Muir felt that his life was incomplete and there was more to experience outside of the symbolic walls of urban life. This journey was a hiatus from his life in the industrial community, which consequently was the lifestyle that caused his physical, as well as figurative, blindness. Such an intense journey mirrors Muir’s deep need to fully experience nature. He writes, “Anyhow I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring, Godful beauty” (Muir 142). In his book The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir writes about his decision to leave the University of Wisconsin to pursue a different type of education.

He decided that once his sight was predominantly returned, he would go on a thousand-mile walk from Louisville, Kentucky, to Savannah, Georgia, and then across Florida to the Gulf of Mexico (Austin 8). In the aftermath of his injury, Muir’s interest and appreciation of nature evolved into complete obsession. I could gladly have died on the spot, because I did not feel that I could have heart to look at any flower again” (Gisel 45). In a letter to his friend Jeanne Carr, Muir writes, “When I received my blow I could not feel any pain or faintness because the tremendous thought glared full on me that my right eye was lost. The shock blinded his left eye as well” (Austin 7). In 1867, however, Muir’s attempt to repair an industrial belt went awry when “his file slipped and punctured the cornea of his right eye. Therefore, by pushing himself into the unknown and thus essentially blinding himself, Muir clarified his identity by redefining and embracing his spiritual sight.Ī skilled mechanic, Muir spent much of his youth designing and constructing various contraptions. However, it took his actual experiences in nature to fully relieve him of his blindness, for while his physical visual faculties were restored, Muir remained symbolically blind to his own identity and values until he realized the spirituality of nature. His loss of vision, and its subsequent return, was a catalyst for his full absorption into nature.

Muir came to this belief through a machinery accident that temporarily left him blinded in both eyes. His devotion to nature redefined how people perceived its meaning Muir believed that nature was spiritual and had the healing effects traditionally associated with Christianity.

Muir attained his appreciation of wilderness through his complete envelopment in it. He was an astute botanist, mechanic, traveler, and advocate for the preservation of nature. John Muir is renowned as one of the greatest influencers on the environmentalist movement. Thoreau, Wilderness, and American Nature WritingĪ New Vision: John Muir’s Religious Redefinition and Departure from Figurative Blindness

John muir nature writings