The Solitary Rover: Niceties of Frankl’s Logotherapy in Vallee’s Wild


The meaninglessness of existential philosophy was celebrated and was at its peak until the formulation of the psychotherapic theories by Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, Viktor Emil Frankl.  Frankl introduced new psychoanalytic and psychotherapic terms into the realm of studies related to the complexities of human mind. It was in his seminal work, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), that Frankl introduced the idea of Logotherapy, as a clinical as well as a psychological term. Frankl with his notion of logotherapy refuted the nihilistic aspects of existentialism and certain like philosophies.” Here, the protagonist, Cheryl Strayed, in Vallee’s Wild (2014) sets out for a journey to find out about herself and the ultimate meaning of her life. Cheryl, during her journey, leaves all of her material possessions and familial relations behind. Here, one may tend to see her  as an “existential “one but in a more wider sense, she is not celebrating the meaninglessness, rather she strives hard to find a meaning in her life to live on. This paper opens a new outlook towards this movie, especially towards the character of Cheryl Strayed. 



Introduction
If travelling makes one find happiness and meaning in this world, it is true for Cheryl

Strayed. The life of Cheryl Strayed can be considered as a series of miseries and misfortunes.
But what is to be noted here is that, even though she suffers, she always manages to find meaning in it. From a iodotherapy point of view, one could say that the character of Cheryl Strayed is an embodiment of this ceaseless search for meaning which eventually she attains.
She successfully converts her pains into meanings to move on in life further.

The Solitary Rover
The question that concerns is how Cheryl Strayed succeeds in her quest for meaning and her final attainment of it? The answer can be found within the movie itself. Like all those characters that set out for a journey towards meaning, Cheryl is also inspired by some tragic or traumatic events in her life. What needs to be considered are the aspects of logotherapy that act as the driving force or rather sole means for Cheryl towards her final attainment of meaning. While analyzing the movie we can say that Cheryl is prompted to take a journey towards salvation and meaning by impetus from the traumatic experience in her family and personal life. Whatever life holds in store for someone, the important thing is to note that, there is always a notion of meaning in one form or another. That is the main reason why Cheryl does not get desperate at the end and become able to let go of her traumatic past. It is through the will to meaning that one's life moves forward. In his The Unheard Cry for Meaning (1978), Frankl says that "The will to meaning is not only a matter of faith but also a fact" (31). The thirst for meaning is so irresistible that one always go after it, but that realization does not come free for there must be something, some kind of "push" behind that. try hard to make the ends meet. The deep love of Cheryl for her mother is clear from the way she remembers her during her hike. The sudden death of Bobbi is indeed a shock for her that it even destroys the will to meaning of Cheryl's life and ends up creating an "existential frustration" and "vacuum" in her life. She suddenly feels ultimate meaninglessness in her life.
It is by this "void" that is created in her that she eventually feels the existential vacuum. Now she is caught in between the worlds of depression and meaninglessness. The meaning she has been making with her mother comes to cease with the demise of her mother. Melvin A. Moreover, there are various masks and guises under which the existential vacuum appears. Sometimes the frustrated will to meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power, including the most primitive form of the will to power, the will to money. In other cases, the place of frustrated will to meaning is taken by the will to pleasure. That is why existential frustration often eventuates in sexual compensation.

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We can observe in such cases that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum (112).
This passage depicts the facts why Cheryl submits herself to her sexual libidoto fill the "vacuum" within her. This promiscuity of Cheryl is the pivotal act which later directs her life to a meaningful one. This very act is also the reason for the breakdown of her married life with Paul. Cheryl, in this sense, completes the inevitable triad by adding the notion of guilt into it. Her guilt consciousness can be also related to "pain" in a wider sense. Now starts the journey of Cheryl to her meaning. According to the postulates of logotherapy, a man can find meaning in three ways: by doing some work, by encountering something or someone or by the act of suffering. Cheryl resolves to find meaning by suiting herself to the second and third notions of this "meaning triangle," that is, by encountering something or someone and through suffering. The acts of suffering that she has to endure are those which cannot be reversed. In childhood, Cheryl suffered the cruelties of her abusive father and witnessed the very act of his cruelty towards her mother, Bobbi. But despite this, she had managed to find solace with her mother. The untimely death of Bobbi unleashes the torrents of suffering and pain upon Cheryl. Even though she does lose herself for a short period unable to cope up with the pain, in the end, she decides to convert this suffering into meaning. Soon after Bobbi's death, she starts to find meaning in drugs and sex and ends up destroying her relationship with Paul.
When she finds out how wrong her "ways" are, she decides to set out for a journey. She comes into terms with the reality only when she learns that there is a meaning in suffering.
Losing someone does not mean that the whole meaning and purpose of life is gone. Rather it is a kind of another arena to find about oneself. As it is presented in the movie, during her hike towards the Pacific Crest Trail, we can see how Cheryl always ponders over the memories of her mother. It is these memories that always haunt her. At times she gets she triumphantly goes above it, turning it into meaning with which she can go forward. One does not need to be ashamed of suffering since it is noble in itself. Cheryl holds on to this ideal and it is clear from the movie, too. As Frankl says, Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer (86).
From the point of view of physical suffering, the journey she takes through the woods is a hideous one. In the opening scene itself we are shown the image of Cheryl, whose toenail has fallen off. During the movie, we can see the physical hardships that she has to endure. At one point, she has to starve since she brought the wrong type of gas for her stove. Under the crouching sun, she gets dehydrated and out of water. Walking through the woods using undersized shoes also causes her feet to bleed. Even though these cannot be compared with that grade of her mental sufferings, still in a general sense, these can also be considered.  The way she adds her name with famous authors after quoting them in those trail registers can also be read as a way to make meaning out of it. For example, when she quotes Cheryl is always driven towards people. Her act of socialization and bonding with the people she meets adds to this. With Frank and his wife she feels a kind of solace, and they provide her with a good meal and a warm shower. Greg also functions as a navigator for her.
The meeting with Jonathan helps her to cut off those ties which remind her of the traumatic past relationship with Paul. Her best friend Aimee also functions as an inevitable part of her What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms (Frankl 122).
After meticulous analysis one can say that the character of Cheryl Strayed is an embodiment of what Viktor Frankl called logotherapy. She is driven by the deep desire to find meaning in her life and eventually succeed too, despite the hardships, pain and sufferings she has to endure and overcome. The fact that the character is inspired by a real-life persona adds to the credibility of the events and ideas presented in the movie. The movie is also an eye-opener which exhorts us to find meaning even in the most pathetic of situations. Jean-Marc Vallee with his artistic genius and mastery portray this notion of logotherapy in its explicit best. Quoting Nietzsche we can say that, "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How" (Frankl 84