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The relationship between humans and nature
Relationship between humans and nature
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The Silent Nature of Barry Lopez
In southern California, below Interstate 8 and west along the Mexican border, in the middle of the desert just beyond an arroyo, rests an ancient intaglio, a horse carved out of stone ("Horse" 401). If by chance you were to come across such a natural relic, perhaps you would first take a picture. Perhaps you would initially approach to get a closer look. Perhaps you would immediately run your fingers over the coarse, intricate indentations of the nose, the ears, the hooves. However, when writer Barry Lopez first came upon the stone horse, he did nothing. He simply stood in his place. Still. Silent. And he did not just happen upon the horse; he had been looking for it. Yet, at the sight of it, Lopez recalls being "startled, and that I held my breath" (401). This is not the only instance in which nature inspires awe in the writer. It occurs again in "Orchids on the Volcanoes" as he watches sleeping Flamingos drift on a lagoon in Isla Rabida, an island of the Galapagos. It occurs again in "Learning to See" as he witnesses a vivid "fleeting pattern of light falling at dusk on a windbreak of trees in Mitchell, Oregon" (236). In every encounter, Lopez observes nature with passionate reverence and spirituality that renders him speechless. But he does not write merely to relay his reaction. Barry Lopez wants us to replenish our dwindling respect for nature by sharing in the experience that nature affords us.
Through his naturalist essays, Lopez restrains that immediate urge we have to pet the horsey, take a Polaroid, and move on. He persuades us to appreciate the urge. He strives to teach us about the inherently liberating spirit of nature, about how in just experiencing one moment with nature "ever...
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...ea lion pup, rudely shunned by the other adults, waits with resolute cheer for a mother who clearly will never return from the sea. You extend your fingers here to the damp, soft rims of orchids, blooming white on the flanks of dark volcanoes. (53)
Lopez invites us to partake in the spiritual connection we share with nature and history, which awards us both independence in our world and compelling attachment to it. He bids us to notice the "complexity of [nature's] beauty" (54), and-like the effect it continues to have on Barry Lopez time and time again-to let it render us speechless.
Works Cited
Grice, Gordon G. "The Black Widow." Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 313-317.
Lopez, Barry. "The Stone Horse." Hoy II. 399-406.
Lopez, Barry. About This Life. New York: Vintage, 1998.
It was Saturday morning at Alexan’s vacation home in Tehachapi, CA. We ate our breakfast, and decided to go for a hike in the dangerous mountains of Tehachapi. It was approximately fifty degrees Fahrenheit and the clouds had covered the mountains, causing the area to be very foggy and difficult to see. Knowing that it was not a good idea, Alexan still managed to convince me to go hiking, and he said to me, “Don’t worry it will be fine”. This reminded me of Oliveira saying to Ronald, “I think you feel very sure of yourself, firmly planted in yourself and in your surroundings” (Oliveira 161).
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
George Lopez was born on April 23rd in the year of 1961 in the Mission, Hills of Los Angeles, California. His father who was Anataso was a migrant worker who left his wife, Frieda for a different lifestyle. After Lopez was born, Frieda and George Moved in with his mom’s parents who tried to raise Lopez In her hometown of California. When George was a young kid his mother explained to him that his father had died. Even though, the real truth was that he was in fact alive but wanted nothing to do with his son who he had with his ex-wife. His mother soon remarried when George was only ten years of age. His mouther also left, so he had nowhere to go other than to his grandparents’ house because he figured they would take care of him. Lopez was
As we look back on intellectual movements throughout history, it can be seen that the perceptions of nature changed drastically. The Enlightenment and Romantic movements are not separate from this observation; in fact they are prime examples, seeing as that in both eras nature is a major theme and exploration point for the people of the time. This interest in nature, however, is where the majority of similarities end between the two movements. In order to fully understand the differences in ideals between the two movements, we must focus on the disciplines they study most, the themes created when they are studied, and the way humanity is compared to nature.
