ipl-logo

My Nature Experience In William Cronin's The Trouble Of Wilderness

1261 Words6 Pages

My nature experience was at the Lake Berryessa camping grounds with friends last weekend. Prior to my nature experience, I thought about my definition of nature and chose the site based on these assumptions. It turns out that my assumptions about what constitutes as nature changed when I arrived at the camping ground. At first I thought this place would be considered as nature because it was far away from people, but then I realized that the reason we choose this site was due to its close proximity to Davis. I also thought that this area would be untouched by humans, but there were large vacation homes and there were plenty of families in their RV’S. I think the most notable natural aspect of this location was there was no cell phone service which really disconnected people from their lives back in Davis. After reflecting on this trip, I realized that we used nature as an escape from our daily lives. Using nature as an escape from our daily lives aligns with the sublime ideology that completely separates humans and nature. William Cronin argues in, “The Trouble of Wilderness” that the idea of wilderness is a product of human civilization which contradicts the idea that wilderness is natural as people tend to believe that wilderness is the last place on …show more content…

Cronin explains how sublime landscapes were seen as rare places on earth in which people could see God. These rare places align with the national park establishments as God was to be seen on a mountain top or in a waterfall. As Cronin mentions the doctrine of the sublime is still used today, but it has been watered down by commercial hype and tourist advertisement. We still seek the sublime in modern day by being attracted to these positive attributes of nature such as beauty. We see nature as a spectacle to be looked at and enjoyed for beauty which shows that the sublime has indeed been domesticated (Cronin,

Show More
Related
300 Words | 2 Pages

In his essay, “First Wilderness: America’s Wonderland and Indian Removal from Yellowstone National Park,” Mark David Spence argues that the creation of Yellowstone National Park is an early illustration of removing native peoples as a way to “preserve” nature. The idea of Yellowstone being a pristine and untouched wilderness, is challenged by Spence as he brings to light the presence of Indigenous peoples and communities who had occupied the land prior to the national park being established. He advocates for a better understanding of Yellowstone National Park’s history, encompassing the dispossession of the Indigenous peoples within the area. Spence explains how the wilderness preservation of Yellowstone ignores and dismisses any connection

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

Nature and all its glory is beautiful, scenic, and is completely different from the feeling any city provides. Some like to go to wild areas for the peace and quiet alone. I also can sympathize with McCandless’s desire for freedom. Young adulthood is one of the most stressful parts of most people’s lifetime. The transition from being an adult in school, still restricted like a child, then to being free to be an adult, but finally to having to learn all the restrictions, responsibilities, requirements, etc., of true adulthood is arduous for most.

Read More
235 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
441 Words | 2 Pages

But, nature does not exclude humans, human excludes themselves from nature. Within the “mists of [the] chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for”(277). He uses clouds and storms and quicksands to convey that civilized life includes the same negativity included in the connotation of those conditions, but nonetheless, those too are apart of nature. The purpose of utilizing imagery is so evoke images people already have to connect with them on that level to make them understand that they must find a harmony and balance in the world. So, in order to restore order within one’s individual life, one must defy the social norms that distance themselves from nature to find harmony with it.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

I had the opportunity to go to Mexico and visit the Yucatan rainforest and this lead me to be able to explore nature and feel the peaceful impact it can have on someone 's life. Chris McCandless was determined to create a new life for himself and be the one to control his own destiny. “Chris changed his name, gave the entire balance of a twenty-four-thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet…. His family had no idea where he was or what had become of him until his remains turned up in Alaska”. This quote is from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and shows how McCandless left everything from his old life in order to create a new life for himself.

Read More
1449 Words | 6 Pages

There were many flaws with the Articles of Confederation for example there was not an executive branch. In article two section one of the Constitution they made it so the President had executive power along with a Vice President. Another issue was the fact that there were not any federal courts. This was changed in article three section one and two, and they stated that the judicial power will be held by one supreme court with inferior courts. There also was no power to tax or regulate commerce.

Read More
207 Words | 1 Pages

As he says, “Celebrating wilderness has been an activity mainly for well- to-do city folks. Country people generally know far too much about working the land to regard unworked land as their ideal. In contrast, elite urban tourists and wealthy sportsmen

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

I believe that to some extent, the picturesque and the sublime can be subjective to different people as they experience different things which can trigger emotions that others may not have/ experienced. In an online report about the philosophy of art by Andrea Borghini, he says that the sublime is, “a transformative experience typically associated with some negative pleasure and elicited by the encounter of an object or situation.” To me this says that to encounter the sublime, one has to encounter this ‘transformative experience’ from an object or situation. An example would be the sea and the sky, where if the sea is rough and the sky is dark with clouds, it can give the idea of the sublime as it is ‘negative pleasure’. Whereas if the sea was calm and the sky was clear blue and sunny, it would give rise to feelings of the beautiful, leading to ideas of the picturesque.

Read More
1908 Words | 8 Pages

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.

Read More
1174 Words | 5 Pages

He points out that many people have never truly seen, and experienced wild nature. The people

Read More
1240 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

More about My Nature Experience In William Cronin's The Trouble Of Wilderness

Related Topics

Open Document