When looking at the term Wilderness, one of the first pieces of literature that pops into my head is, surprisingly, Lord of The Flies by William Golding. Though a juvenile novel compared with other works that deal with the environment and though it is based more upon Hobbes’ Leviathan, I still can’t help but automatically jump to this high school level book as I reflect on the definition of wilderness. The theme of the book, being about the true nature of man, could have been represented in a city or on the seas. However Golding decided to place the events on an island and have the stage be the wilderness; a dark, scary place filled with all that is potentially evil(a thought presented the littleuns’ fear). Never before had I looked at this story through an environmental lens. However once one does, it becomes a most intriguing thought–wilderness as the stage for the descent into barbarity. It helps to infer a statement that consists of the environment having to do with the human condition; when in the wilderness human will fall to their evil tendency while in civilization they keep themselves in check. Perhaps the true reason why wilderness is deemed so bad is because it is painted such as it is in Lord of the Flies–making people fear not the evil creatures in the wilderness, but the possibility of themselves becoming those evil things.
In that sense, it is no wonder that the idea of the wilderness being dangerous has now reversed. In popular culture and media these days, wilderness is where people find themselves–were they overcome obstacles and conquer or outsmart nature. This swap is not because civilization has become dangerous, but simply because people lose themselves in cities and everyday life. Looking at things through this lens, we can infer that the conquer over nature is really the conquering of mankind’s own evil tendencies; a victory of sorts as they triumph over themselves.
The swap would be appropriate as well. In today’s outlook on society, humans run on money and material objects and do things only to benefit themselves. All of these are evil qualities that are present in civilization. Meanwhile the wilderness is now where people are devoid of material possession. Out of the the two settings, it is now the lesser evil. But beforehand it was the greater evil as people would kill and steal without sets of laws in place–as seen in Lord of the Flies. When looking at the wilderness in such a way…I begin to wonder whether the environment truly affects the way we live, or whether we are simply using nature as an excuse to cover up our own human flaws.
I absolutely agree with you. I feel that the way we see the wild has dramatically changed. Today we have a lot more knowledge pertaining to the wild, making this once “dark, scary place,” not so dark and scary. In turn, we are able to use its mysteriousness to get away from our daily lives. Interesting blog post!
Wow! This post really caught my eye for two primary reasons. 1. I remember reading this book in my advanced literature class in high school and I remember a distinct discussion on this subject. My teacher asked us one day to look at the book from a naturalistic point of view. Then she asked us to discuss what we saw in our heads. I remember when she called on me, I talked about how the sense of nature, specifically the island where they’re deserted at, really showed a sense of barbarism and wilderness at it’s truest form. The wild can be a scary,dark place and I like how you made this connection. The other reason I liked this post was because I agrees with your assertion that the world is built around material possessions. When you take away those, like in The Lord of the Flies, the kids have no idea how to really survive. This ties back to the idea that the wilderness truly is a scary place. Great post!!
Nice, I agree with you on a lot of your points. Interesting how you bring up how nature might bring out the evils in us. Your third paragraph really made me think about how we see nature and how we use it subconsciously. Its also interesting how out views change over time, and as society progresses. Very thought provoking!
Just because a book is usually seen as at a “high school level” doesn’t mean it can’t provide the fodder for really interesting ecocritical analysis. What your post does a great job at highlighting is how our perceptions of the wilderness are always influenced by questions of identity. Whether it is feared because it is the source of evil or lauded because it is the source of true selfhood or as was the case for Teddy Roosevelt, the source of masculine strength, the wilderness is a blank slate onto which we write our dreams and nightmares. Wilderness is, in addition to being a real place, a cultural construction, and many books, even young adult books, take part in that constructing.