Category Archives: Week 8: Defining “The Environment” and “The Wilderness”

Week 8: The Trouble with Wilderness

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This week’s reading was interesting because of all the new context it gave me about what our perception of the wilderness is, and how it came to be. What I found most interesting was the part talking about Native Americans, dubbed ‘Indians’ in the text–which also reveals the environment in which this was written. What the people saw as wilderness, was also the homes of the Native Americans, and was their land first. Once the Native Americans were driven out of their land, the land was seen as safe and peaceful, and not dangerous and savage. This goes to show what they viewed as civilized–people don’t make it civilized; rather one’s own perception of what society should be is what makes something civilized. How we view the wilderness and its safety can be connected to the changing views on the ocean as we discover more and more about it. In some older tales we’ve reviewed in this class, the sea creatures were seen as dangerous (Sirens), but more current literature shows a more productive/romance based relationship between the humans and sea creatures (the Little Mermaid). Through artistic depictions in the Victorian age and current depictions of the sea, we can see the difference in mankind’s thoughts of the sea. 

I also found it interesting how Cronon talked about how we lose sight of the importance of protecting where we live since we are so focused on environmental preservation in the ‘wilderness’. This isn’t something I have thought about much, but I see how it applies. In my hometown, there’s a lot of push for urban development (as there is in many towns and cities nowadays), but with that urban development comes the loss of nature and beauty. Perhaps this partially stems from our curiosity in things that are not like us, or not something that is part of our day to day, but there is value in what seems so ordinary to us.

Touring the Wilderness and Claiming our Services from The Wild

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I am an environmental science major, and one of the first things we learn about the ecosystems we seek to protect are the “services” they can provide us––because how can we make non-environmentalists care about the planet without coaxing them with what the planet can give them in return? These categories of services include provisioning services, regulating services, supporting services, and cultural services. Cultural services are, as defined by the National Wildlife Federation, a “non-material benefit that contributes to the development and cultural advancement of people…the building of knowledge and the spreading of ideas; creativity born from interactions with nature (music, art, architecture); and recreation.” (nwf.org, N.D). The “recreation” they reference is tourism. “Cultural services” are exactly what William Colton is addressing in his paper, “The Trouble with Wilderness”. The sublime beauty and innate inhumanity early explorers like Thoreau and Wordsworth described in the texts they made public is what the National Wildlife Foundation is referencing now as a “service”. Something “serving” of us, not untamed and terrifying like what Thoreau and Wordsworth described. The foundation is actively encouraging more human presence in the natural world as a way of furthering our intellectual discoveries and creativities, while also making the income they rely on to maintain the preserve with the influx of tourism to these places, as people seek out this “service” they are promised. Colton mentions this attitude at its birth, as following these popular works by explorers featuring The Sublime, “more and more tourists sought out the wilderness as a spectacle to be looked at and enjoyed for its great beauty, [and] the sublime in effect became domesticated.” (12). Just like some best-selling new book on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles or blockbuster movie everyone is talking about, the “wilderness” became a commodity to come get a look at for yourself, diminishing it’s obscurity and turning it into an anthropocentric novelty. Who wouldn’t want to get a taste of the novel Unknown (or rather, freshly broken in “Unknown”)? And in this mentality of everyone wanting to be an explorer, the unknown becomes known and we take hold of it. It is there where we claim nature but label it “other”, label it “wilderness”, though, since our invasion, it is anything but. It now exists in the maps made from clear-cut trees bunched up tightly in the fists of visitors that will inevitably end up on the ground of the trails they claim this “service” from. It exists in our hands, yet we comfort ourselves by naming it “wild” and clutching onto the idea that it is our escape. But there is no escape now; we are everywhere.

