Analysis Of William Cronon's The Trouble With Wilderness

It is no secret that the idea of wilderness grips every American citizen. Some authors including, William Cronon, have gone to great lengths to explain American infatuation with the wild. Cronon in his article The Trouble with Wilderness, Or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature, presents the sublime nature of wilderness as one of the reasons Americans imagine nature. I believe both I, Krakauer and Chris McCandless disagree with William’s Cronon’s assessment of the American psyche. Rather than seeing the wilderness as, “rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of God” (Cronon), Krakauer, McCandless and most Americans believe wilderness is a place to find yourself. William Cronon’s believes Americans see …show more content…
Chris and Krakauer aren’t looking for the underlying supernatural truth in the world, they are trying to figure out the truth about themselves and the natural world in which all Americans live in. Pioneers like Thoreau and Wordsworth stepped out and ventured into nature and wrote down there experience. This allowed for others such as Chris to take an additional step and venture out into the wild and push himself to his physical limits. This is what I believe is the true reason Americans are fascinated with nature, the idea of being able to push yourself, will one survive if he or she decides to take that journey into the wild. A chance to prove we as humans, haven’t advanced too far to the point of no return. For men it may even be a self-promoting experience to announce they made it a day or two in the woods without food. In today’s America most people seeking the sublime would much rather attend their church service and donate a healthy portion to tides rather than search for God in nature such as Wordsworth. This is because many Americans know what physical capacity it takes to venture out into the