Matthew Guzdial, Post Three

Bryson has learned many things thus far in the story, sharing many of them with us as he does. One of the most important things he has learned, and revealed to the reader within the book is the differences between how Europeans and Americans view nature. Though the contrasting nature between the two cultures comes up several times throughout the book the most obvious time is at the end of Chapter sixteen. After going on a quite lengthy aside about the Army Corps of Engineers, Bryson compares hiking in America to hiking in Luxemburg. Bryson is dismayed by the way in which America, seemingly almost embarrassed by its nature, does its best to hide it away. This came to Bryson only upon actually hiking the Appalachian Trail as before, though he lived in America, it is upon the trail that he gets his clearest site of our shamefulness towards nature. Bryson comments, “seldom would it occur to anyone on either side that people and nature could coexist to their mutual benefit.” This, I feel, is sadly true of Americans who, unlike the rest of the industrial world, seeks to either sanctify nature in some far off place, or destroy it.