Into the Wild

I recently read Into the Wild, the true story of a young man who, after graduating college and donating his entire savings account to charity, embarked on a 2-year trek around the country, living off the land, hitchhiking, etc. He never bothered to let his family know where he was during his whole adventure, although he wrote every once in a while to other vagabonds he came in contact with during his travels. His ultimate destination was Alaska, where he went into the bush and lived successfully off the land for a few months before his body was discovered. Sean Penn made a movie about Chris McCandless in 2007, which I saw before reading the book.

But this is a music blog, so what does this intriguing and disturbing story have to do with music? The theme song for the movie was a song called Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder. Great song, but I appreciated the lyrics much more after reading the book, which obviously goes into much more depth and really helped me understand Chris McCandless's motivations and the tragedy of his story. Here's the first verse:

When I walk beside her
I am the better man
when i look to leave her
I always stagger back again

Once I built an ivory tower
so I could worship from above
when I climb down to be set free
she took me in again

My translation: The woman mentioned represents nature, or the wild. Whenever Chris would try to visit society, he ended up disillusioned and was drawn back to the peacefulness and purity of nature. The ivory tower is, of course, Academia. Chris went to college but left as soon as he was graduated.

The great thing about both the film and the book, is that they emphasize the tragedy of Chris's lifestyle just as much as they applaud him for "following his heart." McCandless's life was a true dichotomy.