I disagree with Cronon’s notion that people’s idea of wilderness was historically powerful. Undoubtedly, the wilderness notion played a role in forming American identity. Cronon states the consequences of this role when he writes “Thus in the myth of the vanishing frontier lay the seeds of wilderness preservation in the United States, for if wild land had been so crucial in the making of the nation”(Pg 76). But these consequences aren’t particularly profound. Even though the wilderness notion resulted in establishing national parks and preservations, it did not prevent the further development of industry, consumption of forests and mining of natural resources. These developments continued in the U.S. for decades after Yosemite’s establishment.
Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers by R.D. Eller is a story that discredits the myths surrounding the people that live in the Appalachian Mountains. Most people think the Appalachian area was passed up by modernization and see the people as “hillbillies” and as “backwards”. The area is marked by its traditional ways and strong family ties and some people think this contributes to what is trapping the people in that area to poverty. Eller, on the other hand, sees the Appalachian Mountain community differently and wrote this book to shed a new light on the people in that area. He shares many facts that reveal that the area is not as backwards and out of date as many people think.
Susan Rhoades Neel - A Place of Extremes: Nature, History, and the American West In her essay, Susan Rhoades Neel examines the significance of the environment of the American West when shaping western history by referring to and analyzing regional approaches claimed by Webb, Limerick, Worster, and White in order to deemphasize Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis. In fact, most historians may regard Turner's theory as the most influential and adequate one in attempting at giving meaning to the mythical territory of western America as it offers a common sense for the entire American nation. Nonetheless, because of the particular emphasis on nature and the human - nature relation, new approaches have been developed in order to outline
I disagree with Cronon’s notion that people’s idea of wilderness was historically powerful. Undoubtedly, the wilderness notion played a role in forming American identity. Cronon states the consequences of this role when he writes “Thus in the myth of the vanishing for if wild land had been so crucial in the making of the nation,”(Pg 76). But these consequences aren’t particularly profound. Even though the wilderness notion resulted in establishing national parks and preservations, it did not prevent the further development of industry, consumption of forests and mining of natural resources.
Chris McCandless was introduced to the magic of nature at an early age although he was raised in a family that chose to live off their riches rather than their land. One of the largest influences to McCandless would have been his grandfather. “The old man’s backwoods savvy, his affinity for the wilderness, left a deep impression on the boy,” (Krakauer 109). Many of those who question McCandless’s dedication to the wilderness, had not understood his personal influences. McCandless had an interest for nature from a young age that flooded into his adolescent years that explains why he had such a fascination for leaving his home for Alaska.
Finally in part three it is said that The New World was not a wilderness when Europeans came. It is said that it was an environment where the indigenous peoples had changed for years using fire for their benefit. Manns point of view was different than the typical and more well known thoughts that Native Americans had no effect on their environment and that their land was mostly wilderness. In the Preface Mann talks about he first started wondering what America was like before Columbus while he was writing an article about a NASA program where he ended up in Chichen Itza. “The seeds of this book date back, at least in part, to 1983...
Both Thoreau and Mccandless took steps to live apart from others to simply free themselves from the limitations of society. As a matter of fact, the most notable similarity these two men shared was their strong disagreement with the attitude of the governments they lived with. Currency and government rule was nothing but an obstacle in their pursuit for more independent lives. Unlike Thoreau, “Mccandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature…but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul”(Krakauer 183). He did not know what Thoreau already knew, as a result, Mccandless learned later that “an extended stay in the wilderness inevitably directs one’s attention outward as much as inward, and it is impossible to live off the land without developing both a subtle understanding of, and a strong emotional bond with, that land and all it holds”(Krakauer 183).
Is The Wilderness really only a place outside the bounds of “civilization”? William Cronon describes The Wilderness as many Americans in his day
“The Oregon Trail,” written by Francis Parkman is a description of the experiences traveling into the unknown depths of the American west in 1846. The story is told from the first person point of view of Parkman, a scholar from Boston who embarks on the great expedition of traveling into the west in hopes of studying the lives of the Native Americans. His journey is also one of the first detailed descriptions of the beauty and the bounty of a largely uninhabited North American territory. But one of the most critical elements of the story was Parkman’s encounters and recruitment of members to his band of travelers who ultimately play a major role in the success of the western journey.
De’ Crevecoeur has a very positive perspective on the fact that the frontier played an important role in the formation of American identity. He explains that as people came from Europe, they came from being slaves to the government and not being able to have anything for themselves. People came to America to follow their dreams and to be something successful instead of the unsuccessful lives they had in their homeland. He feels that the main reason they came, was to seek freedom. Crevecoeur sees these immigrants as taking action into their lives and wanting to be something more than they ever thought they could being ruled the way they were in their old country.
When thinking of the wilderness one might picture a scene from a camp site. Untamed dense forest, and endless jungle probably come first to mind and although this might be one meaning of wilderness, Mellor’s perception of wilderness and pastoral opens our thoughts on how we view the unpredictable and the known. In “Lure Of The Wilderness” by Leo Mellor, he shows the meaning of the unexplored wilderness and the surprises that come with the unknown, while humans try to tame what is wild and create a pastoral environment around them. Mellor’s writing helps understand hidden aspects in the short story “Wild” by Lesley Arimah, when Ada is blindsided with a plane ticket to visit her aunt in Africa. She travels to a place mostly unknown to her, besides the relatives living there.
In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.
Throughout “Changes in the Land”, William Cronon explores the dynamic relationship between the English who settled New England, the Native Americans that inhabited the region and the local ecosystem. Moreover, the Europeans brought with them a multitude of ideologies that had a disastrous impact on the New England ecosystem. However, the fascinating aspect of the arrival of the English is how they influenced the Native Americans to adopt English ways of thinking about the natural world. This adoption of thinking was, among other major factors, the result of the influx of germs on the part of the English, which decimated the Native American population and gravely damaged their social institutions. Furthermore, the perspectives on land and wealth
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”. Saverin begins her article with anecdote- telling the unfortunate experience of young lovers and adept adventure seekers, Ackerman and Gros.
De Crevecoeur explains these individuals stating, “The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared” (Horwitz 27). De Crevecoeur believes that the frontier played a big role in the formation of the American identity because of the melting pot of different races, ethnicities, beliefs and cultures that was Americans then and are today. John Wannuaucon Quinney was a Native American and leader who highly supported Native American tribes. Quinney was very vocal about the negative impact the frontier played on the formation of American identity.