Catherine Vo

Boesch
Human Nature
Journal 2

The forests and wilderness that man entered is described in the book as dense and (has)
endless secrecy (page 56). I definitely can see the descriptions the book puts on forests as
sublime. Forests not only offer refuge but poses risks. The people that settled in these areas
moved away from civilization to isolated and remote forests I want to describe as noble
savages.
Grant Hadwin is described in the book to be someone who is a natural athlete, constantly
moving, physically built for nature. However he is isolated, and really intense, a classmate
described him. Even at a young age Hadwin had a loggers spirit, building cabins and exploring
mountains. Naturally, growing up he became an amazing logger, one the best in the industry. He
had confidence in the woods (page 93) which allowed him to view nature as a challenge, an
obstacle.
Whats so important about Grant Hadwin and his profession, is that what his industry did
back in the day created a profound affect on the land and our lives later on. Grant Hadwin is a
representation of someone who was literally so in tune with nature, as one of his co workers
described, that he becomes one with nature. He is so engulfed and absorbed in nature because he
spends lots of his childhood there and his adult life working in it, that he is able to connect with
the forests, the animals and the trees and eventually almost becomes obsessed. Later on in his job
he begins feeling regret and what he is doing, as well as this industry is doing, is morally wrong.
In the timber industry, awareness causes pain (page 98). I feel that how people in the logging
industry, or anyone working in fields with morally ambiguity, could face with what they do is by
not thinking about their actions as wrong, and to not think of the consequences of the future. For
loggers and the timber industry specifically, they deal with creating deforestation and stripping
Earth of tree by perhaps placing no value in the trees as anything more than resources? I can
see a parallel in this with the way the Europeans and Natives viewed each other, as less than
humans as less than them, in order to commit to morally wrong things. However, Hadwin could
no longer live with his success and fame as top logger in this booming industry as he began to
see how wrong everything is. Hadwin even quit his job in 1983 when he was frustrated with not
being able to continue his job in a way that didnt gutted the forests.
When he left mysteriously from his new job, he came back and was a changed man. He
insisted on telling the manager of a timber company that what they were doing was wrong and
whatnot. They described him as giving off a crazy sense. Apparently Hadwin had a vision while
disappearing. I think that since he was so in touch with nature ever since at a young age, along
with his passion for the wilderness, allowed him to have this spiritual connection with nature
where he was able to see this vision. This is where the American Transcendentalism view can be
seen as well.
In reading about the kind of person that Grant Hadwin is in the beginning, I assumed that
he would become a legend in his industry (which he did), and prosper in this. I felt like not only
was he great at his job, he was very in touch with nature, a sort of noble savage even? Later
reading on I see that he battles with the job that he loves and exceeds at with how wrong it all is.
He was fine when he didnt let it bother him before, but eventually it got to him. This displays
well human nature, and our coping mechanism of dealing with our morals. With Hadwin its a
whole nother level since his morality is influenced so heavily by his passion for nature, his
obsession even as many saw it.
I think naturally as humans when we do something we only think of the immediate effect
and what will happen to us in the short run. We put aside what it can possibly affect in the future
because maybe we dont like to think about that, it scares us. That our actions that satisfy us
now, will bite us in the butt in the long run.