John Muir: An American Environmental Rebel

     There are a number of environmental writers who have spoken so passionately, and with such eloquence about nature and the preservation of the environment. One of the most famous environmental writers in American history is John Muir. The writer Muir was a pioneer in the method of writing about the natural world. After reading about his background and his contributions to the natural settings of North America within the literary text " American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau," I have come to the conclusion that John Muir was a man whose life had been shaped by numerous factors. Muir made arguments his whole life. He had convictions about subjects other than the environment. I have determined that John Muir was a rebel.

     I am going to begin talking about the life of John Muir by stating that he was not born in America. He was a Scottish immigrant. When Muir was a young boy, he came to the United States and him and his family settled in the state of Wisconsin. I've never been to Wisconsin personally, but I hear that the state is known for being tolerant to people from all over the place.John Muir grew up during the mid 19th century. Like many children during that time, John was brought up in a strict, christian background. Learning the Bible was an important task for Muir to accomplish. The poor boy would even get beaten for not knowing the Holy Bible well enough. I think that the seeds of rebellion began to grow within the young boy at this time.
     In response to his abusive, christian home life, John Muir decided to live his life as a traveler, an adventurer. Along his travels, Muir began to question religious philosophy that was a very risky action to take back in those days. One of his arguments was questioning whether " people stood at the center of the universe"( American Earth, 84). I think that he was one of the many individuals that argued human beings were not the only worthy species of God's creations. I think those ideas Muir had on the environment, and the natural creatures being as important as human life led him to begin writing the way he did.
     Muir's travels led him to write about many natural locations that possessed beauty and importance that he felt other people needed to understand. In John Muir's one environmental literary piece A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, he writes about offering different opinions toward the large reptile known as the Alligator. I should point out that this environmental piece was written in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended. The nation was recuperating while Muir was writing about the natural world. In Muir's A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, the writer offers some benefit of the doubt to alligators by saying, " these creatures are happy and fill the place assigned them by the great Creator of us all. Fierce and cruel they appear to us, but beautiful in the eyes of God. They, also are his children, for He hears their cries, cares for them tenderly, and provides their daily bread" ( Muir, 86).
     It seems obvious that because Muir was brought up as a Christian, he would speak about the animals as creatures of God. Even terrifying, gruesome looking creatures as alligators or crocodiles.John Muir used his rhetoric of christian preaching methods to bring humanity to the alligators. This was also an example of rebellion. Muir developed a whole new style, of environmental writing that would influence future writers like Henry Thoreau before him. Muir added a new vocabulary of wilderness and grammar to describe the natural world.

     John Muir's travels led him to another rebellious action, and an historical action as well. He would take action into protecting and preserving natural wonders of North America. When Muir reached the state of California, he helped create Yosemite National Park with Louis Agassiz. It was during this occassion that he became close friends with fellow, natural conservationist Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. I feel that him and Muir were kindrid spirits considering that the two men shared a passion for preserving the natural environment. The writer's anger over sheep flocks ruining the rural areas led him to found the Sierra Club( one of the first environmental organizations in the world). If it wasn't for John Muir, I don't believe that the Sierra Club or Yosemite National Park would exist today. Muir's many writings changed environmental literature, and saved some of the natural world today.
     So I would like to end this blog by saying,
                                                                           Thank You John Muir.