In and out of the wilderness

In his excerpt, Esturvick Evans adventures to the solitude and grandeur wilderness of the western civilization to rid himself of the imperfections of society, while at the same time learn about the more correct views of human nature. He explains how he wants to “divest myself of the factitious habits, prejudices and imperfections of civilization” (Evans). Evans believes society has lost its lust for the wild and nature. And that society needs to venture back into the wilderness to experience the true and raw feelings of human nature. On the other hand, Roderick Nash speaks of wilderness to be a means of an escape to those bored and disgusted with civilization. In his excerpt, he describes a pioneer in search of human nature’s true values. He writes “it [wilderness] 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” (Nash). It appears as if Nash is describing Evans and mocking the people who want to express themselves spiritually through nature since cult is like a separate group from everyone else. He expresses how the materialistic world is filled with things that become so ordinary and redundant that we do not know what natural beauty is anymore. Both authors talk about the wilderness as a means of escape from the materialistic world and that by venturing out to the wilderness, people can understand the importance of nature in their everyday lives.