the construction of ‘wilderness’ in relation to indigenous people

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In the essay, “The Trouble With Wilderness,” Cronon’s main gripe with the modern interpretation of wilderness is that it is seen as separate from humanity which assigns it a type of fetishistic purity. The problem with this modern interpretation is that people, particularly indigenous people, have actively lived in these ‘wild’ spaces for generations. All across areas of wilderness, people hunted for sustenance and not for sport. They also built homes and other living spaces out of the materials that they could get their hands on. For example, native people in northern California used fallen redwoods for their homes and canoes. This more modern construction of wilderness disregards the existence of indigenous people within these lands and actively erases them. This is seen in the language that American settlers held with the word frontier and the myths associated with it.  The author of the essay stated that the removal of indigenous people shows how constructed the American wilderness is (Cronon pg. 16) The use of the word constructed is important in this instance because it shows the human, particularly Western influence, that led to our modern interpretation of wilderness. Constructed also brings to mind the image of boundaries that are made to bar specific people from these areas. Although these boundaries are made to keep certain people like the natives separate from nature, European Americans have the freedom to cross the boundaries and indulge in a glorified past that has also been constructed. Because ‘wilderness’ as a title has been placed on national parks and other protected areas, indiegnous people struggle maintain their previous connection to the land.

Week 8: The Trouble With Wilderness

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I have noticed a common theme with the association of nature and the environment to the Christian religion. In past weeks we have read stories that have told the Christian belief and role in stories surrounding mythical creatures and the environment. It is clear to me now how much of an impact nature had on the Christian religion, causing those followers to tell such tales. Going back 250 years in history, the wilderness was seen as a scary, savage, and deserted place. “The wilderness was where Christ had struggled with the devil and endured his temptations” (Cronon, 8). The wilderness was seen as a place where people, or Christ, would go fight in a way because of its dangerous nature. This can be connected to mermaid depictions by the Christian religion near this time. At a time when the wilderness was an unknown place that was filled with risks and temptations, it makes sense that stories about merpeople or sirens trying to tempt humans to come to them were being told.

As time went on, the views and ideas of the wilderness and nature changed. Nature was beginning to be appreciated as one of God’s creations. The wilderness shifted from an undiscovered mysterious land to a land of freedom. “It is a place of freedom in which we can recover the true selves we have lost to the corrupting influences of our artificial lives. Most of all, it is the ultimate landscape of authenticity. Combining the sacred grandeur of the sublime with
the primitive simplicity of the frontier, it is the place where we can see the world as it
really is, and so know ourselves as we really are-or ought to be” (Cronon, 16). This change of heart about the wilderness can be correlated with the change of heart about merpeople in the Christian religion. Christians began to depict mermaids through beautiful artwork and texts, showing them in a more positive light. It is interesting to me how much nature contributes to the beliefs and ideals of a religion.

The connection between the “wilderness” and humans

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According to Cranon the term “wilderness” has shifted throughout the years and always need to be seen as human constructions that are shaped through e.g. historical events. Cranon therefore introduces us to the idea that the “wilderness” is a representation of the values we have attributed to nature at a certain period of time in history: “Far from being the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity, it is quite profoundly a human creation-indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history.” (p.7).

More importantly, on the same page, people view “wilderness” as an untouched piece of land that has never been affected by anthropogenic influence when in reality, it is “not a pristine sanctuary where the last remnant of an untouched, endangered, but still transcendent nature can for at least a little while longer be encountered without the contaminating taint of civilization. Instead, it is a product of that civilization, and could hardly be contaminated by the very stuff of which it is made”. Thinking about that a little bit longer, it made me realize that we use this thought as an excuse to separate ourselves from nature, which ultimately leads up to us humans not living/ coexisting with nature. That might also be the reason why humans start to not care about nature anymore. Even though we humans seem to enjoy the beauty of nature and create e.g. natural parks of what we find beautiful, we do not leave nature the way it is. Instead, we humans destroy it every day and find excuses to not coexist with it again, as well as not looking for solutions for environmental problems.

Close Reading: The Little Mermaid

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Daniella Sanchez
Professor Pressman
ENG 305
3 March 2024  

The Little Mermaid and Coming of Age 

       In The Little Mermaid, the passage of girlhood to womanhood that the unnamed mermaid experiences when having eight oyster shells pinned to her tail on page 113 reflects the strict expectations and limitations held for young adult women of the Victorian era; The elements of attire and theme of pain suggest the hardships and deceptions of becoming a woman, teaching the difficulties of discovering one’s identity and societal expectations during the influential stages of maturity.  

       At the time the little mermaid turns fifteen, her time to broaden her horizons and witness the outside world in all its beauty has come. Her grandmother prepares her granddaughter for the event by dressing her in special attire, essential for a coming-of-age ceremony. The first item is placed on her head, a heavy wreath of lilies with pearls on each leaf: a laurel, as known in Victorian times, is meant for good luck, as the main character is about to embark on a new journey of self-discovery. Though her journey is as heavy as her wreath with pain and heartbreak, the little mermaid is seen victorious at the end of the story, signifying her newfound maturity as a woman.  

