What Does It Mean To Be A “Rebel”?

In life there are many situations where rebellion is required for change and improvement. Some are simple, like growing up and learning not to do certain things and others are more complex like when a group of people stand up for what they believe, for example, women rights and black rights. I believe that rebellion is healthy for any growing society. By rebelling we can change our society and/or ourselves for better.

In the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer (1992), Chris McCandless can be considered a “rebel” because he chooses to live a solitary life to avoid almost all human contact. In the book McCandless says; “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.” In most terms you don’t have to have break laws to be a rebel but McCandless was considered a rebel because he chose to go against social norms.

In the movie “Dead Poets Society” by Peter Weir, Neil Perry, is a leader, an independent person, a pressured teenager and also a “rebel” for stepping up to his father. Neil’s father has many expectations of him for instance, he wished that Neil grows up to be a doctor. Unfortunately, Neil does not want to listen to his controlling father and he believes otherwise. He wants to be his own person and live his own life without his father always telling him what and what not to do. Neil starts to take more control of his life, with the help of Mr. Keating who tells him to seize the day.

Neil goes and tries out for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” against the expectations of his father who would have a fit if he found out. Neil really cared about what his father might think and if he would approve of what he was doing. But, towards the end, he changes his mind-set and tries new things. That affected himself as a person. His father turned him down when he told him about the play and Neil didn’t like that and eventually killed himself. That shows how much your parents really do have a huge impact on your life and what you do. In this case, his parents made Neil a “rebel” and unexpectedly commit suicide.

The story “Survival Type” by Stephen Kings is presented as the diary of disgraced surgeon Richard Pine, a self-proclaimed ‘survivor’ type, his diary entries documenting his day to day activities become more and more disjointed and raving, revealing his slow mental decay and eventual insanity caused by starvation, isolation, and drug use.

Determined to hold out for rescue, he goes to horrifying lengths to survive. After breaking his ankle while attempting to hunt a bird down, he amputates his foot, then realizes he must eat it to survive. He continues to amputate his own limbs to use as a food source, ingesting the heroin for anesthesia during the operations. His last few diary entries, barely comprehensible, indicate he has cut off and eaten everything below his waist, as well as his ears, and drools uncontrollably as he ponders which body part to consume next. The diary entries end when he cuts off his left hand to eat. You could say Richard Pine is considered a “rebel” because he was able to keep himself fed by attempting and eating his own body parts.

A rebel is a person who stands up to what they believe in or defines authority just like Neli did with his father and you won’t always have to break laws to be considered a “rebel”.