For My Name is Ozymandias

The different perceptions by Estwick Evans and Roderick Nash come from their willingness to explore different experiences. Estwick Evans wants to "acquire the simplicity, native feelings, and virtues of savage life; to divest myself of the factitious habits, prejudices and imperfections of civilization...and to find, amidst the solitude and grandeur of the western wilds, more correct views of human nature and of the true interests of man..." (344). Evans speaks of the wilderness as a place where he can obtain the knowledge of man that has escaped society for so long. It is only in the wild that Evans can truly face the dangers that the primal humans did. He wants to travel away from the disillusioned society that he currently lives with to understand the true goals of humans. Evans’ goal is to return to a primal stage in human culture so that it can do away with the problems of civilization. In contrast to Evans’ view, Roderick Nash believes that a man who wants to explore the wild is only doing so because he is escaping from civilization. He says, “Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works. It not only offered an escape from society but also was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul. The solitude and total freedom of the wilderness created a perfect setting for either melancholy or exultation” (344). Nash says the goals of those that travel into the wild are to discover the “cult” inside themselves, traveling only to be different than society. The eventual goal may be met by the melancholy or exultation means that that person will either not find what he/she is looking for or to glorify the fact that they had done so and survived. Nash speaks from the civilized view and what Evans is trying to get away from, a prejudiced voice amongst the whole prejudiced civilization.