Matthew's+Wilderness+in+America+Reflection

In the photograph of the subway station, a sign reads: Please do not smile at strangers. The danger in America is that our puritanical tendencies to maintain an unnatural self-control and to ostracize others and will lead to community not too dissimilar from Salem. While we may no longer sentence our outcasts to the wilderness as they did in Salem, Americans today are still at risk of losing touch with the that natural and unrestricted part of our character. The photograph of the woman swimming with the manatees shows that the wilderness holds a sense of opportunity, danger, and uncertainty that are not otherwise found in our cities. The photograph of the swollen sun over a waterfall shows that the wilderness is a place where our natural human emotions and desires can grow without the restrictions of American self-control and conformity.

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