Wild Society

In the beginning of "Into the Wild", both Estwick Evans and Roderick Nash express that humans want to escape from their current complicated lifestyle and approach life with a different attitude and mindset. Nash explains why he thinks people try to escape the current imperfect civilization. Nash says, “Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works, and it was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul”. It is important that the reader recognizes Nash’s use of the word “cult” shows his negative insinuation towards people who think nature can help them get rid of their faults. Coincidentally, the type of person Nash describes is the person that Evans is. Estwick Evans says, ”I wished to acquire the simplicity, native feelings, and virtues of savage life, and to find more correct views of human nature and of the true interests of man”. Estwick is implying that our current lifestyle is too complicated and he expresses his disgust with the way humans currently live when he used the words “more correct views of human nature”. He feels as if the only way to right himself from this wrong way of living is to go into nature to shed himself of all the factitious habits, prejudices, and imperfections that he has acquired from the current civilization. Both authors point out that nature can be very beneficial for dealing with our faults, but it is obvious that they both have different opinions on whether or not humans should have to rely on nature to find solitude in life.