      In the language of flowers, white lilies represent not only innocence and purity but a sign of love towards the recipient by the one it’s given from. This shows the love and hope of purity (meaning that it is expected of the main character to remain with pure thoughts and actions, which is later shown hiding secrets from her sisters and running away) that the little mermaid’s grandmother has for her grandchild. Last, Victorians had the belief that pearls represented tears; The pearls in the little mermaid’s wreath give a foreshadowing of the tears she must hold back after realizing her hopes of marrying the prince are destroyed. However, the pearls in her wreath are also a representation of her transformation into a woman; Pearls are formed due to an irritant that is uncomfortable for the oyster, reflecting the pain that becoming a woman takes.  

        The last piece of attire, eight large oyster shells are attached to the little mermaid’s tail, she immediately lets her grandmother know that the decoration hurt her but is responded with the phrase, ‘pride must suffer,’ or as most women know, ‘beauty is pain.’  The analogy of the oyster shells and corsets is important to understand as in Victorian times, a young woman would start wearing corsets at the age of fifteen. What do corsets do? Besides hurting and misshaping the ribcage and organs its purpose was to restrain women, laced tightly this would restrict breathing leading to fainting. Because of this, women had to walk slowly, as if meant to not let them walk fast or run. The oyster shells and corsets represent being tied down, not wanting to let a woman come outside the box she has been placed in, hence the little mermaid mentioning the attire being heavy and expressing wanting to take it off as soon as possible. This symbolizes the desire of freedom to explore and learn new things after being molded to be what society expects of a refined and noble young woman who is soon to be wed off. Which in Victorian history, the ages of eighteen and twenty-six were the average age of marriage for women, this makes sense as to why the little mermaid ran away from home.  

        To conclude, the little mermaid now being seen from this new perspective is a young woman who has been protected and is suddenly being thrown into a new world of femininity filled with expectations that clearly, she wasn’t happy with following. Hans Christian Andersen gave a voice to young women who felt the same way as his little mermaid did and dreamed of liberating themselves from the strict society of the Victorian era. Through the portrayal of her attire and feelings towards the obstacles that she finds in her journey, not only does it bring light to a hardship of centuries but also opens a door for young women to relate to her situation and find consolation and motivation to break free.  

 Work Cited

 Bacchilega, Cristina, and Marie Alohalani Brown. “The Little Mermaid.” The Penguin Book of Mermaids, Cristina Bacchilega, 2019, pp. 113–130. 

Cognitive Dissonance and the Wilderness

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There is no doubt that humans and their relationship with the wilderness and environment is constantly changing both positively and negatively. These relationships throughout time demonstrate different connections and approaches to the way this relationship will function which is influenced by the people and their motives at a given time. Something that stood out to me in this reading is these transitions how we as humans apply morals to the wilderness, and how we justify conquering and destruction towards the environment. Humans tend to excuse behavior, especially when it comes to something that they believe ¨had¨ to be done or went along with their morals. It is human nature to justify behavior with the mindset of superiority; when it comes to the wilderness some individuals believe that it is our right as superiors to dominate the wilderness. The text specifically states, ¨-We as humans tend to excuse our behavior and attempt to justify it. By imagining that our true home is in the wilderness, we forgive ourselves for the homes we inhabit.¨ (Page 12) With this in mind, I wanted to look into the psychology behind justification and how we use self-justification to permit us to harm the environment continually. The psychological theory behind this is cognitive dissonance, which causes us to justify regardless of the severity of our actions when experiencing two inconsistent cognitions. Cognitive dissonance is particularly felt when inconsistent beliefs and behaviors are pressurized and conflict with our ¨self-image, positive view of self, or worldview.¨ ( Psych Central) Humans will develop a way to ignore and dismiss data that dismisses their beliefs as a way of maintaining and strengthening their thought process. We do this when it comes to the environment when we are completely aware of our harmful effects in terms of carbon emissions, deforestation, biodiversity extinction, etc. Being aware and staying aware is extremely important in improving our relationship with the wilderness. 

https://psychcentral.com/blog/healing-together/2014/12/why-we-justify-regrettable-actions-a-psychological-perspective