Human Nature Critique Essay

The wilderness can be used to measure against the man made world, a “scientific yardstick.” Throughout the entire piece he is arguing that the importance is not what we can actually see or touch, but what we think of and

This essay depicts a relationship between society and nature, referring to the woods. Society is changing rather quickly which prevents an individual from truly seeing everything around them. It has destroyed nature and the clarity that the woods provide. Berry notices how people do not see where they are anymore. Many are going through life never actually looking to see what is around them or observing closer. He goes into the woods and immerse himself in nature. As Berry states, “The faster

In “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon illustrates the paradox within the notion of wilderness, describing that if wilderness is that which lies beyond civilization -- beyond humankind, then so is the notion of nature outside the realm of the human... that humans are therefore, unnatural. Further, he explains that if our concept of nature (and ultimately our concept of God) is outside of humanity, then our existence is synonymous with the downfall of nature. That wilderness is purely a construct of civilization is central to this argument.  For example, Cronon asserts that “the removal of Indians to create an ‘uninhabited wilderness’---uninhabited as never before in human history of the place---reminds us just how invented, just how constructed, the American wilderness really is” (pg.79). Instead of in isolation from civilization, Cronon finds that his most spiritual experiences with nature have always been closer to home… a sense of wildness (versus wilderness) can be found in one’s backyard, gazing from a front porch, and in the melding of the human experience with mother nature. One of Into the Wild’s final scenes drives home this idea by altering the literal point of view that main character, Chris McCandless, has had of both himself and of the world since the beginning of his two year journey.  Into the Wild attempts to dramatizes Cronon’s argument to rethink wilderness; we will examine how the film succeeds, and where it fails, to support its premise.

“Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works” (Roderick Nash). Chris McCandless, a modern transcendentalist, sent out on an adventure to find his true self in the wilderness of the North American continent. In the two years he was away, he met many individuals he called his friends and explored the extent of the American West. However, Chris was found dead in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail in the deep wilderness of Alaska in early September 1992. Chris believed he could live his life without the disruption of others. Henry David Thoreau believed that individuals can strive for themselves without government interruption. Chris McCandless, in Jon Krakauer’s documentary Into the Wild, believes that living off the land and life to its fullest without help from others compares to Henry David Thoreau’s beliefs in his writing “Civil Disobedience.”

Many Alaskan survivalist and “natives” agree McCandless had the same reckless idealism of men who had perished in Alaska previously. Jon Krakauer relates Chris to three such men who died in Alaska: Rossellini, Waterman, and McCunn. Rossellini conducted a primitive human survival experiment and he concluded: “For over 30 years I programmed and conditioned myself to this end. In the last 10 of it I would say I realistically experienced the physical, mental, and emotional reality of the Stone Age. I learned it is not possible for human beings, as we know them, to live off the land” (75). Despite Rossellini being a trained survivalist he met the same fate as McCandless who was not nearly as experienced. Another factor that enticed McCandless to venture to Alaska was the allure of nature promised by transcendentalist thinkers. Many of these authors romanticized nature, and were not an Alaskan survivalist. Transcendentalist author John London spent one season of a year in Alaska in a cabin, and Thoreau’s definition of isolation in the wilderness included going into town to do laundry and for hot meals. These authors glossed over the difficulties, challenges, and human deaths in the wild. McCandless’ choice to follow authors with little survival experience verifies a reckless

When Chris was on his journey he studied Henry David Thoreau and he underlined the word “truth” in a line from Walden saying: “ Rather than love, than money, Than fame give me truth”. Chris also felt that the life he should live should be away from civilization and nature is where real life exist. While in the Alaskan bush he wrote in his journal stated “I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has begun.”(168) . McCandless sees regular society to be insufficient for anyone who wants self-fulfilling life. These views are similar to Timothy Treadwell’s view because he too didn't find much value in regular society but he found it in nature. Treadwell communicated best with bears and seemed to understand them more than humans and the way they live. He often talked to the bears like he was talking to a baby child in the documentary showing how much he adored nature. Timothy and Chris always liked the truth within nature and they both believed that it was not attainable through society.

