Individuals have their own unique perception of beauty. In 1813, John James Audubon got to experience the extremely rare phenomenon of seeing incredible masses of pigeons in flight. In 1974, Annie Dillard witnessed a similar occurrence as Audubon, with the exception of the flocks that she came across consisting of starlings. Both writers recorded their engagement with the birds. Both writers also grasped the splendor of the spectacle, expressing it to being “extreme” and “unexpected”. The only occasion that the two writers’ perspectives correspond to each other is their recognition of the beauty that was within the wonder that they witnessed. Although both Audubon and Dillard realize the magnificence of the phenomenon, their general outlook and how they are affected by their experiences differ. Audubon and Dillard hold opposing views in terms of their portrayal of the flocks of birds. Audubon starts is passage off by stating that he “observed” the birds flying in “greater numbers” than he had ever seen in the past. He conveys this first encounter as more of a scientific inquiry, detecting that there is a strangely abundant amount of pigeons in flight altogether. Afterwards, he began to “count” the flocks of birds, making a “dot for every flock that passed”, and stopping after 21 minutes after finding the task he undertook “impracticable.” Audubon attempts to gather quantitative information on the pigeons as a typical objective scientist would do, and the fact that he stopped counting as soon as he felt that it was of no use or reason of doing so anymore proves that Audubon observed the birds objectively. Later on that day, Audubon mentions how he had unsuccessfully ran multiple “trials” to “reach” and “disturb” the birds with his... ... middle of paper ... ...d genuine excitement, although the reasons were still scientific. The birds’ effects on Dillard, on the other hand, contrasted from how the birds had affected Audubon. Throughout her whole encounter with the starlings, Dillard “didn’t move” at all. She was mesmerized from when the birds first appeared to her up until they had wiped out into the woods. As the birds disappeared into the trees, she “stood with difficulty” with her “spread lungs [roaring]” Ultimately, Dillard was appalled by the magnificence of the flocks in flight. Audubon and Dillard’s general outlook of the flocks of birds in flight and how they are affected by their experiences differ. In the end, both writers exhibit their own perception of beauty through their encounter with the birds, although Audubon saw the beauty in factuality, and Dillard saw it in her own interweaved thoughts and emotions.
Jennifer Price informs the readers about an economy in which a simple bird helped bloom it. For example the inclusion of many hotels and restaurants that utilized the bird as an eye opener. As she said “ a flamingo stands out in a desert even more strikingly than on a lawn.” The bird was used for numerous things including the affluence of a population that had just gotten out of the Great Depression. Jennifer Price also includes the birds magnificent color and how it also helped the economy.
I thought of the reading as just another environmental writing trying to bring light to extinction of a species of bird. Then once I sat down a few nights ago I read the passage and I started to tear up reading about these poor birds brutally hunted. I started to feel the same emotions as Stratton-Porter did when she saw the bag of birds at her neighbor’s house. What really shocked me about how these birds went extinct. No one else saw them as Stratton-Porters father did, biblically. Her father told the other men in their neighborhood about how killing off the quails were bad for farming. Stratton-Porter states, “These things he studied out and began to pass along to his neighbors, even to put in his sermons that he preached in the pulpit” (196). Towards the end, I really enjoyed with how Stratton-Porter saw the wild pigeon after they were thought to be extinct, with a price for its capture and had no desire to disturb the bird. Stratton-Porter states, “So here I was looking with all my soul at one specimen of a bird bearing on its head a price ranging from one hundred up, with no way and no desire to capture it” (204). The very last part of this piece blew me away by the emotion wave I got feeling the bird voicing his thoughts. With the extinction of the passenger pigeon, there has been conservation movements to protect the wildlife and there habitat from
Mary Oliver’s unique responses to the owls illustrate the complexity of nature by displaying its two sides. Mary Oliver at first enjoys owls and all they have to offer, yet she later emphasizes her fear of a similar animal. The visual imagery she uses in her descriptions
In “A Caged Bird”, it is made clear that this bird has never experienced the freedom of flying with the other species or perching atop the highest building. All it has ever known is the cage in which is has been kept and fed plentifully, yet not punctually, and nurtured with the love of an owner and proper care.
This is a clear statement that says nature makes one think of God. Although her most blatant statement is in letter thirteen her most powerful testimony of seeing God in nature is found in letter seven. In letter seven, Bird recounts her ascension of Long’s Peak with her friend Mountain Jim as her guide. At 3,700 feet below the summit of the mountain they come upon a beautiful sunrise. Bird records that upon seeing the beautiful sunrise Mountian Jim cry’s out that he believes in God. By recording the words of Mountian Jim, the notorious desperado, as they relate to the sunrise, Bird shows how creation undoubtably points to a
Did you know tobacco and alcohol use cause over 475,000 deaths in the U.S. annually? To assist young people in avoiding these harmful behaviors, the D.A.R.E. program enhances the knowledge and awareness of the hazards regarding dangerous substances throughout a ten week program. The acronym D.A.R.E. stands for drugs, abuse, resistance, and education. D.A.R.E. ensures the safety of adolescents in various situations and instills beneficial strategies, techniques, and tips to aid young people in making responsible decisions.
