On Why We Travel North Movie Analysis

Traveling, wherever you go, is a life-changing journey as the world that we once knew changes as we experience adversity and angst, which later blossoms into happiness and lifelong memories that we take with us when we depart. According to Pico Iyers, On Why We Travel, he says that we travel to gain an understanding of the world and who we truly are and to turn back time to relive our youthful days. The movie, North by Northwest (1959) by Alfred Hitchcock, an influential business is mistaken for a spy and is involuntarily uprooted from his comfortable lifestyle to one on the run. Pico Iyers’ idea of travel allows us to understand the person that Roger Thornhill transformed into, from being a businessman still reliant on his mother to an independent hero. It also lets us understand how Roger fell in love again after being divorced twice and living with his mother. Finally, it helps us understand the person that Eve Kendall becomes as she is changed from just a pretty face who saves Roger for a nefarious plan to falling in love with him.
Roger Thornhill worked in New York City as an advertiser who is still his mother’s darling little boy.
Roger still lives with his mother and stays by her side despite his age. Iyers says that traveling shows us, “all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty.” (5) which for Roger, is independence and adulthood. Roger’s dependence on his mother is excessive and actually contributes to him being abducted in the first place. When meeting with other executives, Roger goes to telegram his mother, fearing she may not have gotten a message which leads to his capture. Roger’s continued reliance on his mother for support forces him to grow up and take charge for
himself. This journey that Roger went on is said by Iyer as, “an easy way of surrounding ourselves, as in childhood, with what we cannot understand.” (6) and without his mother becoming a crutch for him, Roger has to survive by himself. Like a child without his mother, Roger doesn’t know why he is being sought after and ponders what he’s gotten himself into. While escaping his pursuers Roger finds Eve Kendall who becomes the woman to guide him to safety. Eve guides Roger to safety from his assailants and becomes the savior that he needed. Iyers also says that great trips like this make us “ready to be transformed.” (12).But once Eve is captured, instead of running away like he did from New York to Chicago, Roger decides to save Eve, putting himself at risk for another person. Transforming him into someone who cares for another instead of just focusing on himself and his own gain from it.