In the beginning, Owens uses the persona of the unthinking, cocky businessman. He is in the mountains to support and carry out “a plan of which [he] heartily approves.” (para.2) He is at the extreme end of his way of thinking, believing that the Forest Service is right in their idea about wilderness. “At the end of those five days, not a trace of the shelter remained, and I felt good, very smug in fact, about returning the White Pass meadow to it’s “original” state.” (para.3) He shows us that he has no doubts and completely agrees that in order to restore the wilderness, he must carry out the plan. As he heads back down the trail, he says that his, “mind was on t

he winter [he] was going to spend in sunny Arizona,” (para.3) showing that there was no internal struggle over the burning of the shelter and that he truly felt that he had done his job to better the wilderness.

He now assumes his ashamed and thoughtful persona. As the women approach, he feels, “growing amazement that, by the time [they] were face-to-face, had become awe.” (para.4) From the beginning, he has a sudden respect for these two women. We can already see that when they speak to him, he will listen, that he will be open and trusting of what they have to say. Upon hearing that they are on their way to White Pass, Owens completely changes his persona. Now, instead of showing the confidence and smugness he did with his original persona, he now shows that he is ashamed and calls himself ignorant. “I wanted to excuse myself, to edge around these elders and flee to the trailhead and my car, drive back to the district station and keep going south.” (para.9) He shows us the inner conflict he is experiencing and his reaction to the news he has heard. At the moment, he hasn’t quite come to grips with his new point of view. He begins to feel ashamed, not because he realizes his view on the wilderness is wrong, but because he feels guilt about the shelter. He shows us that at this point, he feels guilty because he has betrayed his culture. In paragraph nine, he feels as if he ought to justify what he has done when he wants to say, “I’m Indian too..” This is the beginning of his thinking process to change his point of view. Adding to his guilt is the sister’s reactions. “I expected outrage, anger, sadness, but instead the sisters continued to smile at me, their smiles changing only slightly.” (para.10) Now, he realizes that he has broken the connection between part of his heritage and his way of life. This opens the doors for his careful reconsideration of his way of thinking.

We know that Owens best interest is in caring for and preserving the wilderness. Throughout the entire story, he vividly describes to us how he sees nature’s beauty. In the first paragraph, he opens with, “In the center of the Glacier

Some topics in this essay:
Pass Owens, Peak Wilderness, White Pass, Louis Owens, Pass Shelter, Unless Americans, Forest Service, Effectively Owens, lecturing teacher, white pass, , cocky businessman, persona lecturing teacher, gains trust, nature’s beauty, wilderness final, willing admit, straw figure, unthinking cocky, ashamed thoughtful persona, unthinking cocky businessman, view wilderness,