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Jean Cronon Wilderness Summary

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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 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. And it’s true that the notion of wilderness persists today in high-profile
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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.

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563 Words | 3 Pages

“Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England” was published in 1983 by historian William Cronon. The book focuses on environmentalism and history of New England. Cronon describes the shift from Indian to European dominance, the European’s view of nature through an economic lens, and the anthropogenic changes to the environment that occured. Throughout the book, Cronon argues that the European colonists used various tactics to assert dominance over the Indians.

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504 Words | 3 Pages

“Into the woods” by Cheryl Strayed is a not only a story about the journey to the inner on the Pacific Crest Trail, but also the journey to the inner of a human at the moment of facing a challenge. Through internal dialogues that disclose thoughts and detail descriptions using literary figures, the author achieved move our imagination to a crossing and allow us an understanding of her feelings. By making explicit a nuance of feelings Strayed let to the reader knows what is happening in her mind when is determined start a crossing that herself find difficult to believe, “It was absurd and ridiculously difficult and I was profoundly unprepared to do it.” Instead of pretend be a heroin, Strayed shows to the public her vulnerability as a human being with fears and doubts. The challenge of hiking the PCT (2,650 miles long between national parks and mountains, deserts, forest, rivers and highways)

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1475 Words | 6 Pages

Feige's goal is not only to explain how exactly American History is rooted in nature, but also to stress the presence of nature in historical events that is often overlooked or entirely ignored by other historians. Throughout the book, the reader is made clear this is Feige’s primary goal of the text, demonstrating the importance of environmental history of the United States and prove that nature’s role in America’s past is more vast and influential than what is thought. Fiege continuously explains how historical events are sometimes entirely shaped by nature and proves so by exploring the geography, topography, weather, disease spread, and other features occurring in nature and how they

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755 Words | 4 Pages

As these wildernesses were converted into farmland by the Americans, they would exacerbate the First Nation’s problems. They would drive away the animals and game that was necessary for their food, clothing, and fur trade. Once these independent

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501 Words | 3 Pages

Though agriculture clearly played a fundamental role in Wisconsin’s existence, no component proved more paramount than that of timber. This realm more than any else molded Wisconsin into the self sufficient commercial-centric state that it is today, and thus propelled it into the public eye. Even Eau Claire early on was notable for maintaining a distinct and reputable timber industry itself. Not only did the plethora of wood provide more than enough resources to aid in constructing the ever-expanding popular railroads, which physically connected Wisconsin to everywhere else, but it also metaphysically shifted Wisconsin from settlement transience to established permanence. Settlers would no longer live in rudimentary shacks, but true, massively statured buildings.

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668 Words | 3 Pages

In the wake of the prevalence of industrialize among the United States, the former U.S president Jimmy Carter proposed that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not supposed to be developed for industry in his foreword to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and land, A photographic Journey by Subhankar Banerjee. Jimmy Carter effectively builds his argument by logically utilizing pathos, logos, and ethos to plead with the audiences to take his side. Jimmy Carter employs pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotion for supporting his argument. In paragraph seven, Jimmy Carter takes a stand on the position of American citizens to consider the issue of industry developing, and he suggests that “instead of tearing open the heart of our greatest refuge, we should use our resource more wisely.” To offer a proposal, Jimmy Carter as a citizen

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764 Words | 4 Pages

Neil M. Maher wrote Nature’s New Deal to argue the idea that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of the most important New Deal programs of the Progressive Era. The author explains how the programs popularity not only changed the physical landscape of the United States, but also the political landscape. The Civilian Conservation Corps began on the Massanuteen Mountains in the George Washington National Forest in 1933. The climbing of a pine tree, by John Ripley was the beginning of changing the natural landscape across America (Pg. 3).

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120 Words | 1 Pages

“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.

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209 Words | 1 Pages

seclusion, so called simplicity, the beautiful landscapes, its hard no to believe that alaska could cure all of our issues. the dreamers and the misfits that jon krakauer meantions in the quote from page four in Into the Wild expect alaska to patch up the unsatisfactory holes in their lives. a person being interviewed from Into the Wild, Jim Gallien, explains that people, such as Chris McCandless, have certain expectations for alaska; these expectations include easily living off of the land and claiming "a piece of the good life". all of these people that expect "the frontier" to save us believe that since they will live an imagined simplier life, most of their problems will be cured. the holes they search for something to fill could be caused

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784 Words | 4 Pages

During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

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90 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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297 Words | 2 Pages

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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915 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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689 Words | 3 Pages

Nature has always provided man-kind with a sense of self-reliance and inner-peace. Many people have tried to conquer the untamed wilderness throughout history. Some have lived to tell the tale, while others were not so fortunate. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless leaves all material possessions behind, and embarks on a quest to find himself and test his endurance.

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