“It seems strange that visitors to Yosemite should be so little influenced by its novel grandeur, as if their eyes were bandaged and their ears stopped.” ~John Muir Isn’t this world Muir has discovered for himself true happiness? What so many people desire he is able to find by merely discarding the negativity society presents us with and embracing his surroundings in a way most havent had the chance to, and in that lies his true message. Muir refuses the societal negatives engraved in most of us and chooses to devote himself to the positives, a windstorm being nothing more than a dance of the trees and a swarm of insects put simply as “clouds of happy insects filling the sky with joyous hums”. Where a child would claim their direct surroundings as the truth behind the coveted notion, meanwhile most often adults see no choice but to only imagine happiness in things free of error and strife. His unending positivity makes it arguably impossible to dispute him as it would prove frivolous, as if arguing with a child over the definition of true happiness. Free from preconceived notions, negativity surrounding the natural world, and starting each day in a “glorious” way. He expresses his joyousness in a way which could only be classified as child-like.
Repeatedly he begins his days with the phrase “and another glorious day” amazed by every moment, no matter sun or storm, he finds peace and wonderment in nature. As his devotion for beauty grew so did his desire to help it flourish, and eventually he did just that. By the end of the book it becomes obvious that he would devote his life to what he had experienced.
He becomes protective of the natural beauty that surrounds him and finds it puzzling and frustrating that something so beautiful would be destroyed and replaced with cement. Developing deeper connections and stronger bonds. He grows more and more connected to his surroundings as the book progresses. This specific description serves to bring to mind a well known disliked organism and therefore successfully personifying the sheep as a vessel for his hatred for the destruction of nature. He refers to the sheep he heads as “hoofed locusts”, relating them to pests due to the damages they cause to the ecosystem with their feet. Instead he writes pages distributing what are thought to be inerrantly human adjectives to flowers, plants, and small critters. Upon his arrival he was taken aback by the insincerity of the people he comes across, it is clear that he much prefers the company of plants and wildlife to that of humans so much so that he spends little time mentioning the people he encounters on his journey.
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