John Muir And Nature-Cultural Dualism

“Wilderness” in part four of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold discusses the evolution of nature at the hands of humans. I choose to write about this essay because of the connection humans have with the wilderness. I have always believed that nature and people have to work together to live harmoniously on this earth. The human race has used nature to survive for as long as they have existed. In today’s world people are using less and less of nature and more technology to industrialize the planet. This essay stood out to me because of the human aspect. Nature is not a separate part of our lives. Humans live and interact with nature every day. Aldo Leopold states in the essay “Wilderness”, “Neither can be prevented [changes to the world], and

The “wilderness idea” has influenced me to become more pro-environment and to embrace nature whenever the chance is given. These sacred places could easily be destroyed by bulldozers to create new storage and office buildings. Pure wilderness has become a rare site in America due to this. When the wilderness is simply there, it reminds us of where our culture came from and how we’ve altered it for better or worse. The freedom in America has allowed business and discovery to thrive.

The Land Ethic Argument Outline Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” is an essay describing why we should not treat our land as our property. The first part of half of his essay is based on an anecdote that alludes to Odysseus returning from Troy to behead his slaves. His comparison there is that as once it was alright to treat people as property, it is now just fine to do the same thing to your land. Additionally, as ethics of the treatment of people changed as with the ethics of land treatment.

“Each house-hunting trip I’ve made to the countryside has been fraught with two emotions: elation at the prospect of living closer to nature and a sense of absolute doom at what might befall me in the backwoods” (White 1064). In her essay, “Black Women and the Wilderness, Evelyn White describes her contradictory feelings about nature, and throughout her text, her experiences display a very complex perspective of nature. Raymond Williams, in his article, “Nature” describes the word ‘nature’ as the most complex word in language (Williams 219). When referring nature, people generally think of it representing something of peace, comfort, and a place where most can feel safe, almost as if it were a home. White revises our understanding of nature

When you are tired of tall concrete buildings and multi paced industries, it gives you raw mother earth to lie upon and gaze at the stars. When you become jaded and your life seems slow and dull. When you realize your life is dominated by super fast technologies and pollution breathing in you, it gives you a simple elegant flower to wonder upon and see its phenomena. In Walden Thoreau writes “let us spend one day as deliberately as nature and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquitoes wing that falls on the rails.

I strongly side with the act of changing our habitats for the sake of helping the environment. I insist on helping our environment not because you achieve “a sense of personal virtue” (89). Too many times does one aim to create a monumental change without thinking, realistically, that our intentions are no better than those of someone who has no intent to change. Pollan begins to analyze when being environmentally aware of your actions became virtuous, noting writers from the Wall Street Journal to the New Yorker. He questions how doing the right thing in accordance to the environment’s well-being has now been labeled as a “mark of liberal soft-headedness”(89)

Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, Wordsworth also uses imagery to expresses a similar experience. In the first stanza he describes “A host, of golden daffodils; /beside the lake, beneath the trees, /Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” (Wordsworth Ln 4-6). Words such as “host”, “golden”, “Fluttering” and “dancing”, all appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, and smell. It brings us into the scene. These images show Wordsworth’s relationship with nature because he personifies this flower allowing him to relate it and become one with nature.

In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.

The harsh reality surrounds the fact that as time and technology advances, the separation between people and nature increases as well. Louv, in his rhetoric from Last Child in the Woods (2008), argues why the separation between society and nature is distressing.

How can one become one with their environment? Connection with one 's environment was always easier to maintain until the industrial age came into existence. With the birth of modern society came the birth of social responsibilities and burdens unknown to man. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “A place for literature,” Barry Lopez and N. Momaday Momaday explain the impact of lands on its occupants. In “the white heron,” Sarah Jewett explains the feeling of reconnection with one’s inner voice though nature.

Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.

If children were shaped in their early years to respect nature and feel a need to give back, then climate change could be counteracted. Unfortunately, in my mother’s opinion, despite individual efforts “we’re killing the planet” (Ross). Purdy’s views align with my Mother and I’s in that we all recognize the values that the world seems to be leaning towards, but wish it were not happening as it is. I believe that the three of us see the world with what Purdy would call “a Romantic vision” (8) because there is a strong appreciation for the beauty of nature. However, that is an idealistic approach because of the way that society has conditioned citizens to truly see the world.

President Roosevelt said “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone.” is one of the examples how President Roosevelt ’s and John Muir’s camping trip in Yosemite supported their goal to preserve nature. Some of the reasons how they supported their goal to preserve nature are they admired the place. Also, they fought for nature. Finally, they spent time in nature.

Many people who go into nature always see it as something beautiful and aesthetic, but they never see the other side to nature. Humankind’s connection with nature isn’t a real one. They always look at the bright side of nature but are blind to the true dark side of nature. JB MacKinnon’s article “False Idyll” (2012), reveals that nature is not just flowers in a field but can also be the survival of the fittest. He backs up his claim by talking about nature through anecdotes and expert’s research.

We should value nature and its animals much more (Becker, 1971). In today’s world we have what Becker calls a “power-saw mentality” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). Instead we’re greedy with what nature has to offer us. “Man takes what nature offers us, but usually only what he needs” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). There is a psychological difference in today’s world of what we enjoy out of nature (Becker, 1971).