Roderick Frazier Nash’s book, Wilderness and the American Mind, compiled contemporary debates about wilderness by outlining the changing positions concerning wilderness throughout history. In chapter 11, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet,” Nash discuses Aldo Leopold’s house metaphor. Here, Leopold refers to six vacant lots and what it would mean to build houses on all six lots. He describes how the first few houses might make sense; however once you build upon all six lots you no longer remember the meaning of the homes. He argues that they somehow the sixth house would become “stupidity.” Conversely, I disagree with this theory. I feel each house, so to speak, is built differently and suits different needs and wants. Just as in the wilderness,

Aldo Leopold is on the forefather of modern environmentalism. His book, A Sand County Almanac, is based on the notion of viewing land as a community and as a commodity. In the chapter “The Land Ethic”, Leopold invokes a rethinking of our relationships to our world and is based on the principle that ethics are “a process in ecological evolution” (238). Leopold describes the stages of ethic evolving and explains that the rules for socializing were originally defined for human beings. These rules are expanded upon in the next stage of “Ethical Sequence” (237-238), describing how humans interact toward their community. The third stage is the ethics between humans and the land. Upon analyzing “The Land Ethic” I have come to the conclusion that in order to have respect and ethic for land, or anything, one must make a personal connection.

According to William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness”, the main concerns with the wilderness term being humanly constructed and lack of concern with the local environments. Cronon emphasize much of the historical and philological meanings of wilderness as a human construct via spiritual and religious perspectives. He desired for people stop putting so much emphasis on the above and beyond that is out of our reach and focus on the present. He pushed this into the idea of one should start putting emphasis and care into one’s own environment rather than just focusing on environments beyond the local one. He believes change should start locally.

In “Last Child in the Woods” the author Richard Louv argues how americans are being separated from nature and why we should stay more involved in nature. He uses several rhetorical strategies to prove his point using imagery and rhetorical questions to convey his message.

Conversely, naturalists consider the wild to be one of our most precious resources. Naturalists hold the belief that there is no desire and obsession in nature but a life of singular purity . There are some similarities between McCandless’s philosophy and naturalism. In particular, some forms of authority irritated McCandless. He said of himself, “Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the great white north. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild ” (Krakauer 163). McCandless was excited and ready to go into the wild. His decision to risk jumping trains and hitchhike showed his eagerness to escape from civilization. To McCandless, society as a whole essentially constrained human beings’ freedom. McCandless’s definition of freedom, which differed from that of civilized society, was the ability to get in touch with nature, indicating the naturalist concept in his philosophy. Naturalists admire the beauty of nature. American recluse Henry David Thoreau also shared a love of naturalism , as explained in his work Walden, Or, Life in the Woods, in which he said, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (59). Thoreau removed himself from civilization to achieve his inner fulfillment. He claimed that he would not want to live a lifestyle that was not spiritual. Similarly, McCandless’s choice to live as a recluse was to pursue his own human values. He perceived that human beings have an overlooked the real value of life, that there is much more to life than what a civilized society can offer. As American author Annie Dillard notes in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, “[Humans] might

On September 6, 1992, a group of moose-hunters discovered the remains of Chris McCandless’ body, which, through abject starvation, had withered and decayed in the unforgiving Alaskan bush. Upon discovery, Chris’ corpse became a symbol of misguided passions and misinterpreted values and inspired many to explore and document his story of demise. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, the story of Chris, attempting to achieve ultimate freedom and independence is told. On this journey, it is evident that Chris McCandless’ shunning of society was unjustified because he took the transcendentalist ideas expressed in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance and radically misinterpreted them. Because of his analytical error, McCandless was unable to attain freedom and independence, despite his support for these values; egotism overcame individualism, and McCandless’ hubris and extreme risk-taking resulted in foolish isolationism and rendered his journey useless.

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

What is human nature? It is very simple. Human nature refers to the patterns of behavior that are typical of our species or our kind. Human undergoes change as all humans grow up they nature seems to change; the environment someone grow up in effects that persons nature. To fully understand human nature Dr. Marvin Harris takes us on trip to time, which makes sense because if we better understand our past and our origin we will better understand our very existence and our nature. We will know more about who we are where we are from and such other questions that puzzle the human mind.

“It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.”