Into The Wild Extract 1 PDF

Into the Wild – extract 1 KEY TO THE written expression, listening and reading comprehension exercises A- EPIGRAPH The epigraph of Sean Penn’s Into the Wild is the first four lines of a poem from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by George Gordon Byron - 1788-1824. Re...

Into the Wild – extract 1 KEY TO THE written expression, listening and reading comprehension exercises A- EPIGRAPH The epigraph of Sean Penn’s Into the Wild is the first four lines of a poem from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by George Gordon Byron - 1788-1824. Read the full version of the poem and answer the following questions. Reading comprehension questions: A- 1st stanza: 1- Find words or phrases from this first stanza showing that the poem is an ode to the wilderness, that is wild, untamed Nature. Justify your choices. The poem is an ode to wild Nature because it celebrates the “pleasure” and “rapture” one can experience in places that are explicitly associated to the wilderness, such as: “pathless woods” (l.1): the phrase refers to woods or forests untrodden1 by man and therefore without any paths. “lonely shore” (l.2): A lonely shore is a solitary, unfrequented or uninhabited place on the coastline or seaside. “where none intrudes” (l.3): again the poet refers to solitary, unfrequented places, empty of any human presence or intrusion. “the deep sea” (l.4): The deep sea, or the abyss, is biologically unliveable and uninhabitable for human beings – unless they set up a high-tech Antlantis or deep-sea station there as they have done in outer space with the ISS (International Space Station)! 2- Does the poet dismiss any possibility for man to commune with the wilderness? Justify by quoting and explaining passages from the first stanza. No, he doesn’t as he insists on the pleasure (l.1) and even the rapture (l.2) one can experience through exploring and relating to lonely forests, shores and wild nature. Not only does the poet also claim that men can find company in and communicate with the wilderness (l.3), he asserts that they can seek parts of their own former or future selves (“our interviews, in which I steal / From all I may be, or have been before” l.6-7), and feel at one with the wilderness (l.8-9). 3- Explain what the poet means through the last line of this first stanza. The poet means that he cannot express his keen feelings of oneness, communion and harmony with nature but that he cannot hide or deny them either. This suggests that he has to face an irrepressible need to manifest and express this intensity of feeling, however ineffable it might be. The poem takes 1 Forests which man has never trodden (cf. tread, trod, trodden = walk about (a place)). on a metaliterary2 dimension here, as the poet implies that it is only through the verbal musicality and suggestive imagery of poetry that he can strive to express the inexpressible. 4- Scansion: underline the stressed syllables in this stanza. Do you notice any rhythmical pattern? What possible effects did Byron aim at? [A very short guide to English prosody The foot of traditional English prosody is “the unit or span of stressed and unstressed syllables which is repeated to form a metrical pattern.” (G. Leech, A linguistic Guide to English Poetry, Longman) There are four types of feet : Iamb X / (unstressed syllable + stressed syllable) anapaest X X / (2 unstressed s. + 1 stressed s.) Trochee / X (stressed s. + unstressed s.) dactyl / X X (1 stressed s. + 2 unstressed s.) But all poetry does not necessarily fit in this traditional pattern and metre. Therefore it is often more convenient to consider English metre as “nothing more than rhythmic parallelism: a patterning of the succession of stressed and unstressed syllables with greater regularity than is necessary for spoken English in general.” (G. Leech, A linguistic Guide to English Poetry, Longman, p.111)] There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. The outstanding musical feature of this stanza is the ascending rhythm: each line ends with a stressed syllable and the dominating pattern is the iambic metre (1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed syllable) with recurrent anapestic breaks (anapest = 2 unstressed syllables + one stressed syllable) midway through the line. The first three lines are modelled on the first one: There is (iamb)/ a plea (iamb)/sure in the path (anapest)/less woods (iamb). This ascending rhythm reflects the poet’s quest for spiritual and emotional elevation or transcendence through the possible communion with Nature celebrated in the stanza. The fifth line is a perfect iambic pentameter: I love / not Man / the less, / but Na / ture more. Such ascending rhythmical regularity enhances and highlights the poet’s assertion of his love of Nature. B- 2nd and 3rd stanzas: 2 Metaliterary aspects or comments in a literary work are direct or indirect (or implicit) comments or discourse on literature. (métalittéraire, in French) Explain through paraphrases what the poet says about the relationship between Man and Nature in these last two stanzas. The poet celebrates the overpowering might of Nature that belittles and mocks human attempts to master and colonize