By Jonathan Shih
The word Quintessence is originated from Latin, which means Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence). Hence Quintessence of Life means the fifth essence of life.
According to the western philosophy, the circle of life comprises of four essences: air, fire, water and earth. Air, represents the movement. Fire represents power. Water represents idea or thought and finally, Earth represents the steadiness.
Then what is this fifth element? In the Vedic philosophy, along with these four elements of life, they also recognize the fifth element - Space/Sky, calling them as Pancha Bootas (Five Elements). This fifth element, the Sky, represents the cosmos, the heavenly bodies, our spiritual connection and the self-discovery. They believe, the human body is not only made of the earthly elements it also has a part of cosmos and our journey should be in the path of understanding this cosmos. Cosmos can be understood by understanding the ‘Self’, as the self contains the cosmos. That is, you can’t understand the cosmos without understanding the self and you can’t understand the self without acknowledging the cosmos.
Hence, I think the movie ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ portray this self discovery mode of the journey of life as the fifth essence or Quintessence of Life.
After writing this answer I went back and watched the move again. I think, my answer for this question was bit philosophical assuming the Quintessence of Life is an abstract concept.
According to the movie, if we assume there was no abstraction, ‘Life’ is a magazine, who’s purpose is (it was written on the wallet sent by Sean):
TO SEE THE WORLD, THINGS DANGEROUS TO COME TO, TO SEE BEHIND WALLS, TO DRAW CLOSER, TO FIND EACH OTHER AND TO FEEL. THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE.
The quintessence is a lost photo, for which Mitty goes through all the adventures. That photo was supposed to be cover of the final edition. Finally, Mitty finds the photo of Quintessence of Life, and that gets published on the final cover. According to that, Quintessence, or that fifth essence that made the Life magazine was the ‘People’. The people who build that magazine.
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