Revision

Modern day society views the wilderness as a separate world for species that are savage and primitive in the eyes of anthropocentric humans who treat the species as they please assuming that there will be no consequence for their actions. Siebert observes that some people mainly use elephants to generate revenue with no sympathy for what they are putting the elephants through. In addition, Siebert learns that “[w]ild-caught elephants often witness as young calves the slaughter of their parents, just about the only way, shy of a far more costly tranquilization procedure, to wrest a calf from elephants parents” (536). Humans are more concerned with the money they gain from using the elephants then the mental and physical health of the elephants. The elephants become mentally unstable from these experiences and seek revenge on humans. Nature and the animals that inhabit it play a more important role in human survival than people initially give credit for. The healers of Nepal, or shamans, understand how important nature truly is to human society. Abram explains how “[t]he [shamans’] primary allegiance, then, is not to the human community, but to the earthly web of relations in which that community is embedded” (6). In the eyes of the shamans, the human community is not as important as the larger ecological community and will fall apart if nature is not taken care of. The shamans are the medium that understands what both the human and ecological communities need to survive and how to keep them in balance. Shamans would not mentally hinder elephants because of greed, like the people in Siebert’s essay. The difference in morals of the two societies causes people to treat nature as their society shows to be acceptable. The separation of human and ecological communities causes an aggressive tension between the two. Furthermore, people find some parts of nature to be mysterious and full of secrets due to humans’ lack of understanding. This is why Chris McCandless ventured into the wilderness. It was so different from his society and unknown to him that he believed he could discover who he is if he spent some time in the wilderness. Krakauer explains how “[Chris] didn’t want to see a single person, no airplanes, no sign of civilization. He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it on his own, without anybody else’s help” (346). In order to have a temporary break from modern day society, McCandless must venture into the primitive and savage world of nature. The spiritual draw of nature intrigued Chris enough to travel away from the safety of society and into an environment unknown to him. In nature, McCandless was not that different from the aforementioned elephants explained by Siebert. McCandless shares a similar emotional connection to nature as the shamans of Nepal. They both realize the importance of understanding nature and the species that inhabit it. In order to discover if his confidence in his skills without the luxuries that come with modern day society were on par with what he was capable with, McCandless opened himself up to nature emotionally and spiritually.