Freedom Is Not Easy

I think the defining moment in the film was the campfire scene after the characters decide to leave the diner. In this scene, Jack Nicholson's character describes the true meaning of freedom to Billy. This seemed to be the main point of the movie, that true freedom is something that many people claim to have, but do not really know what freedom is. Whenever the prospect of true freedom is revealed to them, they cannot handle it and are “scared” by it. Billy and Wyatt are two characters who are truly free. Throughout the movie, they basically do what feels right at any given point in time. The only hint of responsibility they seem to have is their plan to make it to Mardi Gras in New Orleans before it ends, which is not much of responsibility at all. Their lifestyle reminds me of how Walt Whitman views the ideal road traveler as at war with society. In the end, a man in the truck mindlessly kills both main characters because he hates what they represent. I felt this was symbolic of society in general, that although it may succeed in some cases to eliminate the prospect of true freedom, there will always be those free spirits out there who represent true freedom. Billy and Wyatt were killed, but the fact that they aroused so much attention and reaction showed that they at least succeeded in opening people's eyes to a radical way of life: a truly free life.