THREE CITATION ASSIGNMENT

1. In the very first paragraph, Cronon cites a statement made by Henry David Thoreau. It seems the reference is a rather important one. For one, it appears at the very beginning of the essay "The Trouble With Wilderness." This is one of the first pieces of information Cronon presents to his reader, so he must see it as important. Secondly, Cronon cites Thoreau on multiple other occasions throughout the paper (for example on p.85 and p.89 as well). Cronon takes a lot of time and though in refuting Thoreau's statement that "'In Wildness is the preservation of the World.'" Rather, in Cronon's opinion, wilderness is itself a human creation, not at all distinct or separate from the human world.

2. Cronon also cites lines written by William Wordsworth in his autobiographical poem The Prelude describing his ascent of the Alps and his travels across the Simplon pass. The fact that Cronon takes the space to directly quote eighteen lines from Wordsworth shows the importance he believes the lines have in showing the emotion evoked from a sublime landscape. According to Cronon, what Wordsworth describes is "nothing less than a religious experience" (89). 

3. However, it seems the development of Cronon's own thesis is most influenced by the words of Earth First! founder Dave Foreman. Cronon explores the "problematic consequences" that arise from Foreman's vision of wilderness as the "ultimate hunter-gatherer alternative to civilization" in order to develop his own theory on the coexistence of the "human" and the "nonhuman" (101). Cronon finds fault in Foreman's emphasis on preserving wilderness, emphasizing issues that affect the native diversity as opposed to issues that affect humans more directly, for Cronon develops this concept of "a middle ground" which incorporates the dualism of wilderness, both the "human" and "nonhuman" aspects together (103). 

In his essay "Rewilding North America," Dave Foreman explores the challenge to protect what he refers to as an "enduring resource of wilderness." He recognizes protected areas such as national parks, wilderness areas and national wildlife refuges as being the best way to "safeguard species and habitat." The main purpose of essay is to present "both a vision and a strategy to reconnect, restore, and rewild Four Continental MegaLinkages that will tie North America ecosystems together for wide-ranging species and ecological processes, and to accommodate climate change." The article provides historical facts and interpretations of how humans have caused extinctions and what must now be done to prevent more extinctions from happening in the future, of how we as humans can be more effective in restoring and preserving the diversity of life. However, Cronon finds fault in Foreman's idea of native diversity and the human world as being entirely separate from one another. As Cronon states, "it makes wilderness the locus for an epic struggle between malign civilization and benign nature, compared with which all other social, political, and moral concerns seem trivial" (101). By exploring the "problematic consequences" that develop from this vision, a vision viewing the relationship between the "human" and "nonhuman" world of wilderness as a dichotomous one, Cronon is able to develop and articulate his own vision, what he defines as "a middle ground" (103).