Why I Hunt - Article Analysis Essay

In this article, Rick Bas juxtaposes our modern life with that of hunters and gathers. The article begins with a narration of how the main character in the story became a hunter before he moved into Northwest Montana. He takes a mental inventory of all the variety of fruits, nuts, wild berries and flesh that he gathered during that time, noting that it was an unbelievable time in his life. He compares his life to hell, having fallen from the past "heaven." He takes a visual description of the valley where he had stayed and how hunting was the norm in the area. Having the ability to live with little to no electricity, phones, and living through very long dark winters, he acknowledges that the people possess an unrivalled hardiness. This moment of deprivation got him to think about life and other issues.

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Of particular significance, he acknowledges that everyone in the valley was a hunter. He acknowledges that it is not peer pressure that drove him into hunting. About the valley, he notes, "Rather, it is the terrain itself, and one's gradual integration into it, that summons the hunter." He notes that the terrain absorbed and brought out the hunter in him, making him to adapt to the hunting life. From his experiences in the hunting game, he posits that hunters and gatherers have deeper and richer imaginations as compared to those who dwell in agricultural and post-agricultural environments. The imagination of the hunter is always marked by an awareness that the hunted might be around. Simply, the hunted also shapes the hunter. Towards the end, he says, "...What else is the hunt but a stirring of the imagination, with the quarry, or goal, or treasure lying just around the corner or over the next rise? A hunter's imagination has no choice but to become deeply engaged..." He notes that the imaginations are not there among farmers planting crops as they don't have to have strategic awareness. Finally, he concludes that hunting is fundamental in keeping our imaginations flowing.

I agree with the authors' ideas above. Rick Bass clearly highlights that our post-agricultural and modern societies have made us less aware of situations around us. We can get nearly anything we want easily. The example of walking to the supermarket and finding fresh and ready chicken clearly sums it up. It is easy to be lost in the maze and assume the process of hunting is barbaric, or a useless activity. The keen detail in which the article is presented is poised to challenge the views of those who perceive hunting as distasteful fundamentally, it is the depiction of the manner in which he is in harmony with nature during the hunting times that is elaborate in the story. He admonishes that hunting creates an intense feeling of awareness about onself that is so fulfilling. I can attest to the feeling that the main character goes through. Many times I have visted the countryside before, I was consumed by the aura and simplictyy of life. He juxtaposes the creativity, awareness, and intelligence that both hunters and their prey must posses at all times, and he subtly notes that it may be lesser among other people who lack the hunting intuition. He notes, "The people who have chosen to live in this remote valley--few phones, very little electricity, and long, dark winters-possess a hardness and a dreaminess both."