Additions/Revisions

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error in judgment that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.

• We realize that a person may be destroyed even while attempting to be good to achieve happiness.
• Christopher McCandless is not attempting to be good because he is already good. He wants to achieve happiness that he reads about in books and can’t seem to find in the reality he was living in.
• We realize that there is a conflict between human goodness happiness and reality
• Initially, Christopher was extremely unhappy in his reality when he was living in society. He tries to achieve happiness by escaping from his reality of a college graduate who needs to find a job and takes himself into the unknown of life away from others.
• We see that even in the name of goodness a search for happiness, a human can cause his/her own downfall (IRONY)
• Through Christopher’s journey to find happiness, he meets amazing people and changes their lives, but takes them for granted. This realization in the end destroys him physically when he becomes trapped in Alaska, and emotionally when he realizes how truly happy they had made him and how he had left.

He identified 5 essential criteria:

1. A tragedy is an imitation of action (mimesis) that is complete -- it has a definite beginning, middle, and end (Freytag's pyramid is seen: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution).
2. A tragedy has a unified, complex plot in which all actions are connected -- every cause has an effect, there aren't any random events or loose ends.
• In Into the Wild, there are several random mini-scenes that stray from the central plot yet are still very important because they highlight the importance of happiness.
3. A tragedy possesses a certain magnitude (universal relevance or significance).
4. A tragedy arouses pity and fear in the audience.
5. A tragedy causes catharsis (purging of emotions) at the end.

Eventually the Aristotelian tragic hero dies a tragic death, having fallen from great heights and having made an irreversible mistake. The hero must courageously accept his/her death with honor.

Other Common Traits:

• Hero must suffer more than he deserves.
• Hero must be doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
• Christopher McCandless is not doomed from the start, but in fact takes on a quest that although is drastic, is very noble and harbors no ill will or false intentions.
• Hero must be noble in nature , but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him/her.
• Hero must have discovered his/her fate by his/her own actions, not by things happening to him/her.
• Hero must see and understand his/her doom, as well the fact that his fate was discovered by his/her own actions.
• Hero’s story should arouse fear and empathy.
• Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his/her death.
• Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men indirectly influences those around him, so that his/her people experience his/her fall with him/her.
• Christopher is no leader. In fact, he prefers to live by himself and go his own way apart from others. But whenever he does meet people, he has great influence on them. His personality is very open and willing, which is different from what the people he encounters have ever experienced, so they naturally gravitate towards him. Christopher doesn’t take advantage of this power he has over others, as he actually doesn’t even know he affects those around him this way. These people he stays with actually each experience his fall individually as he leaves them, as they accept the fact they won’t see him again..
• Hero must be intelligent so he/she may learn from his/her mistakes.
• Hero must have a weakness; usually it is pride.
• Christopher’s main error in judgment does not involve pride. Rather, he makes the mistake of believing that a solitary life in nature will provide him with true happiness. Contemporary social media has shifted the tragic flaw from one of pride to one of an issue with the corruption of modern society.
• Hero has to be faced with a very serious decision.
• Hero must have something gone wrong in his/her current life.
• The suffering of the hero must have meaning.

Freytag’s Pyramid

Inciting Moment

Exposition

• Exposition consists of early material providing the theme,
  establishing the setting, and introducing the major characters and sometimes
  early hints of the coming conflict.

Rising Action

• Rising action is an increase in tension or uncertainty a series of events further emphasizing the character’s pursuit of happiness which develops out of the conflict the protagonist faces
• There is no build up in tension, and until the complication, the rising action has a very uplifting mood. This is done in an attempt to show how Christopher takes the happiness he feels, and those that cause it, for granted.

Complication

Climax

• Traditionally situated in the third act of a play, the climax is the moment of greatest tension, uncertainty, or audience involvement. The climax is also called the crisis.
• Since not all movies are split into acts in modern times, this typically occurs in what could be considered ⅔ of the way into the storyline

Reversal

• The moment of reversal is also called the peripeteia. In classical tragedy, the reversal is that moment in which the protagonist’s fortunes change irrecoverably for the worse. Frequently, the very trait we admire in a tragic hero is the same trait that begins about the hero’s downfall. At some point after the reversal, the tragic hero realizes or verbalizes his tragic error. This moment of tragic recognition is called the anagnorisis.

Falling Action

• During the falling action, the earlier tragic force causes the failing fortunes of the hero. This culminates in the final catastrophe and invokes catharsis (emotional purgation) in the audience

Catastrophe

• The catastrophe often spirals outward remains a mostly isolated event. Not only does and causes the hero to suffer for an earlier choice, but that choice causes suffering to those the hero loves or wants to protect.
• In Into the Wild, Christopher was, in the end, the only one that was greatly affected by his decision. His parents and friends had already come to the realization that he would not be coming back, and had already moved on.

Moment of Last Suspense

• After the suspense ends, the denouement unwinds previous tension and helps provide closure.
• After Christopher dies, there is no further closure (the story simply ends).