ABSTRACT
Dian Fossey saw mountain gorillas in their native habitat for the first time in 1963. In her relationship of kinship with the gorillas, Fossey reached across the boundary of difference and superiority that Western culture had constructed between itself and the rest of nature. This escapism is graphically illustrated in the second chapter of Gorillas in the Mist, which begins with a discussion of the economic and political situation in Rwanda. Sadly, Fossey's conceptions of identity and advocacy served to protect the gorillas only while she was alive, leaving the cultural and political roots of the threats to the gorillas unaddressed after she died. Unfortunately, the media discourse concerning the effects of this conflict on the country's gorillas suggests that the chapter has yet to fully recognize the similar, interconnected forces at work in the oppression of people and the domination of nature and to accept the interdependence of nature and culture.
