As of now, I’m leaning towards using “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” by William Cronon for my final essay. To work on the essay, I want to research more academic texts about the creation of national parks and how they were created. This will help me gain a better understanding of the circumstances upon which they formed, to then frame the idea that “Wilderness” is based on human fantasies and ideals about what nature truly is. It highlights the notion that the perception of “Wilderness” is often on a grand scale and is seen as something that is usually out of the ordinary for most people, a place that is the antithesis of civilization and humanity.

Furthermore, I would also like to look into academic texts that explore more about how nature in urban environments helps connect humans back to “Wilderness.” I think this will help showcase that nature is truly all around us, making the idea of the wild arbitrary since the same elements of the “Wilderness” can be found in places that are seen as civilized. Nature and humans then become something that are interwoven together since they both exist in the same environment. This then complicates the idea that urban areas are simply for humans by illuminating the many ways in which nature is able to survive in places where humans exist in close proximity to nature. Researching more about nature in urban settings also helps show the importance of caring for nature in our cities since it is a sliver of the “wild” in our own backyards. Caring for the environment transforms into something that is part of daily life, making it more manageable for people to sustain and to live in tandem with the nature that surrounds them.

I also plan to reread the text to further strengthen my understanding of the reading in order to argue my point more clearly and accurately. As I read, I will also take notes so that I can close read a selected passage to the best of my ability and choose lines that will best accompany my argument.