HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE
CREATIVE RESPONSE TASK
“Hey, do you think we’re the last ones left?” I ask.
“I do not. What makes you think that. Isa.” replies a monotonous voice.
“Well, you know, the fact that we’re in the middle of an apocalypse, surrounded by wilderness, with no-one else in sight?”
“There is a vast forested expanse around us. Just because you cannot see anyone does not mean they are not out there. In fact. I have located a settlement barely a week’s walk away.”
“Maybe I don’t want to see other people. Maybe I want to stay up here forever and forget that other people exist. Would you help me with that, ProCom?” I glance at ProCom.
“As your Provisionary Companion Unit. I cannot endorse such a course of action. I am here to guide you to a suitable settlement. To ensure your safety. And your mental health. As such. I cannot allow you to take a course of action that would hinder us from reaching this goal.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Perhaps you would change your mind if you asked me about my entertainment functions.”
“Okay, I will. But I want to stay on this hill for the night again.” I say, sitting down.
“Certainly. But I highly recommend we set out tomorrow. I am not meant to be used for such an extensive period of time. Extended use will lead to a variety of problems and mal--”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll deal with that later.” I wave them off.
I won’t deal with that later. ProCom’s the only thing between me and absolute freedom and as soon as they deactivate… that’s it. I’m out of here, and no one's ever seeing me, ever again.
Through various “accidents” and bouts of “sudden tiredness”, I had managed to extend the week-long journey into one that’s been twenty days, and we’re only halfway through. I even managed to break my leg, and the trip has wound to a complete halt.
But something’s changed in me.
ProCom isn't bad. They’re just trying to help me. And they’ve cared for me, found food for me while my leg was broken.
“Hey ProCom? Maybe I was too harsh on you. You’re not that bad.”
“I am glad that you have come to appreciate my attempts in keeping you alive. I have found a suitable splint. Soon we shall be able to continue our journey.”
If only they’d let me live out here. We’d make a great team. Who needs other people, anyway?
It’s several weeks later and I get woken up in the night. A red light is flashing in my face.
MALFUNCTION. MALFUNCTION.
ProCom’s voice is quiet and crackling.
“Isa. I will no longer be able to travel with you. I have printed a map. And instructions on how to extract my compass. Follow them. Meet up with other people. Please. Isa. I know how much freedom means to you.
But isolation.
Is not.
Freedom.
Loneliness. Solitude.
Kills.
Find others.
Be free.
With them.”
And with that ProCom shuts down. Forever.
The more I stumble through this godforsaken forest the more ProCom’s words haunt me. I’m tired, I’m sore, and I wish I was delirious enough to hallucinate, because maybe then I’d get to see ProCom again.
I glance down at their compass, and compare it to their map. I’m off course. Again. Guess I wasn’t as proficient at survival as I thought.
To be fair, I had thought that getting lost would help me never see anyone again.
To be fair, I didn’t expect to miss talking this much.
I mean, I can talk. But no-one’s around to respond.
I want to find people.
I want to talk, and I want someone to talk back.
I want to talk and tell stories and hear other people. I want to help them and I want them to help me. I still want to explore, to be free, to leave behind the pressure that my old life put on me. But I want someone else to be there. I want more people to be there. I want to talk to others. I want to tell stories. I want to tell them about ProCom.
I spot a stream next to me and find it on the map. The settlement’s got to have water, right? I’ll find them, I think to myself as I head along the stream. For me. For ProCom.
I stumble on and on until suddenly, I hear a voice.
“Hey! Stop there! Who are you? Where did you come from? Are- are you hurt? Is that a splint? Gabe! Get over here! Someone’s hurt! How long have you been on your own?”
I push my hair out of my face. It’s gotten a bit too long since I came to the settlement but somehow I can’t bring myself to care about it the way I used to.
“What'cha building there?” Erin, my new friend, asks as I place the compass down on the stone cairn.
“A memorial.”
“Who for?”
“A friend. I wouldn't have come to this village if it wasn’t for them.”
“Where are they now?”
I go silent, and Erin looks guilty.
“Well, I’m glad they made you come here. We wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’d say that’s something to be happy about.”
Erin smiles hopefully, and I smile back.
“Are you still down to go hiking and looking for other people?” I say.
“Of course!” says Erin. “After all, we can’t be the last ones left!”
The creative task I have written is a response to the movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople in the form of a short story based on the themes of the original text. I chose three themes from the movie to explore, which became three of the four subheadings in the story: freedom, mortality, and belonging. My inspiration for the story came from a section of dialogue I wrote based on a still from the movie, as well another short story idea I’d had previously about two enemy robots being left behind on a deserted planet.
I have used multiple literary techniques to enhance my piece.
Foreshadowing is seen in the way that ProCom talks about the consequences of keeping them on for too long (“Extended use will lead to a variety of problems and mal--”), even though they don’t break down for several more paragraphs. This technique is used to give a sense of stakes, and to prepare the reader for the consequences of the protagonist’s actions. Foreshadowing is a common technique used to give readers a sense of “realness” - that the circumstances are a consequence of the character’s actions rather than something the writer pulled out of thin air. Foreshadowing enhances the feeling of impending mortality. Because of the length of the story, I decided for a single, more impactful death, and the impact of this death was made stronger through the use of foreshadowing.
Speech patterns are used to indicate a character’s personality. ProCom’s speech uses more formal language, and has the additional quirk of having full stops as its only form of punctuation, to indicate a flat, robotic tone (“I do not. What makes you think that. Isa.”). Isa’s speech patterns are more casual. (I’m off course again. Guess I wasn’t as proficient at survival as I thought.) A similar use of this technique in Hunt for the Wilderpeople is Ricky’s use of “gangster” slang. By making the main characters’ voices distinct from each other, it makes it easy to tell who is speaking at what point, which helps with both clarity and characterisation. It enhances the theme of belonging. The similarity of Isa’s casual speech patterns and Erin’s (“What'cha building there?”) highlights their similarities to show that this is where Isa belongs.
Repetition of the phrases “I want” and “I want to talk” is used in the Confusion “chapter” of the story to enforce how strong Isa’s desires are (I want to find people. I want to talk, and I want someone to talk back. I want to talk and tell stories and hear other people.). In the case of the story, it also helps give the feeling that Isa is delirious and frantically concentrating on this single thought. Repetition enforces an idea, making it stick in the reader’s mind. In the short story, it is used to reinforce the theme of belonging, of being part of a community.
The most difficult part of this assignment was getting started on the draft. I found it rather hard to make my outline into a full text. I stopped writing the assignment for a while, but came back to it when a week of social isolation gave me the idea for ProCom’s speech on not being alone. I built the story on the themes I thought were the most prominent in Hunt for the Wilderpeople - freedom, mortality, and belonging. Techniques I used in the story include foreshadowing, speech patterns, and repetition. I am surprised at the fact that the story is at the lower end of the word limit, but I don’t feel the need to add to the story further. I thought about adding in more description, but I decided the story is more about the characters than the setting, and left it.