The protagonist is a young man who has taken the decision to isolate himself from the world. However, his action shows no hint of frustration or urge to rebel against anyone or anything. It is an awakening: the conscious desire to take a new direction in life and to follow it boldly to the very end in the search for a distinct identity that is independent and true. It’s the age-old problem of “knowing oneself”: the more an individual knows about himself, the more he can build an “objective” identity, or rather, an identity that is recognised by others. And to do this takes desire, motivation and courage.
The protagonist has an irresistible impulse, a passion that is almost “transcendentalist”: it is the desire to discover exactly what to want from oneself and from one’s future. But his journey to reach a higher understanding is only just beginning. And Nature is the vessel he has chosen by which to carry out his search because Nature has an element that involves/ combines/uses the spirit and the material in the same way, a kind of synthesis of two opposing factors: the “wild”, pure contact with Nature, a mysterious force that teaches you to feel life through your senses.
Perhaps it is this force that the other characters - who each have their own “identity crises” - come to see in him as they try to get closer to him. The young man represents that courage that the others wish they had to make the big decisions about their own existence. For them, he becomes a kind of reference point in which they can be reflected. They feel a kinship with him and wish they could have his courage but are still trapped. To go on, they need to ask questions for which they don’t have an answer. And it is precisely this that the young man does: not give an answer.