, one experiment was conducted (Paul Wong 231). People

are simply asked what kind of life is meaningful. Most people can only list at most six important

points: first, people need faith in a deity if we want to experience meaning of living, because a

lot of answerless problems can confuse people and a god can lead people refill courage and give

them strength and hope for today and hope for future life. Second, friends and family are crucial

as well. Those people are all connected to us. They make us who we are, because one

individual’s existent is based on living in other people’s mind. Other people’s concept of us is a

part of fragment of us. All the people who are familiar with you have their own understanding of

you then these understanding and thoughts fragments organized you this person. In a simple

sentence, you are not who you think you are; you are who other people think you are.

The third one: self-confidence makes a person feels good. Keeping a proper amount of

pride can makes a positive attitude and leads us doing things meaningful. The fourth one is that

one must set goals for oneself and strives to see them actualized by a given time. Self-knowledge

is also important. Without self-knowledge, one cannot love oneself. If people are not able to love

themselves, they will not be able to make necessary changes and lead meaningful life.

Only when one can share one’s love, joy, sorrows and all the life’s experiences with other

people, can we find the true happiness.

Although most people do not have a huge and board goal, there is a very good way to

evaluate one’s life. Just ask ourselves, do we regret what we have done and do we have anything

we want to do. Imaging if you will die tomorrow, what you want to do most. Make a bucket list

and take action immediately. In the book: How the Steel Was Tempered, before Ostrovsky die

and left one of the most famous motto to us: "Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him

but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the

burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my

strength were given to the finest cause in all the world──the fight for the Liberation of

Mankind" (How the Steel Was Tempered).

Maybe after applying all those methods, it becomes a little clear to see what we need to

do to create a meaningful life, but we still have a hard time to find the point of balance. How can

we hold both career and family in hands? Which part should we devote more, ourselves or

others? This is really hard to have an exactly answer. Different family has different situation. All

I can say is simply try our best and don’t make extreme.

A very simple experience happened on me reminds me what we need to do to balance

our life. Three days ago, an earthquake happened in Myanmar which is only a little bit more than

three hundred kilometers away from my hometown Yunnan in China. I’m always a kind of

person who feels death is very far away from me. At that point, I suddenly became nervosas and

started calling my parents who were thousands of miles away. They didn’t answer the phone and

this drove me crazy. Until I checked with my friends who were in my hometown that everything

is ok, I calmed down and started breathe again. I begin to review Todd May’s book Death. Death

is really just around the corner and it can happen in any minute. Todd May realized it when he

was in a horrible trip by himself in a plane; I realized it when something horrible may happen to

my parents who I haven’t seen for eight months. It was a shock and I never had this hard feeling

even when my grandpa passed away several years ago. People do not get old gradually; people

only get old suddenly. Students who are studying abroad are the first group of people who

realize this truth. Only being far away from home for several months, then everything changed

the moment you see your parents again. Fathers who used to be the models of kids gained so

many wrinkles on their forehead; mothers who used to be the companies of kids have so much

white hair you have never seen. What I mean by trying our best? Keep doing things which are

both easy and hard. Calling back and keeping contact with relatives and friends even when we

are tired and busy are very basic but also very important. Going back home frequently to have a

simple dinner or easy gathering is an important step as well. Perusing our career goal or chasing

our dreams is very important, but we should keep in mind that family and friends is also another

huge “career” everybody needs to devote to. Once we try to do those simple things and apply

emotion contacting is one part of life this conception, we can easily find it’s not hard to satisfied

both part, because people who love you can understand you very well and they know you try to

delight them, no matter what the result is, they will be satisfied simply because you are thinking

of them.

However, we can’t go another way as well. If we just pay all the attention to family but

think nothing about how we show our value in such a short life, we will be weed out by the fast

developing society. Building up a family or created happiness all needs a good career foundation

and proper confidence. The view of our society is very fair, using number to grade a person’s

life: car, house, money. It’s tacky to talk about these, but they are very necessary.

What kind of death is a success? The death that makes people related less sad or the death

makes you happier? A successful life is not either of them; a successful life happens only when

ourselves and people related are happy. We need to find the balance point which just needs our a

little bit more effort and carefulness. Taking either extreme will results a tragedy like what

happened to Treadwell and McCandless or a person without any value.

Citation

Schneider, Walter. “Suicide rate.” Father of Life. Schneider Walter. 19 Mar. 2005.Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

Into the Wild. DirSean Penn. Perf. Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena

Malone, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook. Paramount Vantage,

2007. DVD.

Yu-chih, Chen. “Chinese values, health and nursing.” Journal of Advanced Nursing

36.2 (2002): 271. Web.

Paul, Wong. The human quest for meaning: a handbook of psychological research and clinical applications. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2010. Print.

Ellen, Brinks. “Uncovering the Child in Timothy Treadwell’s Feral Tale.” Project MUSE 32.3 (2008): 309. Print.