UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY

WPP2

EN101: COMPOSITION 3.0

SECTION H33
DR. BIEL

BY
CADET BRADY MOTT ’27, CO D1
WEST POINT, NEW YORK
30 AUGUST 2023

______ I CERTIFY THAT I HAVE COMPLETELY DOCUMENTED ALL SOURCES THAT I

USED TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT AND THAT I ACKNOWLEDGED ALL
ASSISTANCE I RECEIVED IN THE COMPLETION OF THIS ASSIGNMENT.

______ I CERTIFY THAT I DID NOT USE ANY SOURCES OR RECEIVE ANY
ASSISTANCE REQUIRING DOCUMENTATION WHILE COMPLETING THIS
ASSIGNMENT.

SIGNATURE:__________________________________________________________________
Brady Mott
Dr. Biel
EN101
30 August 2023
WPP2

The essay “The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon and article, “How Do You

Know If You Are Living Through the Death of an Empire” by Patrick Wyman, share a common

writing style to portray a rhetorical situation. Cronon’s essay describes what the concept of

nature means, saying wilderness is the absence of human presence. He explains how throughout

history, wilderness has become contaminated by industrialization and the spread of human

civilization. Cronon uses past examples such as Americans seeking out the western frontier in

the years following the civil war, to show humans, like a disease, spreading through lands once

called wilderness, now called civilization. Wyman’s article compares the similarities of the

events leading to the fall of Rome and what is happening currently in the United States. He

argues the United States is on the cusp of experiencing a decline as Rome did, if something

doesn’t change. Both texts use a similar writing style and irony to show the detrimental effects

of modernity and industrialization. Cronon uses irony of the past and present when he says,

“Ever since the nineteenth century, celebrating wilderness has been an activity mainly for well-

to-do city folks” (Cronon 465). He goes on to provide ironic examples of this, one of which is

people moving others out of areas deemed national parks just so other people can visit these

areas. Wyman describes how unending wars and economic problems were the catalyst to the fall

of Rome, he compares these problems to the current state of the United States, saying, “…now

we have the wars, the inequality, the threat of economic collapse…” (Wyman et al.). Both

examples help support the current issue of how growing civilization and industrialization is
destroying nature and itself. Both authors relate past to present, to present a downwards trend

and the consequences if things keep going the way they are. The destruction of nature,

wilderness, and human society have all happened in the past. The path leading to these events is

known. Cronon and Wyman use the knowledge of the past to bring to light the future fall of

civilization.
 Works Cited

Wyman, Patrick, et al. “How Do You Know If You're Living Through the Death of an Empire? –

Mother Jones.” Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/03/how-do-you-know-

if-youre-living-through-the-death-of-an-empire/. Accessed 28 August 2023.

Cronon William. “The Trouble with Wilderness.” The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction,

edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite et al., 15th ed., W. W. Norton, 2020, pp. 464-67.