Ishi in Two Worlds

In Theodora Kroeber's Ishi in Two Worlds, I find that the greatest lesson is that the way one sees the world and the people in it--and oneself--might be completely in error. One looks at such a "native" or "savage" or "wild" man as Ishi, and one almost immediately thinks that here is a creature which is little above the level of animals. To me, such a thought comes upon seeing a homeless person who is dirty and frightened and perhaps angry. The human mind almost immediately says that here is a danger, here is an enemy, here is something inferior. The reaction to Ishi by the "civilized" world was in part the same--taking for granted that the world of civilization is superior to the world of nature, or at least that it produced better people, people who are more human and intelligent than such a "wild" creature. However, by the end of the book, it is clear that the superior creature, in terms of the capacity to see and live the truth, is Ishi himself:

And so, stoic and unafraid, departed the last wild Indian of America. . . . He looked upon us as sophisticated children--smart, but not wise. We knew many things, and much that is false. He knew nature, which is always true. His were the qualities of character which last forever. He was kind; he had courage and self-restraint, and though all had been taken from him, there was no bitterness in his heart. His soul was that of a child, his mind that of a philosopher (237-238).

I have come to think of myself as a part of a civilizatio

Category: Literature - I