Analysis Of The Wild Child By François Truffaut

It is about five years or so that The Wild Child a film by François Truffaut has been set in the syllabus of the course introduction to the modern culture. It is indeed a good example of Saussurian linguistic theory. Although there is no doubt that the core of the film is perfectly apt to the idea of semiotics, may be it is the time to look for another example. Trying to find another film, I have found Still Alice (2014) as another perfect example, but let’s have a quick glance to Truffaut’s film. Based on a real event, the story has many things to do with the way in which our personality and our collective psyche are constructed according to the structure of language. The wild Child is the story of a young teenager who for an unknown reason

had been abandoned from his society. Since his appearance in the story, we have no clue where he has come from, why does he behave like a wild animal and why he was left alone in a first place. May be like the curious Dr Itard who tried to comprehend victor’s behaviour and know about his miserable past, and more importantly for the sake of the story, we need to know more about him. Yet, there are many obstacles hindering us from understanding. We are not able to reach any points because we cannot communicate with Victor. Language as an obstacle appears to challenge our abilities to understand each other. The less he knows how to communicate, the more we feel desperate. So we have the same problem that Victor had, the problem of communication.
And what is the purpose of language?

Is language anything but one of the best carriers of our thoughts? This is the main idea that Saussure tries to deliver it in the general courses on linguistics. Our thoughts are shapeless entities and quite limited to our very own cognition. In order to have a good communication we need to share our thoughts, but prior to contribute them in a happy interactive communication, our thoughts need to transform into something more tangible, something that we can see them, use them, manipulate them and feel them intellectually. Here, Saussure believes that this is the language which helps us to shape our thoughts in a form of words, sentences and other linguistic patterns that we use in our everyday conversation. Victor’s problem was the lack of understanding the relationship between things and their attributed names. Therefore he needs to get through the complicated world of signs. According to Saussure, sign is consisted of two important parts: the metal image (the concept) and the sound pattern. With the help of this combination, we can reach a cognitive certitude that allows us to share social and conventional entities with others. Therefore, we can communicate by implying the same order and the same rules that we share together. In other words the inherited rules of language make it possible for us to take the language which we speak as granted. It becomes our second

nature.
Back to the story of Victor, his incessant practice of understanding the rules of language was a desperate attempt to construct meaning.

Now I want to turn to another situation. What would it be like to try desperately grasping the meaning that we have already known? What if one day suddenly like the way that we entered to the cultural world which was constructed by language, an unknown physiological or psychological force withdraws us from the complicated territory of language? Would it be possible that a demonic forgetfulness spell puts a curse on our memory and intends to throw us into the blackness of oblivion? Would it be possible that we move backwards and rewind the story of Victor then instead of gradually gaining the sense of language we start to lose it? Well, I think after years of having The Wild Child as the best example of Saussurian theory of semiotics, this is the time of watching movies like Still Alice and try to analyze the way in which language shape our personality and our identity. I do recommend watching this movie and having it in your mind as one of the best films about language, memory and identity. We can get back to it soon. (After watching

Memento).