Dr. Adam Johns
English Composition 0200
15 October 2014
The world created by humans is distinctly different from the one that came before, the natural world. These two worlds are vastly different: one ordered, one not. The human world is “guarded”, in a sense, from the outside natural world and the general rules that apply to it. For most species, survival is paramount, an eternal struggle against other species; for us, it’s a trivial concern. Rarely can anything short of a natural disaster can harm us. This being so, nature can be defined as all that is not human. By “human”, I do not mean literally of the mammalian species Homo sapiens. I mean the cities, roads, agriculture, technology, governments, nations— all things of human origin. Whether or not other species have these things is of no concern to us, because in the end, humans are “us”, and nature is “them”.
The conflict of nature and humanity hasn’t gone unnoticed, and this contrast commonly appears in works about nature, the main theme being nature being overtaken by humanity. In Silver Lake, humans appear in the wilderness, only to take it over, or at least plan so “...nearly everybody’ll ride on railroads and there’ll hardly be a covered wagon left.” (Wilder 101) In that book and the corresponding time period, railroads are synonymous with civilization. The industry and economy would revolve around these railroads, which would link these far out prairies and their businesses to the big cities back on the East Coast. Similarly, Laura often muses about how the decline of the wilderness gives way to human civilization and settlements: “The buffalo are gone… And now we’re homesteaders.” (Wilder 284)
Abbey takes a less subtle approach on the matter, and argues how humanity directly encroaches upon the natural world. Much of the novel is dedicated to showing how the two concepts, humanity and nature, are at odds. “Wilderness preservation… will be forgotten under the overwhelming pressure of a struggle for mere survival and sanity in a completely urbanized, completely industrialized, ever more crowded environment.” (Abbey 52) When he sees industrial expansion, he sees the destruction of nature, and for good reason. Industry and wilderness cannot coexist, because one feeds upon the other. Industrial expansion undeniably destroys ecosystems, paving over forests and grasslands to make way for pavement and brick and steel. As modern humanity thrives, “everything else”, the ecosystems and other plants and animals, must pay the price. As human civilization becomes more and more industrialized, humanity moves away from the natural, becoming distinctly “unnatural”. Even the word “unnatural” itself suggests something of a human origin.
The importance of this distinction, the incompatibility of modern humanity and nature, is that it shows the pointlessness of actively trying to become “natural” for the sake of wanting to be “natural”. Modern humanity has already become as far removed from nature as it can get, directly in conflict with the outside world. We cannot become in tune with nature, because we and nature are opposites.
Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire; a Season in the Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print.
Wilder, Laura I. By the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers Inc., 1953. Print.