Topic > Depictions of Individuals and Scenes in Travel and Nature Art

Depictions of the authors' experiences of particular landscapes have great meaning for their audiences, as they describe the multiple relationships between people and landscapes, e.g. in which interactions with the landscape form awareness of identity. This is powerfully represented in Alain De Botton's postmodern essay collection "The Art of Travel" (Penguin, 2002) and Jean-Marc Valle's biopic "Wild" (River Road Entertainment, 2014). De Botton explores how real landscapes can offer relief from the monotonous nature of life and how they can enlighten individuals about the limits of their humanity, while Valle examines how real landscapes can allow individuals to heal from traumatic experiences and how imagined landscapes can provide hope for an individual in difficult circumstances. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay De Botton clearly examines how places of transition can provide an escape from the mundane and provoke introspective reflection through his poignant depiction of real landscapes in his essay 'On Traveling Places', didactically enlightening us on the complex nature of community identity, particularly on how individuals can paradoxically be comforted by communal solitude. De Botton parodies the typical travel guide by investigating the “power of the liminal travel location,” how our anticipation of landscapes shapes our perception of them. De Botton’s use of intertextuality from Baudelaire’s poem “Anywhere! As long as it's out of this world!” illustrates De Botton's premise that the promise of something other than the mundane shines through in the journey through landscapes; that “the destination wasn't really the point. The paradoxical perspective that Hopper's paintings "Compartment C" and "Automat" convey is that lonely public places "dilute a feeling of isolation", expressing how undesirable landscapes can offer comfort in the realization of collective solitude, so travel becomes the metaphorical 'thought midwives' and catalysts for contemplation. Essentially, De Botton highlights how landscapes can shape identity, especially in places of transition where individuals are emotionally connected but lack substantial relationships. Furthermore, the eloquent illustration of Valle's landscapes in his biopic "Wild" presents the idea that the promise that real landscapes can bring can make one imagine the journey that awaits them, Valle provokes contemplation on the power of landscapes to influence oneself, particularly how landscapes can provide sustenance and hope in difficult circumstances, through Cheryl, who is unable to cope with the death of her mother. The still shot of Cheryl looking at her disheveled reflection in the window accompanied by slow non-diegetic music emphasizes her disconnection from her disturbing external reality, the raindrops paralleling her inner turmoil and the sharp cuts that follow convey her fragility and fragmentation of his life. life. Valle's use of the camera cuts back and forth between Cheryl and the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) on a book indicates Cheryl's eagerness to explore it, similar to De Botton's "On Traveling Places" about anticipating travel . A quick montage of Cheryl buying the book while hiking the PCT, epitomized with her meta-reflexive voiceover of her high-fashion declarative statement, "I'll go back to the woman my mother thought I was," evidently conveys how the thought of traveling through landscapes can provide the strength to escape.