Download John Muir Essay

Juhi Ramchandani
11/13/08
4B
John Muir, author of John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John
Muir, is a brilliant individual who is truly passionate about nature. He exemplifies his
adoration of nature by using a flippant and solicitous tone, loose sentences, loaded
language, and paradox in the passage. He eloquently wraps various literary devices such
as personification and cliché and places contrasting elements in a sensible form, bringing
life to an already fascinating subject. In this passage, Muir playfully dances around the
idea of transcendentalism and plays with its many principles, some being emblematic
nature, mysticism, and distrust of society, to give the audience the idea of liberation and
freedom found outside the confines of society.
In this passage, John Muir is seen incorporating quite a number of vivid
descriptions and loaded language examples to make nature associated with the
independence and lack or disregard of restrictions associated with nonconformity. For
instance, he uses such words as “fresh unblighted, unredeemed” to describe the hope and
liberation one feels when in the wilderness. In addition, his use of personification causes
certain elements of nature to be brought into attention. Furthermore, Muir incorporates
loose sentences to further expand his appreciation of nature and bring emphasis to the
main idea. The use of loose sentences allows him to further expand on a somewhat
vague idea and to give it a bit more meaning as the idea is thoroughly examined. He uses
this form of sentence structure throughout the passage to get his points across. He has a
mystical awareness of nature and utilizes the wilderness to get his message across to his
audience. His use of emblematic nature and incorporation of a moral causes the writing
to become quite extraordinarily beautiful and poetic.
In conclusion, within this passage, John Muir attempts to get the idea of
transcendentalism across with his incorporation of some of the theory’s principles. He
further expands on some of these principles with his use of loose sentencing,
personification, loaded language, and paradox. His carefree and slightly optimistic
demeanor with this theory allows the audience to ponder as to whether or not the idea
symbolized by practically flawless nature is as perfect as it is portrayed and, if it is, then
why everyone does not merely just follow it.