Rhetorical Analysis Of Nature In The Wild

Rhetorical analysis is utilized throughout the novella to assert Johnson’s main message of the beauty and danger of nature. Nature is only able to accept man when man complies with nature’s laws. Although nature’s spoils must be utilized to ensure survival in the desirous wild, it is not always accepting of man’s measures for survival: “It was only when you left it alone that a tree might consider you a friend. After the blade bit in, you had yourself a war” (14-15). The use of personification in this quote helps the reader to identify nature’s menace. By using the word “war”, Johnson signifies the impending doom that some men face once they challenge nature’s concrete laws.

It is understandable that nature would be cruel to those who challenge it, yet at times nature can be merciless. In the west, human inhabitants are forced to cope with nature’s harsh condition: “’I don’t get my gears turning smooth till it’s over a hundred. I worked on a peak outside Bisbee, Arizona, where we were only eleven or twelve miles from the sun. It was a hundred and sixteen degrees on the thermometer, and every degree was a foot long. And that was in the shade. And there wasn’t no shade.’” (16). The use of imagery describes the severity of nature and its lack of mercy, especially when stating that there was “no shade” to hide from the sun’s blinding rays.

At other times, nature can be a source of solace for those who have suffered. Following the death of Gladys and Kate, Grainier looks to the horizon to seek comfort from his crushing loss. “All his life Robert Grainier would remember vividly the burned valley at sundown, the most dream-like business he’d ever witnessed waking – the brilliant pastels of the last light overhead, some clouds...

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...s another facet of the wild that astonishes him or her more. "He was standing on a cliff...into a kind of arena enclosing... Spruce Lake... and now he looked down on it hundreds of feet below him, its flat surface as still and black as obsidian, engulfed in the shadow of surrounding cliffs, ringed with a double ring of evergreens and reflected evergreens"(112). The simile utilized by Johnson helps the reader to understand the gloom and beauty of nature. Since the flat surfaces are compared to obsidian, a dark and shining rock, it is evident that Grainier considers nature to be both beautiful and powerful. The reflection of the evergreens in the shadows emphasizes the vastness of nature and its glory.

With the use of vivid diction, literary devices, and syntax, Johnson is successful in asserting his message of beauty and danger in nature throughout Train Dreams.