John Muir

John Muir’s Experiences of Reaching Ultimate Sublime

Stephanie Gedjeyan

Professor Rawley

Woodbury University

John Muir’s Experiences of Reaching Ultimate Sublime

John Muir was born in Scotland and later along, with his family, moved to a farm near Portage, Wisconsin in the United States. After nearly ruining his eyesight due to an industrial accident at work, John Muir rethought about his life plans, abandoned his work, and dedicated himself to nature (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012). He started a 1000-mile journey and walked from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. Muir kept journals about what he saw on his trips, such as the mesmerizing glaciers and forests. His passion for nature originated from these epic journeys. The detail and fascination in his writings are what lured people’s attention. Muir influenced others to appreciate and protect nature with all of its offerings. Due to this passion, Muir stood against the exploitation of natural resources, unlike many other Americans in the 19th century who believed that natural resources could be consumed without any limitations. As a naturalist, Muir’s strong words and deeds eventually inspired presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt to innovate conservationist programs for the national parks (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012). As the “Father of National Parks”, John Muir’s ideas, modes of persuasion, and descriptive experiences of the sublime attracted his audiences’ attention.

One of the many ways Muir was able to raise awareness for the National Parks and grasp the interest of the general public was by getting his sublime-based essays published in newspapers. The sublime descriptions Muir used in his journals and essays were based on Edmund Burke’s ideas from his book Of the Sublime and the Beautiful. In this book, philosopher Burke described the sublime as a “productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke, 1756, p. 32). He portrayed sublime as a combination of...