In the article “The City and the Sea”, by Meera Subramanian she says, how Richard George a local artist joined an association called each side Bungalow Preservation Association not knowing nothing about sea surges or dune ecology, with $15,000 that was given to them to just plant trees. Subramanian also says, how the NYC Green Thumb, which is the community garden city network supporter helped with the established plants to be watered through the first susceptible summer. She goes on saying, that on either side from where the dunes ended from Beach 27th street the water from Sandy’s flood penetrated there, so the double-dune system that was a few blocks on both sides was able to protect the place. Subramanian says, how the high-water that mark
Rather than working with nature through multi-tiered flood control with spillways and reservoirs, levees disallowed the river to naturally flood, deteriorated the natural ecosystem, and ultimately weakened the city’s defenses against the hurricane (Kelman). Culture and society further interacted, as beliefs in man’s power over nature and racial discrimination promoted levee expansion and racial segregation, creating a city of racially differentiated risk (Spreyer 4). As a result, inundation mostly impacted the lower land neighborhoods that housed poor people of color. Society and nature interfaced in the application of levees that contained nature’s forces. Ultimately, nature won out: the hurricane overpowered the levees and breached the Industrial Canal, disproportionally flooding the mostly black, low-elevation neighborhoods of New Orleans (Campanella
The whole island is in the shape of a giant square with white sandy beaches full of people sunbathing, swimming and fishing right on the shoreline. From the end of the hot pavement parking lot to shore of the beach is an ocean of soft white sand. The pearlescent white sand seems to know how to invade every nook and cranny almost as if it enjoys it. Walking around the beach on the fluffy whiteness surrounding the parking lot, the seagulls are fighting over scraps of food on the ground. “Sandy beach ecosystems provide invaluable services to humankind. Their functions have been exploited through history, with significant anthropogenic effects (Lucrezi, 2015)”. This white sandy beach is a beautiful refuge from the mundane grind of everyday life. The smell of the misty ocean air mixed with the sound of seagulls hovering above and kids playing is a tonic for the mind. The feel of the sand between their toes and the waves crashing over them as people swim in the water, or the jerk of a fishing pole when someone is catching a fish makes Fred Howard Park one of the best places to relax. Standing on the beach looking out on the water, people are kayaking and windsurfing. The lifeguards watching vigilantly in their bright red shirt and shorts, blowing their whistles when they see someone being unsafe. After a long day of swimming and laying around visitors head back over the soft white sand to the showers, in order to rinse off the menacing sand that clings to everything like a bad habit. Everyone rushes over the hot pavement burning their feet to reach their cars so they can put away their beach paraphernalia which is still covered in the white sand, nearly impossible to completely leave behind, so when they get home it serves as a reminder of where they were that
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride, and his mother Ruth’s life. It explores their childhood—when they were both embarrassed by their mothers—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themselves for who they are. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story using dual narration. This technique further helps contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of belonging that derives from his multiracial family. By using two different narrations, McBride gradually establishes his identity and by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringings, in the end they came together, and understood each other’s perspective.
In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. In the memoirs of the author’s mother and of himself, they constantly face discrimination from their race in certain neighborhoods and of their religious beliefs. The trials and tribulations faced by these two characters have taught readers universally that everyone faces difficulties in life, but they can all be surmounted.
This may be a common trend in every large city if more hurricanes strike. Urban development in almost all cities in America has made flooding worse than it should be. The creation of buildings, asphalt, concrete, and other things have eliminated much of the grass in the cities, which will cause less rainwater to be absorbed into the ground. Although most major cities have rain drainage channels, Houston may not have had enough of them, which caused them to fill up with water. The water had nowhere to go except on the streets. The city of Houston avoided floodplains. The floodplains that were present in Houston were often ignored by construction companies. These companies chose to build houses on the floodplains. This is discussed in this quote by Sean Breslin, “In the months following Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians face an important decision: respect the floodplain and stop building homes wherever, or continue to ignore the lessons taught by countless flood events and build more homes in the most vulnerable areas of town” (Breslin n. pag). I feel that if the civilians and building companies in Houston would have respected the floodplains years earlier, fewer lives would have been lost in this hurricane. Coral reefs provide excellent coastline protection which slows the hurricane just before landfall. The death of coral reefs also could have played a large role in why the hurricane was so
Our journey starts in the year 1853 with four Scandinavian indentured servants who are very much slaves at the cold and gloomy headquarters of the Russian-American fur-trading company in Sitka, Alaska. The story follows these characters on their tortuous journey to attempt to make it to the cost of Astoria, Oregon. Our list of characters consists of Melander, who is very much the brains of the operation as he plans the daring escape from the Russians. Next to join the team was Karlson, who was chosen by Melander because he is a skilled canoeman and knows how to survive in the unforgiving landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Third was Braaf, he was chosen because of his ability to steal and hide things, which made him a very valuable asset to the teams escape. Last to join our team is Wennberg who we know is a skilled blacksmith who happens to hear about their plan and forces himself into the equation.
In, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, several events take place to describe the little city of Santiago, Mexico. This town is just south of the border by El Paso, Texas. The book focuses around a lady known as the Remedios. She is a very old healer that helps people with their problems of love, hate, etc. She is the "good" in the book, whereas El Brujo, the warlock, is the bad man in the book. This book's other strong point is that it has several short narratives that focus on one, or a few citizens of Santiago. A few examples are, Candelario (the salad maker), Marta (16 year old that's pregnant), Fulgencio (the photographer that loses all of his equipment) and Don Justo Flores (left his wife and kids and now it haunts him when one of his daughters die). In these stories, these people go threw hardships and ordeals that teach us, the readers, how to or not to deal with life when it isn't looking UP.