it (Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain). In the final lines of the second stanza and throughout the third stanza, man is shown to be a petty, abject creature whose attempts to dominate the wilderness and cosmic Nature can only bring about ruin and self-destruction. Nature is also described as utterly indifferent to human beings’ fate and the poet even finally contends that they do not belong in nature since they can only be its vile, despicable destroyers ( For earth's destruction thou dost all despise,/ Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies.) The poem ends on a prophetic note showing how harshly and easily Nature will punish humankind, emphasizing again that man is but a hopeless, powerless and puny a creature, doomed to vanish and be forgotten. (“He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. (…) and there let him lay.”) C- Search for words in the poems meaning the same as the following: 1st stanza: ecstasy  rapture mix, commune  mingle Hide  conceal 2nd stanza: move fast  sweep broken ships  wrecks action deed except for  save deep inarticulate cry of distress  groan not solemnized by the ringing of bells  unknelled 3rd stanza: Property or territory seized by force  spoil Scorn (2 verbs)  spurn - despise Shake with cold or fear  shiver rush forcibly  dash B- PROLOGUE, ENTRANCE ODES AND CREDITS (1st extract): I- Watch the first 45 seconds of the film and explain why this incipit can be defined as a typical tragic prologue. After the epigraph, the film starts with Chris’s sepulchral voice calling his mum (“Ma”) from the darkness. While we hear the calls over sad cello music, Chris’s picture on a bedside table fades in3 and then quickly fades out, which suggests again the ghostly presence of the young man in his parents’ bedroom. Then his mother appears waking up and suddenly sitting up in bed in a distraught state, sobbing and telling her husband that she really heard her son and was not dreaming. 3 Apparaître en fondu (ou en fondu d’ouverture) Although it is much shorter, this opening scene recalls the prologues of classical tragedies, such as Euripides’ Hecuba, or Seneca’s Agamemnon, for instance, which often start with a ghost presenting the argument, the central conflict or elements in the plot or storyline of the play. Indeed, tragedy often deals with a conflict between the dead and the living: how the dead will be freed and laid to rest by the living – often through revenge, sacrifice or atonement4 – is the focus of many tragedies. This opening scene thus appears to take place after Chris’s death. Typically, the tragic fate of the hero is announced from the start, proleptically5. Tension and suspense will not arise from the uncertainty about whether the hero will die or not but from the way in which he or she confronts their tragic fate and how they achieve some form of transcendence, through action or words, in their painful struggle. II- Watch the first 3 minutes and answer the following questions: 1- What is the handwritten text shown in overlay on the screen? Apart from their narrative and presentational function, do they enhance pathos and emotional intensity? Why? As will be made clear through a later analeptic6 sequence, the handwritten sentences are extracts from a postcard or letters Chris wrote to his friend Wayne Westerberg, a farmer he met in Montana, on his way to Alaska7. The text allows the viewer to understand how Chris made his way to Alaska. However, beyond this informational function, it also enhances pathos since we are also aware that his letters are all that remains of the young man. Besides, his words are all the more moving as they reveal his initial enthusiasm and youthful optimism. 2- What cinematic devices are used to prompt viewers to identify and empathize with the hero, Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp? Explain. You can go to this website to find out about camera shots and angles in filmmaking: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-camera-shots/ After the parents’ bedroom scene, the next sequence first shows Christopher McCandless’s arrival by train in Fairbanks, Alaska. The train ride is first presented through a fade in shot and a shallow focus shot8 of the snowy ground below the freight train Chris is travelling on – as will be made clear by the following shots, this one is the first of a succession of point of view shots, showing the trip from Chris’s perspective mainly. Then comes a deep focus shot9 of the external side of the train moving alongside the railway embankment, as we can only surmise Chris sees it from the open door 4 To atone for a crime = expier une faute 5 In a story, prolepsis or a proleptical passage, is a narrative that anticipates events taking place after the time of the main storyline. Analepsis tells events that took place before the time of the main storyline. 6 See note 13. 7 Later in the film, Chris is shown striking a friendship with Wayne Westerberg in a bar and then working for him as a farmhand for some time until Wayne gets arrested by the FBI on business corruption charges. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, on which the film is based, it is explained that Westerberg gets arrested for satellite TV piracy. 