Easy Rider

Easy Rider Character Analysis #2

By: Dennis Hopper

The movie Easy Rider begins with the two main characters Wyatt, played by Peter Fonda, and Billy "the kid", played by Dennis hopper, in Mexico buying drugs that they later intend on selling within the United States borders. After the buying and selling of drugs, they dawn a road trip to Louisiana, in order to escape the prying eyes of police. This experience becomes more than just another road trip for Wyatt; it becomes a journey of self-discovery.

From the beginning it is obvious that Wyatt is different from the other characters. He seems to be more relaxed and thought more about his actions. Wyatt took the events he experienced in the movie and through them realizes how he has wasted his life. The other characters, however, only seems to take life as it comes, without considering the overall consequences or meaning behind it. Whereas Wyatt, comes to understand that each experience is just that, one experience. Everything he and his friends go through is just a smaller view or piece of the puzzle that is life. In life a person must step back to look at a broader view of the world on occasion, instead of simply viewing the situation at hand throughout one's life.

This journey the boys embark upon is really nothing more than a road trip to Mardi Gras for both Billy and George Hanson. However, for Wyatt, this trip serves as a reminder as to what true life is supposed to be. He was spinning out of control without realizing it. All the wild adventures they endure during this trip seemed to be a reminder of real life, which is not just about money, how to posses it, and how not to go to jail because of the methods of possessing it.

At the start of the film, Wyatt is similar in many ways to his counter part, Billy. They are both so wrapped up in their own situation; neither of them stops to think that the money is not worth becoming outlaws and drug dealers over. However, through their rather unusual experiences, Wyatt and Billy lose their grip of one another. They slowly and almost without realizing it, evolve into completely different people.

Billy stays the same, as Wyatt changes and becomes almost unrecognizable, emotionally. The ability to change in the end is what made Wyatt so different from the people with which he surrounded