Up in the Air / Roughdraft

Dean DeGroot

Eng. 102

Laura Cline

9-April, 2012

Up in the Air

            The novel, Up in the Air, is a story about a self-absorbed jet setting businessman by the name of Ryan Bingham [I]. Ryan has a shallow existence but claims to like it; he has accepted it anyway, and calls it home.

http://www.gizmocrazed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/airplane-rain-clouds.jpg

            The movie, Up in the Air, is a story about a self-absorbed jet setting businessman by the name of Ryan Bingham [II]. Ryan’s existence in the movie is not quit as shallow as in the book, but it is obvious that it is an isolated one.

The novel, written in 2001, is indicative of society during affluent times and how easy we can get caught up in our pursuit of a “Holy Grail” while neglecting our relationships. The movie, which came out 8 years later, portrays a more emotional side to Ryan [II]’s character. 2009 was a much different world than 2001. We as a society were still recovering from 9-11 and in the middle of a recession unlike we had experienced since the great depression. Times of great loss can have a huge impact on the soul. Whether that loss is physical, or materialistic, makes us step back and take stock in what’s important. Jason Reitman, the director of the movie, recognized this and added a softer side to the storyline by focusing more on the relationships of the characters.

Walter Kirn, the author of the novel, has a unique style of writing that was, at times, hard to follow, but I loved his satire. He did a great job making fun of the corporate business man while also hitting on societies infatuation with modern technology. Kirn’s desire to ridicule the silly achievements that society, or individuals, deem important was evident in a C-span interview. Kirn revealed that he was a rural farm boy from Minnesota that went to an Ivy League school on scholarship. In the interview he stated,

I grew to suspect that certain professors were on to us, and I wondered if they, too, were

fakes…to thinkers of this school, great literature was an incoherent con, and I, a born con

man who knew little about great literature, had every reason to agree with them…but I

craved acceptance into, my perception of, American hierarchy that I didn’t have a key to

and whose presence and power I resented…I thought that at the end of getting As and

gold stars there was going to be a celebration of Walter Kirn; it never happened…My

motivation ,I think, was a need for approval/love. (C-Span)

This is Ryan Bingham [I], who was a con man; he fired people and told them it was an opportunity. His greatest fear was running into someone he had talked to about “free agency” and “self-directed professional enhancement” (book 23) Ryan was pursuing a million airline miles for no reason, but dreamed of the celebration and the perceived status in acquiring his “Holy Grail”. He desires approval and love, but fears commitment. This makes his shallow existence in air world a convenient façade. Air world is an endless stream of airports and random encounters with other travelers that Ryan views as friends and casual lovers. He is a successful, well dressed transient. His only real contact with people on the ground is his family. He views their life as a boring structured life that requires commitment. Through Ryan’s view of people on the ground is Kirn’s way of ridiculing American’s tendency to overindulge in pursuit of our American Dream. That pursuit can be so consuming for all of us at times, especially when times are good, that we lose sight of what is important; our relationships.

Ryan travels alone in the novel, but travels with a female business partner in the movie. Alex, a casual love interest in the book, has a bigger role in the movie and Ryan’s life. The movie has more relationship type emotions while spending a great deal more time with what Ryan actually does for a living. Firing people. This was a conscious decision of the director because of the current state of our economy. Knowing that loss of employment was taking such a huge toll on the American psyche Reitman made Ryan’s profession a larger part of the plot. He was still able to poke at Ryan’s silly status symbols of air world while compassionately dealing with the realities of his profession. Ryan[II] referred to relationships as our heaviest loads in his backpack speech but decided to come down and give Alex a chance, only to find out she already had a life on the ground and he was her escape. He decides to go back to air world, but hits it at a slower pace. Ryan[I] would have liked to stay in air world but was grounded for health reasons.

The comments by real life people who had been recently fired added a very real feel to the movie and conveys that deep meaningful relationships are what keep people going through the tough times.