William Cronon Wilderness

Words: 1358
Pages: 6

In this section of the poem, the theme death and how it benefits to organic farming is apparent. Specially in “all this serves the dark” where “dark” could represent the soil. Dark soil often indicates that the soil has a high organic matter content. The term “serves” connotes that it is a duty to benefit the dark. The speaker notes that they are “slowly falling into the fund of things.” The word “falling” indicates that the speaking might be dying “into the fund of things” and “fund” could signify the land or soil since soil is a resource. Regardless if the speaker is willing or not, when they die, “the body serves/entering the earth.” The body will inevitably be enriching the earth. Eventually, “what was the heaviest/and most mute”, which …show more content…
William Cronon postulates that the American “wilderness” that exist now is entirely invented and constructed. He implies that the wilderness is solely an illusion and a romanticized idea. For instance, in order to create an “uninhabited wilderness” they had to remove the Native Americans who peacefully lived there which shows the artificial means of the wilderness (Cronon). Cronon challenges the meaning of the wilderness by indicating that it is staged. Furthermore, Cronon uses the comparison of the tree in someone's backyard and the tree found in the wilderness. He questions if they are any different, and why is the tree from the forest more significant than the other. Cronon challenges the meaning of the wilderness by asserting that the tree in one's backyard is the same as the tree in the forest. Cronon suggest that if there is wilderness, wilderness also exists in places close to home and in order to experience the wilderness, society must recognize that it exist everywhere. Therefore, the trouble with the wilderness is that it is constructed and he states that nature or the environment is apparent everywhere. Cronon shows that humans and nature are not mutually exclusive opposites. Nature and humans are …show more content…
He states that “industrialism is the separation of people and places and products from their history. Producing products in an industrial level embodies capitalism as it is aimed to maximize profit. Industrial production generates a proportionate saving in costs gained by an increased level of production. Being a part of the industrial production or being an industrial consumer influences society to neglect important factors that affect the environment. Industrialism produces consumers that are passive about their buying choices. Berry implies that industrialism merely prioritizes the economy before the culture. As a result, humans are deprived from knowledge about where their things come from, culture, and its impact. The uniqueness of every place and every work will be forgotten. Berry also asserts that the economy “institutionalizes a global ignorance.” Capitalism relies on consumers being unknowledgeable and capitalism also creates consumers to be less