Pleasure of Suffering

Through Estwick Evans' description, we get a glimpse of his intentions to achieve his wishes and desires. His eagerness to acquire raw, simplistic feelings in exchange for the manufactured, selfish feelings of civilization is evident in his willingness to "experience the pleasure of suffering". Evans uses the oxymoron "pleasure of suffering" to reinforce his true intentions. The misery he encounters in the solitude of the western wilds will be the same source of the satisfaction he obtains. Roderick Nash elaborates by pairing solitude and total freedom, both sources of pain and pleasure. Freedom seems like a mainstay to pleasure, however the independence and solidarity of wilderness for an unprepared individual may lead to pain. Nash continues to describe the individual for which the wilds seem best suited for. A Romantic being would appreciate the escape offered by the wilderness, for their adventurous nature would appreciate the “novelty of danger”, as Evans proclaims.