Jordan Lyons

English 106

3/29/2011

Character Analysis of Nature’s Victims

For some people, there has always been a fascination with nature. Thoreau spent

two years in the wilderness, writing his musings and experiences down, to the displeasure of

many generations of students to come. Even Jesus, in the Bible, spent 40 days in the

wilderness just to be alone and face himself and his temptations (Bible, Matt. 4.1-11, Mark

1.13, Luke 4.1-13). Environmentalists try to protect nature to the point some might

consider to a hindrance on societal growth. Botanists study plants of the wild, some

biologists study animals in the wild, and there are even environmental lawyers; all

individuals who share a fascination with nature. One of the greatest examples of nature is

the wilderness of Alaska, which lured two men, Timothy Treadwell and Christopher

McCandless, into its bosom, eventually claiming both of their lives.

Timothy lived in the wild of Katmai National Park for thirteen summers trying to

protect the coastal region’s grizzly bears. He was an environmentalist, an eco-warrior, and

an outdoorsman. Werner Herzog created a documentary named Grizzly Man, covering

Treadwell’s work with the bears of Alaska, using Treadwell’s own homemade footage for

much of it. The film covered his work with the bears, including much of his interactions

with them. He fawns over them, names them, and at one point he even professes his love

for the bears, but still he remains distant and firm enough to ensure his safety. In the end,

Timothy and his girlfriend, Amie, are mauled and eaten by one of the bears he had fought so

hard to protect, though this was a bear Timothy had previously identified as unfriendly

(Grizzly Man).

Sean Penn directed a film about Chris McCandless called Into the Wild, in which he

gave merely an interpretation of what happened, given that there is no way to know what

exactly happened, because Chris did not leave any video or memoir documenting his

journey. Because it is only an interpretation, Into the Wild is considered a work of fiction.

Chris was a bright, sophisticated college graduate with disdain for materialism and society

in general. In an attempt to escape into the wild, he leaves almost all of his possessions

behind and travels across the country, making his way to the Colorado River, Mexico, and

eventually all the way to Alaska, where he discovered and commandeered an old, broken-

down bus. He stays in this bus until his death (Krakauer, Death of an Innocent). Unlike

Treadwell, Chris was unaccustomed to living in the wild and had trouble finding food at

times, or found food, but couldn’t preserve it to last. Through his inexperience and

carelessness brought on by ravenous hunger, he makes a fatal mistake in his choice of

eatables. He mistook an inedible plant for an edible one, and suffered in his dying, unable

to seek the medical attention he needed because he had found his much sought-after

seclusion.

When comparing two similar people from two different stories, each will have his or

her own strengths and weaknesses, and these characters are no exception. The personas

exhibited by the protagonists, Timothy Treadwell and Christopher McCandless, in the

movies Grizzly Man and Into the Wild, respectively, are quite similar in their rhetorical

effectiveness, though there are variances in the several key contributing factors, such as

their interactions with other humans, their mental maturity, motives behind their seclusion,

and their approaches to death, all contributing differently, positively, or negatively to the

characters’ effectiveness.

In the Alaskan wilderness, Timothy Treadwell escaped what he considered the

burden of human interaction and fell in love with the grizzly bears. In his quest to live out

his love, he deems it prudent to slander those humans with whom he interacts the most: the

local hunters and the park service. He uses a pathetic appeal to the audience, pointing out

the helplessness of the animals to protect themselves, and often ranting angrily about how

the park service would remove their only protection – himself (Grizzly Man). In Grizzly

Man, Treadwell took some footage of his interactions with other humans, showing how he

reacts to them and how they react to him. He remarks about the intruders’ seemingly evil

intent, and he despairs at their mistreatment of a bear they see. He uses an ethical appeal as

he recounts his few interactions with the intruders, pulling from his own experiences to

make an appeal to the audience about the inhumanity and the vindictiveness of humans who

come to visit the coast he protects. He often remarks about himself or shows his expertise

in dealing with the wild animals, building his credibility in the eyes of his audience and

making his ethical appeals stronger when slandering the organizations and the other

humans. His overall interactions with other humans are mostly limited to hostile threats,

paranoia, and practical jokes, which contributes to Timothy’s perceived character flaw or

weakness regarding his human interactions.

Chris McCandless, in Into the Wild, on the other hand, has no such qualms in his

dealings with strangers. His issues are with the materialism inherently acquired by those of

modern American society. In his encounters with others, he starts out politely and reserves

judgment on them until he’s conversed with them. For example, when he enters the shop to

register to kayak down the river, he is polite until the clerk shows nothing but disdain for

Chris. By being homeless, broke, and seemingly pure-spirited, he appeals pathetically to

the audience, gaining their empathy and therefore their support in his endeavors. Also, by

being a sophisticated and learned individual, he hereby strengthens the credibility of his

character, and his support from other empathic characters in the movie, as well as the

audience. Chris is much more willing to maintain his ability to interact civilly with other

humans than Timothy, a trait which many, including myself, consider a strength, even in

those who seek seclusion.

Timothy spends much of his time on his films playing with the animals. He acts

much like a child, thinking at such a regressed level as to be comparable to a child’s thought

process. He shows his maturity, not by being more serious in his demeanor or acting like

the image of a mature adult associated with the human society from which he so desperately

flees, but in his commitment to his cause, his ability and intention to maintain a level of

safety in his interactions with the bears, and his survival skills in the wild. Timothy uses an

ethical appeal, pulling from his experience and survival skills to increase his credibility.