Throughout this poem the speaker contemplates stealing a book of poetry. The poet Julia Alvarez gives the action of stealing the book a deeper meaning while portraying the significance of the book to the speaker. Julia Alvarez does this through the use of many poetic devices. Throughout this excerpt of the poem “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan's ‘The Blue Estuaries’” by Julia Alvarez, the poet conveys the speaker's discoveries through the use of imagery and diction in order to portray the overall meaning of the work as a whole.
People normally tend to assume that plants in the past vary in differences and traits compared to species that are present. People have the impression that the past species had diverse weather conditions and nature related incidents forcing them adapt and become different from others. In the book, Andrew Knight had the idea that the food that was available could have tampered with their genes. Reproduction could have something to do with species changing. With plants, minor situations could determine whether they disperse a seed. It happens quickly and changes the genes of the plant causing a new formation that is disseminated through plant. Reproduction inheritance of genes is an important aspect when trying to determine ancestor’s life. By studying these pigeons, Darwin decides that all pigeons have originated from the rock-pigeon. Many people believe that pigeons have descended from a numerous amount of species and birds. Pigeons mate for life and by doing so the breeds are kept together and have markings in same areas of body. They mold into different species as years have passed because of the natural selection or an idea that Charles called unknown selection.
In Hayslip’s book When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, she talks about her life as a peasant’s daughter and her and her family’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War has not only affected Vietnam itself, but also the United States, where in the beginning they did not want to get involved. However, with the spread of communism, which had already affected China, the president at the time Lyndon Johnson, thought it was time to stop the spread of the Vietnam War. With America’s involvement in the war, it caused great problems for both sides. In Vietnam, it causes the local people from the south and north side to split up and either becomes a supporter of communism or of the US’s capitalist views. In addition, it caused displacement for those local people, thus losing their family. In America, the Vietnam War has brought about PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and deaths of many soldiers, more than World War II. With the thought of containment for communism, the US had gave back Vietnam their war and “gave up” on the war, leaving Southeast Asia in the sphere of communist views. With the thought of the domino theory that a country will fall in similar events like the neighboring countries, like China as Vietnam’s neighbor the United States tried to remove communism from Vietnam. US’s involvement in the war caused problems for both sides of the war.
Elizabeth Gaskell once said, “How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!” “Paper Towns” by John Green is a story about failing to see the truth in an individual. Quentin Jacobsen, the main character, sees his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman as beautiful and adventurous from afar, but when she enters his life, summoning him on a quest for revenge-he follows. After their night is complete and a new day begins, Quentin arrives at school to find the Margo is now gone, and a mystery. However, Quentin quickly discovers clues left behind for him, and the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the less he sees the Margo he imagined. The theme of the story is perception, and seeing people for who they really are. The theme is best expressed with Quentin Jacobsen’s obsession with Margo, but is also expressed in a comical way when Quentin and his friends look at various car drivers and make snap judgements about their lives. Finally, the perception Quentin has of one of his best friends, Ben, makes him come off as having a friendship by convenience and selfishness.
In July’s People, Nadine Gordimer gives a very detailed and knowledgeable explanation of the political turmoil within South Africa. By expressing the emotions of a family involved in the deteriorating situation and the misunderstandings between blacks and whites, she adds a very personal and emotional touch, which allows the reader to understand the true horror and terror these people experienced. Gordimer writes of how the Smales family reacts, survives, and adjusts to this life altering experience. She makes obvious throughout the book that prejudice plays a major role in uncovering the reactions of Bamford and Maureen Smales.
Reef by Romesh Gunesekera is a Bildungsroman set in the background of the Sri Lankan political coup in the year 1971. This first person narration marks the coming of age of a young protagonist named Triton. Who at the age of eleven is sent to Mr. Salgado’s household to work as a servant. “I was trapped inside what I could see, what I could hear, what I could walk to without straying from my undefined boundaries,” (Gunesekera 53). Conformed to his surroundings Triton has limited knowledge and understanding of what is going on outside Mr. Salgado’s household. He is almost oblivious to the political turmoil which was spoiling the island paradise. However regardless of religion, background, boundaries or class, no one remains an adolescent forever. Life challenges prompt an opportunity for one to find one’s position in the world.
Waiyaki is a young man who tackles the responsibility of mending the two ridges of Makuyu and Kameno that separated because of the religious of Christianity. The River Between, written by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, captures the ramifications of the white men religions and its effects on the two mountain ridges, that is separated by the Honia river, while the story surrounds around Waiyaki as he blossoms. In the story, Waiyaki, also known as The Teacher, is a strong, gallant young man that believes in the old ritual ways of the original tribe; however he conjointly intermingles with the white man’s teachings. Waiyaki attempts to bring learning of the white men, not their religions, into the old tradition way and fails miserably. Overall, the people of the two tribes, Makuyu and Kameno, are not compatible with each other because of the spread of Christianity in the ridges.
Play writing has evolved over time. As each new century has dawned, new genres of plays have been introduced to the world. American plays have changed a great deal from Prince of Parthia to Margaret Fleming. Characters have become more dimensional, plots have become more complicated, and even the style of the dialogue has changed. With all the changes that have occurred, plays have gotten more intriguing to the audiences. The first play to ever be published by an American, Prince of Parthia by Thomas Godfrey, closely resembled Shakespearean literature, and another early play that resembled another culture is Fashion by Anna Cora Mowatt; by the time Margaret Fleming by James A. Herne came out, the standard of American Drama had completely changed for the better.