Nature Essay

Steve Brockhoff

Mr. Fares

English 3 period 2

3/5/07

Nature Essay

“The civilized man has built a coach and lost the use of his feet.” The civilized man is so conformed to the grid and society that he wouldn’t be able to survive in the wilderness without man-made technology. A civilized man is so attached to technology and society that they wouldn’t know what to do in the wilderness without it.

So often when people go into the wilderness, they bring society with them, like if people go camping, they bring their motor homes, TV’s, radios, etc… it defeats the point of camping. Usually people go camping to take a break from society and get in tune with nature, but bringing society along is defeating the purpose. In the story “Desert Solitaire” by Edward Abbey there’s a perfect example of this, “…have now been consolidated into one master campground that looks, during the busy season, like a suburban village; elaborate house trailers of quilted aluminum crowed upon gigantic camper trucks of fiberglass and molded plastic; through their windows you will see the blue glow of television and hear the studio laughter of Los Angeles.” The people coming out to the camp ground bring a TV with them, because they cannot find fun and entertainment without such technological things. These people would be bored and wouldn’t know what to do without their TV’s, house trailers, and camper trucks. They don’t know what it’s like to live in nature, without civilized things. The “coach” in this quote would be represented by the TV; the man built the TV, and lost the use of finding entertainment in the wilderness.

Sometimes people get so conformed to the grid-like daily life, that it becomes almost instinct to use such technological things, when not needed. Such an example is in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. As seen in this quote, “The man turned aside from the Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-traveled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o’ clock….He would be in to camp by six o’ clock a bit after dark, it was true, but the boys would be there, a fire would be going, and a