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Cronon The Trouble With Wilderness Analysis

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Wilderness can be characterized as an uncultivated, uninhabited, and unwelcoming area. In the article, "The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature," William Cronon states, "wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth" (Cronon 1). Cronon is stating that the wilderness on earth is untouched, not harmed by man and is an interesting human progress all alone. There is not only one definition for wilderness, regardless of whether individuals consider it to be the "urban wilderness" of New York or the wilderness of South America, each individual has his or her own particular view of wilderness.
To a few, wild is viewed as consecrated in light of the fact that wilderness created human culture. The way of life made by this sentiment consecrated power is a religion which is just experienced by the general population living in the physical and spiritual wilderness. Before the 1800's many saw the wilderness as frightening thing rather than delightful. Individuals who went into the wilderness now and …show more content…

Individuals who live in urban communities and work "nine-to-five employments" may experience difficulty understanding that the sustenance they eat and the air they inhale is every one of the a piece of wild, and it ought to be saved so that all who come after can understand the excellence that it holds. On page thirteen of his article Cronon expresses, "We and our kids will from now on live in a biosphere totally changed by our own movement, a planet in which the human and regular can never again be recognized." This quote implies that nature two thousand years prior is distinctive then today, a recreation center amidst urban high rises is considered nature contrasted with miles of untouched woodland abounding with

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In the book, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, author William Cronon address the permanent environmental changes and concerns that took place at the hands of Native Americans and colonists in New England. With references to Henry David Thoreau, the first part of the book lays the ground for the reader to feel nostalgic towards the original beauty of New England that was assumed to exist prior to when the Europeans arrived. Cronon expands upon this imagery of New England environmental beauty through an arrangement of sources by presenting the drastic landscape changes that happened after the interaction of two different civilizations. Extensive evidence from this book shows how Native Americans were slowly

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Kate Hohfeler Burton United States History 23 September 2015 William Cronon’s book, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England identifies, examines and explains the ecological history and changes that took place in New England between the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, and how it affected the future of the region. In the first part of the book, Looking Backward, Cronon highlights the works of Henry David Thoreau and William Wood. In Wood’s piece of work, he recounts his 1633 journey to New England and paints a literary picture of the scene; In Thoreau’s piece of work, Walden he is considering his Concord home and the ways in which it may have been altered.

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The Trouble with Wilderness by Cronon is an essay that critiques the American idea of wilderness. Cronon described the history of the idea of wilderness from biblical beginnings to modern descriptions. He also states that wilderness is a human creation and is simply a “reflection of our own unexamined longings and desires” (1). The potential danger in society’s traditional concept of wilderness is that is somehow apart from human life. The author defends this statement by pointing to the concept of “untouched” nature.

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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). The described 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.

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Over time, the relationship between people and nature has spread further and further apart. Author, Richard Louv in “Last Child in the Woods” argues how nature is being replaced with technology. Louv begins the article with the evidence of altering nature to change how it looks instead of keeping it the way it was created. Then he provides an anecdote about a customer refusing a television to be built into a car. In the third paragraph, he uses imagery to remind the reader of memories of looking at nature out the car window before electronics were so easily accessible.

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The perception of wilderness can be problematic. One of the most prominent points that Cronon made in his evaluation is the ideology that wilderness is an illusion to escape reality. This perception can be ambiguous because it segregates humanity from nature, by establishing the idea that wilderness is separate from everyday life. Also, Cronon calls attention to the issue of dividing the land and calling it wilderness. The issue of this isolation is that it disintegrates humans and nature, rather than bringing them more in unity.

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The frontier ideology is defined as an allure of nature that is culturally spread and shaped by people’s ideals of how the wilderness should truly be. The problematic effects resulted by McCandless’ journey into the undomesticated land of Alaska are analogous to the quandaries that the frontier ideology creates for our environmental. Just as the ideology is embedded in his mind; it is also embedded in the minds of many others. However, McCandless story can actually teach us about the plights with our culture and in doing so, allows us to move forward. This has turned into a myth in which many believe that the most important parts of nature are areas that have been untouched by human hands.

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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).

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