(An in depth analysis into the General Prologue, Pardoner 's Tale, and the Wife of Bath)
Ireland’s purpose is to show how Chaucer had a good example to show his final order to his audience. He establishes a reflecting tone for explaining the Wife of Bath’s sovereignty. This work is significant because of the comparison between The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. (Ireland 10)
The unity and ease of travel between many different people which the Roman Empire provided greatly aided in the sharing of the Christian message. The Roman Empire is the prototype for domination; many hundreds of peoples were under its control. Roads led from Rome to every part of its territory. Travel wasn’t impossible for these people. This communication made it possible for disciples to spread the Christian message all over the ancient world. If the Roman Empire had not e...
Can a society of learners and explorers coexist with an ecosystem that can barely stay afloat? “The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman both tackle the concept of nature vs. science. While the two agree on many terms, the underlying message of each is drastically different. “Tables” is much more didactic while “Astronomer” is the story of a revelation. With both poems having Romantic themes, the two must agree on the basic notions of Romanticism, in this case, the power of nature. Yet, the two disagree on a major aspect of Romanticism, self discovery. “Tables” and “Astronomer” share the same baseline thoughts, yet still tell their own stories of Romanticism.
Our awareness, our perception within nature, as Thomas states, is the contrast that segregates us from our symbols. It is the quality that separates us from our reflections, from the values and expectations that society has oppressed against itself. However, our illusions and hallucinations of nature are merely artifacts of our anthropocentric idealism. Thomas, in “Natural Man,” criticizes society for its flawed value-thinking, advocating how it “[is merely] a part of a system . . . [and] we are, in this view, neither owners nor operators; at best, [are] motile tissues specialized for receiving information” (56). We “spread like a new growth . . . touching and affecting every other kind of life, incorporating ourselves,” destroying the nature we coexist with, “[eutrophizing] the earth” (57). However, Thomas questions if “we are the invaded ones, the subjugated, [the] used?” (57). Due to our anthropocentric idealism, our illusions and hallucinations of nature, we forget that we, as organisms, are microscopically inexistent. To Thomas, “we are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts,” but rather “we are shared, rented, occupied [as] the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria” (1).
She starts by bringing a pessimistic view to photographs of nature, by describing what may or may not lie just outside the boundaries of the picture. Mockingly she leads the reader to assume that there are no real nature photos left in the world, but rather only digitaly enhanced photos of nature wit...
"Everyone is influenced by their childhood. The things I write about and illustrate come from a vast range of inputs, from the earliest impressions of a little child, others from things I saw yesterday and still others from completely out of the blue, though no doubt they owe their arrival to some stimulus, albeit unconscious. I have a great love of wildlife, inherited from my parents, which show through in my subject matter, though always with a view to the humorous—not as a reflective device but as a reflection of my own fairly happy nature.
Geringer, Joseph. “Black Widows: Veiled in Their Own Web of Darkness.” Unknown. Web. March 2014.
Throughout literature, relationships can often be found between the author of a story and the story that he writes. In Geoffrey Chaucer's frame story, Canterbury Tales, many of the characters make this idea evident with the tales that they tell. A distinct relationship can be made between the character of the Pardoner and the tale that he tells.
The speakers points out to his readers is that nature needs to be appreciated deeper like it was before. The speaker tells his readers that they need to find God behind nature 's abilities. The speaker tells the reader that in the midst of enjoying nature it is forgotten to see God 's power. The speaker only knew of one person who could fully understand nature when he was young. The person who could fully understand nature was Christ. When Christ was born, the earth was focused on him because he is the first and the last. Yet, as a infant he was ignorant to his power and his mission. The speaker starts to wonders if the history of life nature knows will pass by without letting anyone know.. The speaker believes that knowledge of the power behind nature should not to be hidden. The hidden knowledge, is that the beauty of the world is made by God, and within his creation he knows all
A casual look at the world today reveals the evidence that Jesus’s efforts were effective. Christianity is currently throughout most parts of the world, and ...