The two scenes put together share a common theme. That theme is “why we do things.” As for the penguin, the question “why” is to figure out the mindset of the penguin that drove it to walk out towards the mountains where the penguin has never been before. As for William Jirsa, the linguist in the clip, his “why” is what brought him to Antarctica. Both scenarios in the clip stage the question of why each one does what it does, as for the linguist we get an answer. Jirsa says that “people who are not tied down by anything fall to the bottom of the planet.” So, for him it’s because nothing was tying him down any where else, so he came there. The penguin on the other hand cannot answer the question, which leads to a mysterious situation. Herzog asks these questions the way he does to make the viewer think in a very philosophical manner. Many of the questions are left open ended so that the viewer can interpret it the way we want to. For me, the penguin walks to the mountain in hope of finding food he does not have to compete for, and for others it may be that the penguin actually is insane.
“But Why”
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