The first words of the book convey a parrot that spoke “a language which nobody understood”, and Edna’s husband “had the privilege of quitting [the parrot] when [it] ceased to be entertaining” (11). In the same light, Edna speaks of and wishes for a life that nobody apprehends. Her husband also possesses the moral, objectifying liberty to quiet Edna when she did not provide leisure, as one can turn off a song once it grows into a tedious nuisance. A further exemplification comes about when Old Monsieur Farival, a man, “insisted upon having [a] bird. . . consigned to regions of darkness” due to its shrieking outside (42). As a repercussion, the parrot “offered no more interruption to the entertainment” (42). The recurrence of the parrot evolves Edna’s state of stagnance as a consequence of being put to a halt by others despite her endeavor of breaking free. Ultimately, as Edna edges out towards the water to her death, a bird is depicted with “a broken wing” and is “beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (159). This recurrence parallels the beaten bird to a suffering Edna. She has “despondency [that] came upon her there in the wakeful night” that never alleviates (159). Dejection is put to action when Edna wanders out into the water, “the shore. . . far behind her” (159). Motif of birds articulates her suicide by its association with
In describing the bird refuge before the flooding, Williams goes into great detail about the abundance of birds and vegetation that inhabited her paradise: “Avocets and black-necked stilts are knee deep in water alongside interstate 80. Flocks of California gulls stand on a disappearing beach…I inhale the salty air. It is like ocean, even the lake is steel-blue with whitecaps”(Williams 30). In a visit to the bird refuge with her grandmother, she describes the refuge as a place full of life, with countless birds among beautiful plants and wildlife. Indeed, the bird refuge was a sanctuary to her; there was something magical, she writes, about seeing the thousands of different birds in one place, a sight that kept her going back.
The diction surrounding this alteration enhances the change in attitude from self-loath to outer-disgust, such as in lines 8 through 13, which read, “The sky/ was dramatic with great straggling V’s/ of geese streaming south, mare’s tails above them./ Their trumpeting made us look up and around./ The course sloped into salt marshes,/ and this seemed to cause the abundance of birds.” No longer does he use nature as symbolism of himself; instead he spills blame upon it and deters it from himself. The diction in the lines detailing the new birds he witnesses places nature once more outside of his correlation, as lines 14 through 18 read, “As if out of the Bible/ or science fiction,/ a cloud appeared, a cloud of dots/ like iron filings, which a magnet/ underneath the paper
Early in the essay, she describes herself living alone with her two cats, and she, somehow, makes joke with them although it was not so sure how often she did that in a day. There we can see that she is solitary, yet has some sense of humor lies in herself. Revealing her living environment, that would signal the reader about the upcoming adventure of her with the moths. Some may question why Dillard chose Moths instead of other interesting bugs like a caterpillar or flies to relate to human life. Plus, she does not only explain how the moths dies, but also provides a vivid detail of them dying so that the reader to
Annie Dillard portrays her thoughts differently in her passage, incorporating a poetic sense that is carried through out the entire passage. Dillard describes the birds she is viewing as “transparent” and that they seem to be “whirling like smoke”. Already one could identify that Dillard’s passage has more of poetic feel over a scientific feel. This poetic feeling carries through the entire passage, displaying Dillard’s total awe of these birds. She also incorporates word choices such as “unravel” and that he birds seem to be “lengthening in curves” like a “loosened skein”. Dillard’s word choice implies that he is incorporating a theme of sewing. As she describes these birds she seems to be in awe and by using a comparison of sewing she is reaching deeper inside herself to create her emotions at the time.
By not cherishing the gift of sight and using it properly, many discoveries are left unfound. In the writing piece, Seeing, Annie Dillard speaks of nature and the small things that we all are unconsciously blind to and not appreciative of. Seeing explores the idea of what it means to truly see things in this world. Annie Dillard’s main point is that we should view the world with less of a meddling eye, so that we are able to capture things that would otherwise go unnoticed. There’s a science to how we view things in nature.
Since its first appearance in the 1886 collection A White Heron and Other Stories, the short story A White Heron has become the most favorite and often anthologized of Sarah Orne Jewett. Like most of this regionalist writer's works, A White Heron was inspired by the people and landscapes in rural New England, where, as a little girl, she often accompanied her doctor father on his visiting patients. The story is about a nine-year-old girl who falls in love with a bird hunter but does not tell him the white heron's place because her love of nature is much greater. In this story, the author presents a conflict between femininity and masculinity by juxtaposing Sylvia, who has a peaceful life in country, to a hunter from town, which implies her discontent with the modernization?s threat to the nature. Unlike female and male, which can describe animals, femininity and masculinity are personal and human.
Upon learning of Armstrong’s motive, Isobel attempts to hang herself. As Isobel lies helpless on the floor, fighting for one last breath, Stephenson illustrates that Isobel’s “heels flutter almost imperceptibly” (92). Later, everyone gathers around Isobel’s dead body much like they did around the fluttering bird in the first experiment. “But this time Isobel, in her coffin, has taken the place of the bird in the air pump”(96). The fact that now a dead Isobel symbolizes the bird implies that this time the experiment has gone dreadfully wrong. The fact that the second experiment fails harbors a much more solemn consequence than if the first had failed. If the bird in the first experiment had died, tears would have been shed only until the purchase of a new bird. Not only does Armstrong sacrifice a human life in the name of science, but he symbolically diminishes all that the bird and Isobel represent. Isobel’s death implies the demise of freedom, will, and humanity.
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...