50 pages • 1 hour read
John McPheeEncounters With the Archdruid: Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Pages 79-118Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “An Island”
Part 2, Pages 79-118 Summary
Brower travels across the country delivering speeches about environmental conservation. Known for packing minimally—his bag contains just his “preacher suit” (79)—Brower speaks at universities, clubs, and even a cathedral. In his speech, Brower compares the six days of Genesis to the four billion years of Earth’s history. This is a metaphor of humanity’s destructive impact. He shows a photograph of the Earth taken by NASA’s Apollo mission to emphasize its fragility and warns about the unsustainable consumption of resources, calling for a shift away from a growth-obsessed economy. Brower criticizes the misuse of resources, such as shooting buffalo for their tongues and mining water in Arizona for cotton. He warns about the catastrophic effects of unchecked industrial growth and pollution, drawing comparisons to the growth of cancer within an organism.
McPhee notes that Brower’s approach to urging immediate action to save the planet is evangelical, comparing it to that of the Reverend Billy Graham—a famous American evangelist, known for his passionate preaching. Brower emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, quoting various environmental thinkers, and proposes practical steps like recycling and responsible consumption.
McPhee describes Charles Fraser, a developer on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. His office is beside an alligator pond near the undeveloped land he is building on. Concerned about the native alligators, he feeds them raw beef to acclimate them to construction activities. Fraser is working on the development of Sea Pines Plantation, a premier resort on Hilton Head Island.
Fraser envisions Hilton Head as a carefully planned resort community, contrasting with the disorganized development he’s seen along the Atlantic coast. Influenced by his land-use planning studies at Yale, he aims to maintain aesthetic control over his family’s island property. He advocates for thoughtful development that preserves the island’s natural beauty.
Sea Pines Plantation exemplifies Fraser’s vision of a resort, with roads and houses designed to blend into the environment. Fraser’s approach claims to blend conservation and development, balancing recreational and ecological interests, preserving marshlands while accommodating human use. Fraser considers himself a true conservationist, striving to create beautiful, functional spaces that respect the environment.
In 1968, Charles Fraser bought the longest uninhabited beach area in the US: Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. The island features a 20-mile-long white sandy beach, as well as wild horses, pigs, and alligators. Poachers occasionally exploit its wildlife, and the island also contains historical Indigenous burial mounds and remnants of old plantations. Fraser’s purchase of the island from its previous owners, the Carnegie family, raises concerns in the conservationist community about its future.
Opinions about Fraser vary widely: Some see him as a visionary blending modern development with nature, while others criticize his motivations and methods. Critics accuse him of prioritizing profit and personal comfort over true conservation, while supporters believe Fraser could achieve balanced, sustainable development.
When Brower meets Fraser on Cumberland Island, Fraser impresses Brower with his vision for integrating development with nature, despite Brower’s initial reservations. Sam Candler, a long-time island resident, who is hostile to Fraser, meets them and together they tour the island’s diverse landscapes.
McPhee recounts Charles Fraser’s family background, noting that he descends from the Scottish Frasers of Inverness and the English Bacons of Dorchester. His ancestors were some of the original Puritans in New England, who moved south, establishing settlements including Dorchester, Georgia. The Frasers were influential in Georgia’s history, as they were some of the wealthiest enslavers of people in the region. Fraser takes pride in his heritage and resents suggestions that his acquisition of Cumberland Island represents a wealthy outsider overpowering an old, respected family.
Fraser then shows Brower and Candler a graveyard with the tombstone of Thomas Carnegie, highlighting the Carnegies’ recent arrival compared to the region to older families like his own. Fraser criticizes the Carnegies for lacking historical perspective and being conservation pretenders, giving as an example the junkyard they maintain on the island.
Fraser envisions a golf course on Cumberland Island, citing historical precedents and dismissing conservationists’ objections. Brower, while cautious about tree removal, approves of Fraser’s plan.
Part 2, Pages 79-118 Analysis
Charles Fraser proves to be a less polarizing figure for Brower than Park was earlier in the narrative. Nevertheless, McPhee juxtaposes Fraser’s background as developer and his philosophy of life to Brower’s work in the environmental conservation movement.
David Brower’s impassioned speeches about the need to protect the environment and his minimalistic approach to travel underscore his commitment to simplicity and conservation, explaining why McPhee depicts Brower as the Archdruid of the Conservation Movement. Brower employs religious metaphors in his speeches in order to appeal to a wide public, such as comparing the six days of Genesis to Earth’s four-billion-year history to highlight the destructive impact humanity has had on the planet. He emphasizes the fragility of Earth by showing a famous photograph of our planet taken from space by the Apollo mission. In it, the Earth appears small and insignificant in the enormous expanse of void around it. The image underscores Brower’s warning against the unsustainable consumption of resources and the perils of a growth-obsessed economy. Brower’s evangelical style, likened to the fervor of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, aims to inspire immediate action and personal responsibility among his listeners. He advocates for practical measures like recycling and responsible consumption, stressing the interconnectedness of all things.
In contrast, Charles Fraser embodies a different approach to environmental interaction. Fraser’s vision for development is ostensibly grounded in a balance between progress and preservation. His work on Sea Pines Plantation illustrates his commitment to integrating development with the natural landscape, striving to maintain the island’s natural beauty while accommodating human use. Fraser’s background in land-use planning at Yale influences his methodical and aesthetic approach to development, showing how Personal Background Determines Ideological Position. Despite early skepticism and financial hurdles, Fraser’s determination results in a resort community that blends harmoniously with its environment. However, Fraser’s conservation efforts are pragmatic and aimed at achieving a functional coexistence rather than Brower’s more purist environmental ethos.
Possible compromise between development and nature is illustrated in Fraser’s acquisition and plans for Cumberland Island. This uninhabited, ecologically rich area becomes a focal point for debate about the future of natural spaces in the face of development pressures. Fraser’s vision for the island includes development projects like a golf course, which he justifies by citing historical precedents. He aims to create spaces that are not only beautiful and functional but also respectful of the environment. Although his plans are met with criticism from conservationists who fear that development, regardless of its intentions, could irreparably harm the island’s pristine nature, Brower cautiously agrees with Fraser’s ideas for how to use the land.
Fraser’s approach to development is pragmatic; he feeds raw beef to native alligators to acclimate them to human presence, demonstrating his willingness to manipulate nature for his projects. This action highlights a fundamental difference in his and Brower’s attitudes towards the environment. While Brower sees nature as something to be preserved in its untouched state, Fraser views it as something that can be managed and molded to fit human needs without significant detriment.
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