While not appealing to the modern male mindset of men taking their jobs, income, house

size, and family seriously and without wavering, Timothy instead appeals to a less schooled

mindset. This frame of mind includes those who are not masculine by conquering

themselves and their responsibilities, but by attempting to conquer nature. This version of

masculinity strengthens his arguments against the governmental and local interference with

the beauty of nature, but accents his social awkwardness, and therefore is both a strong and

a weak point in his character.

Chris McCandless would be a stronger character in this aspect if his story was about

a man who was successful in society and was a successful lawyer. However, his

inexperience is accentuated on a few occasions, such as his inability to properly cure the

moose meat, and his fatal mistake with the berries. The moose meat spoiled before he

could cure it; he cut the meat into thick portions as advised by South Dakota hunters, instead

of drying it in strips of jerky, as is normally done in the Alaskan bush where he was located

(Krakauer, Into the Wild 166). He is very intelligent, and graduated college toward the top

of his class with a perceived intention to continue to law school. He was very smart, but

was inexperienced regarding survival in the wild which he so desperately longed for. The

recipient of his few postcards and letters, Wayne Westerberg, commented that the source of

his quest might have been his intellect, and that thinking too much is what got him into the

mess he was in (Krakauer, “Death of an Innocent”). Being raised in an upper-middleclass

home, he also had very little experience at surviving in the wild. Due to his lack of

experience, the strength of his character’s ethical appeal is diminished, therefore reducing

his credibility. So in regard to his endeavors, his intellect and inexperience are weaknesses

in his character.

In Grizzly Man, Timothy’s purpose is to protect the bears from humans. It is

unclear what, exactly, he is protecting them from, and how he is protecting them, though he

does make several references to poachers, tourists, and, of course, the government as a

threat to nature and the bears. At one point, he takes some footage of some intruders

(Timothy does not consider himself an intruder), and how they mistreat a bear. Timothy

does talk about all the intrusions upon the wilderness, such as government planes flying

overhead, poachers, and tourists. His cause is what gives him the motivation to make it

through every summer, and what inspires him to go back the next summer. He reaches out

to the audience with a pathetic appeal, trying to evoke an emotional response. Timothy’s

cause gives his character strength of his quality with this pathetic appeal. If one has a cause

to believe in, and finds a battle to fight to help the cause, it gives one a conviction through

which crowds can be won over to the cause.

Christopher’s purpose, on the other hand, lacks coherence. According to

Westerberg, Chris didn’t understand why humans could be so cruel and mean to each other,

and therefore wanted to escape (Krakauer, “Death of an Innocent”). What is unclear is

what Christopher expected to change in his seclusion, or whether he truly planned on ever

leaving his solitude. A lack of purpose takes away from the strength of his character and

his ethical appeal to the audience. Some argue that his purpose was to conquer himself and

his internal conflict, but I disagree. I do not believe he had any goal other than running

away from his problems rather than facing them. Not having a cause to fight for or a battle

fight is a character-weakening trait.

While a cause to fight for can drive a person, their view of their own death in the

pursuit of their cause can add or subtract a lot from the character’s strength. The concept of

death did not scare Treadwell. He embraced the fact that he could die any day. He seemed

to have a view of death close to the Buddhist view. He commented in Grizzly Man that he

would like to come back in his next life as a bear. This follows a Karmic line of belief.

Timothy Treadwell’s acceptance of death gives his character’s ethical appeal more

effectiveness, because he is devoted to his cause strongly enough to come to terms with the

prospect of death in pursuit of a higher cause.

Whereas Timothy accepts that he might die and embraces it, Chris seems frightened

of the prospect. This seems confusing, because throughout the film, he seems to agree with

Heidegger’s principles of death: death is not a goal but merely stoppage, death is inevitable

and uncertain, death is the end of us and our experiences, and that these three concepts

make us wonder if our lives have any meaning (Mae). We know that Christopher held no

stock in the pursuit of awards, as he viewed such, and most, accomplishments meaningless

in the face of death (Krakauer, “Death of an Innocent”). It seems that his view of death

changes throughout the film. His last note to the world read, “S.O.S. I need your help. I

am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In

the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall

return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless” (Krakauer, Death of an Innocent). This

unwillingness to accept his death, as well as his last plea for help gives Chris a stronger

pathetic appeal by tugging at the hearts of the audience.

Overall, Timothy Treadwell was a more rhetorically effective character than

Christopher McCandless, in all but the aspect of human interaction. He has a stronger

ethical appeal than Chris, because of his death in spite of his experience and caution. His

death reached the audience on a deeper emotional level than Chris’s did. Timothy also has a

stronger logical appeal because what he does seems to be a more experienced,

knowledgeable, and sensible solution than what Chris does. However, Chris is the more

pathetically appealing character, mostly due to his inexperience and eventually slow and

misfortunate death. His death pulled from the audience a reaction comparable to that

toward the death of a young puppy, because of his inexperience and youth. While being

rhetorically effective in their own ways, the fact that human life was lost unnecessarily is

always a tragedy.

Works Cited

Brink, Ellen. “Uncovering the Chile in Timothy Treadwell’s Feral Tale”. The Lion and the

Unicorn. Volume 32, Number 3 2008: 304-323. Print.

Grizzly Man. Dir. Werner Herzog. Perf. Timothy Treadwell. Lions Gate Films, 2005.

DVD.

Into the Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Perf. Emile Hirsch. Paramount Vantage, 2007. DVD.

Krakauer, Jon. “Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless lost his way in the

wilds” Outside Magazine. Outside Magazine, January 1993. 7 March 2011.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Novel.

May, Todd. Death. Stocksfield: Acumen Publishing Limited, 2009. Print.

The Bible. Laodicea: Synod of Laodicea, 364 AD. Print.