8 Flou d’arrière plan 9 Plan à grande profondeur de champ of the freight car he is travelling on. This is followed by a low-angle shot10 of the tree tops alongside the railway track and the sky, seen from the open door of the moving freight car again. Next, a shallow focus11, insert shot12 of Chris’s landing net13 resting against his backpack lying on the outer edge of the floor of the freight car. This also suggests Chris’s point of view from inside the freight car. Another deep focus shot then shows the other external side of the train with its cars and railway engine as it is taking a turn, as seen from the open door of the same car again. The word Alaska is painted on the side of the engine and in the foreground we can make out Chris’s pseudonym “Alexander” chalked on the edge of the door frame. These opening shots of the sequence relating Chris’s trip to Alaska are followed by another succession of point of view shots and insert shots of details of Chris’s immediate surroundings – the chalked year of his trip, “1992”, on the edge of the door frame, various views of Fairbanks as Chris probably discovered it while walking or taking rides on arrival. Then, the film moves back to his time hitchhiking through the Yukon, in Canada, before he got to Alaska. This is done through an insert shot of his hand and uplifted thumb with textual overlay referring to his difficulties catching rides in the Yukon territory, followed by a shot of his legs walking along a road with passing trucks. The rest of the sequence blends various shots of the Alaskan landscape, buildings in the towns he travels through, an over-the-shoulder shot14 of passing trucks, insert shots of road signs, etc. Through those various cinematic techniques, viewers are prompted to experience his road trip from his point of view, empathize with him, share and understand his emotions. 3- How would you define the mood expressed by the theme song in this section? How does it reflect the hero’s inner self and feelings at this stage of his life? With the musical ballad played on an acoustic guitar accompanying the softly humming voice of the singer, the soundtrack evokes the sense of freedom, liberation and peaceful, confident expectation that the young man must have felt at this final stage of his road trip, as he was about to reach his destination. III- Watch the remainder of the extract and answer the following questions: 1- How is Christopher McCandless’s tragic fate suggested by the pictures, types of shots and dialogue in this sequence? 10 Plan en contre-plongée (plan en plongée : high-angle shot) 11 Cf. note 17 12 Insert ou plan insert 13 Landing net = épuisette 14 Plan par-dessus l’épaule / prise de vue par-dessus l’épaule The very final leg of his trip to the wild is shown through an aerial shot of the car Chris is riding on. Appearing first on the top left-hand corner of the picture, the car moves down along the left side of the picture frame down to the lower left hand corner where it stops at the end of a snowed up road. The camera tilts down to follow the downward movement of the car, suggesting a fall amidst the solitary, snowy Alaskan plains, which also symbolize death. The passage thus ironically foreshadows Chris’s tragic fate as he is about to enter the wild. This is further emphasized through the following overhead shots of Chris trudging away on his own in the deep snow. Chris’s vulnerability is hinted at here. Irony also sets in since the boots the driver gives him will be of no use to him when he vainly tries to cross the swollen river in the spring to return to civilization. Neither will the driver’s phone number written inside the boots be of any use to him to call for help when he is stuck and starving too far away from any phone network. 2- a- Fill in the gaps in the following lyrics of the theme song (Long Nights by Eddie Vedder (composer and performer)). Have no fear Safely to the ground for when I'm alone Ah... I’ll be better off15 than I was before. I’ll take this soul that’s inside of me now, like I've got this light a brand new friend I’ll be around16 to grow17, I'll forever know Who I was before I've got this light I cannot recall18. And the will to show Long nights allow me to feel... I will always be better than before I'm falling...I am falling Long nights allow me to feel The lights go out Let me feel I'm falling...I am falling. I'm falling 2- b- Translate the highlighted lines into French. N’aie pas peur, car19 lorsque je serai seul, ce sera mieux pour moi. Je voyagerai pour faire croître cette lumière que je possède. Qui j’étais autrefois, je ne m’en souviens pas. 15 To be better off = be richer; be in a better position or situation. 16 Ici => travel, move about a place. 17 Structure sous-jacente de la phrase ici : I’ve got this light [which I’ll be around to grow] = I’ll be around to grow this light which/that I have got. La proposition entre crochets est une subordonnée relative concatenative : which est pronom objet de “grow”. 18 To recall sth = to remember sth = se rappeler qqch / se souvenir de qqch // to remind sbdy of sth = rappeler qqch à qqn 19 Attention au statut et au sens de ‘for’ ici : conjonction de cause (= because)