Self-Preservation In Wilderness And The American Mind

In any event, the wilderness was never seen as the unknown, but in fact, seen as the Garden of Eden where God’s children were put to the test. Although, the nature of American Puritans was to never see nor do evil, the real test was to conquer evil, to either tame or vanquish it. In the letters and stories from J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur and Nathaniel Hawthorne, interests sparked among European immigrants, yet they did not fully realize the severity and depth of the their decision to come to a New World. Nevertheless, this necessity creates a sense of self-preservation; an American looking to preserve his own life from death by protecting it from all means of harmfulness. However, self-preservation caused Americans to become dispossessed
Moreover, Winthrop writes about the journey of Alexis de Tocqueville coming to America and supports Tocqueville’s reasons why civilization should shift to the wilderness. Furthermore, Nash writes, about Tocqueville, “he informed the frontiersmen of his desire to travel for pleasure into the primitive forest, they thought him mad” explaining Tocqueville’s reason for going into the wilderness and establishing a self-preservation for himself (23). The people perceived Tocqueville as an insane, unethical madman for wanting to venture off into the woods; he approached the wilderness as a place to increase his self-preservation. In addition, Nash writes further about “Safety and comfort, even necessities like food and shelter, depended on overcoming the wild environment” suggesting the list of outcomes when conquering challenges the wilderness has to offer (24). Nash wrote about “a wilderness condition” in America, depicting in his writing that in order for a human being to find safety and comfort—alongside with the requirements of food and shelter—an American must explore the unknown of the
Hector St. John de Crèvecœur. America at the time was mixed with European immigrants, which later bred onto being Americans. Crèvecœur and his twelve works from “Letters from an American Farmer”, are great examples of why immigrants came to America. Shifting towards “Letter III. What is an American” exploits the reasons why Americans are people who work together and must band together to conquer any ominous action that stands in their way, “We are a people of cultivation, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other…united by the silken bands of mild government…because they are equitable” (605). In the end, Crèvecœur later on explains that “each person works for himself” supporting a Puritan mentality by bonding together as a community, establishing a false truth in order to create a sense of self-preservation amongst communities. Undoubtedly, Crèvecœur used Puritan mentality as a cover-up for setting the theme of an American, “we are the most perfect society now existing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be” representing the sermon “City Upon a Hill” from Winthrop (606). Lastly, Crèvecœur mentions how labor is the foundation of self-interest and how self-interest sparks self-preservation to allow oneself to stay away from danger, “labor is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest: can it want a stronger allurement”