The film The Wild Child opens with a young boy around the age of twelve running around a forest in France acting as a savage. He seems to have had no true human interaction based on how he behaves. While in the forest, a woman sees him and reports to the authorities that she saw a wild child running around. The police are able to hunt him down and capture him as if he is an animal. Due to him being in the forest the majority of his life, he is not able to speak and cannot understand any type of language. They bring him to a school in Paris that is for deaf and mute children. While watching the movie, one cannot help but think about Jean- Jacques Rousseau's state of nature since he described how man before civil society acted as a savage. Rousseau described that while in this state, man was alone and had no need for language, but he only cared about his self-preservation and he had the ability to feel compassion. This form of the state of nature seems to describe how this young boy behaved. Because before civilized man captured him, he was roaming around on his own and only taking care of himself. When the wild child was brought to the school in Paris, his state of nature ended, and thus, his civilized state began. The young boy did not make much progress at school and he was subjected to a lot of bullying. Viewers may feel sad for the wild child at this point in the film because of how he is being treated. One of the school's doctors, Dr. Itard, noticed the bullying, and he decided to take the boy to the countryside so that he could focus on him. The doctor wanted to prove to everyone that the boy was not an idiot. Overtime, the wild child starts to behave more civilized than before, and Dr. Itard and the housekeeper, Madame Guérin, give him the name Victor. Similar to Rousseau's theory, Victor is not quickly progressing from being a savage to a civilized man. He eventually begins to learn words by associating them with certain objects. He even gets to the point that he does this task quite well, but his speech is still not developed. One of Victor's favorite things as a reward is milk. So, Dr. Itard takes this opportunity to teach him how to say milk when he wants some. The process is not easy, but Victor eventually does learn. During this time of teaching, Dr. Itard is similar to the absolute sovereign in Thomas Hobbes' state of nature. He decides what Victor will do based on what he considers just. Victor continues to make strides in his development as a civilized male until the day Dr. Itard is not able to take him on his walk. By not being able to go outside, Victor runs away and tries to revert back to his old savage ways. The film ends with Victor returning despite Dr. Itard and Madame Guérin thinking he would never come back. Some may argue here that he returned because he missed them or missed the comforts that he had become adapted to, but if one looks at Rousseau's state of nature again, one would see that he thinks man can never return to the state of nature once he leaves. And by going off this theory, it makes sense that Victor could never return to his wild child ways ever again.
Review of The Wild Child
