The Ambiguities of Americans and Nature

The 2nd link on the moodle listing describes Tocqueville's belief that Americans were more interested in subduing nature than appreciating it and uses the Hudson River School as an example to discredit this claim. However, if The Oxbow captures anything about the relationship between Americans and nature, it's the ambiguity. Our eyes are drawn at first to the stormy forested hill in the foreground, which depicts the chaotic and disordered state of nature, but this piece of tangible evidence for Americans' fascination with nature tells another story as well. Looking beyond the hill in the foreground, we see the river winding through a very neat and ordered stretch of land. The river and its banks are serene rather than wild and the foliage is spaced out rather than cluttered. It seems that human hands have cultivated and civilized this land. The not-so-random depiction of the clouds correlates with the land below, perhaps to signify a divine purpose. Subdued nature on one side, unrestrained nature on the other side; this painting doesn't give a clean answer to the question of how Americans relate to and interact with nature.