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Existentialism : Wild ( 2014 ) And Into The Wild

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Existentialism: Wild(2014) and Into the Wild (2007)
For this paper, both movies used to explain Existentialism are adapted from real stories. The first film is Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed and the second is into the Wild, starring Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless. In Sartre’s definition of existentialism, human existence precedes essence, therefore leading to meaning, purpose and identity. When Chris and Cheryl leave their family, friends and everything else they know from the society, they are attempting to find the meaning and purpose to their lives.
Watching these two movies, I discovered that both main characters need the Nature as a catalyst to regain their freedom, to find their true identity and to understand the meaning of their lives. To figure out the reason behind their existences, both decide to go on a life changing adventure that might kill them or set them free forever. Doing a compare and contrast analysis of the two movies revealed that both answer the same question as to understand the meaning of life, but both characters seek different meanings. Into the Wild and Wild are looking at existentialism from two different dimensions. Chris is trying to understand the meaning of Human 's’ life, whereas Cheryl looks for her individual life’s meaning.
In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless chooses what he wants to believe in life and the importance of it. As Sartre points out: “Man chooses his own self.” The point being that freedom

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