John Muir has a very interesting take on the natural world and how we should live with regard to it. In "A Windstorm in The Forests" he uses immense imagery for the trees and the cliff sides. Muir wants you to visualize what he sees and hears. The way he describes the colors of the trees and how they bow and bend in the wind gives you a vivid image in your mind. Harmonious sounds of the leaves in the wind, gives us a faint whispering in our ear of the song he hears. This essay in particular blew me away. Muir wants us to realize that everything has a soul, and a purpose in nature. When he describes Hetch Hetchy and the Yosemite park, he is wanting us to see it not make money off of it. He proves a valid point by showing us that we as humans, use any aspect of nature we can for a profit. "The making of gardens and parks goes on …show more content…
The answer I have come across a lot is, it's because that’s how we are programmed. The world needs to stop and think maybe not everything needs to be used as a profit. The Hetch Hetchy essay is written to show us an ethos point of view. Our era is based on an ethos way of thinking, as far as aspirations and the belief of money running everything. Muir makes me question this way of thinking in his essay. He has opened my eyes in a sense, that if we open our eyes and look around us the beauty is there and we don’t need to pay to see it. He sums up humanity in a bold statement as he writes, " Nevertheless, like anything else worthwhile, from the very beginning, however well-guarded, they have always been subject to attack by despoiling gain-seekers and mischief makers of every degree from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in smug smiling philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying. "Conservation, conservation, panutiization," that man and beast may be fed and the dear nation made
It is a sad comparison to the past John Muir, who first documented Yosemite Valley, to today’s reality. The condition of Yosemite National Park should be introduced to the American public in order to protect its historic beauty and significance, eliminate current pollution, and prevent future repercussions. In
There is a serene moment when reading John Muir “A Windstorm in the forests,” that rushed through me. Which can only be described as a rush of emotions that one might face when returning home after traveling for so long. I feel that this response is so far harder to write than I could have imagined it to be because the forest Muir is describing within his story, within the Sierra Nevada is one that I grew up with. The same ones that I spent my summers and winter breaks at, I feel a slight struggle when trying to describe my response because I didn’t realize how much I miss all of that and how many of my memories are surrounded by that forest. Reading Muir story brought back the images of seeing stretches of land covered in an endless amount
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The American Experience. Ed. Kate Kinsella. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. 388-390. Print.
In the opening paragraphs of his first chapter, Emerson finds that nature, like stars is always present and creates a reverence in the observer, but is also always inaccessible (14). Emerson also brings forth the idea that not everyone can really observe nature, but one must have the correct mental/spiritual state, as a child might. He discusses the improving aspects one can find in nature - youth, reason, and faith. Intrigued by visual perceptions, he claims that he looses contact with everything but nature becomes a 'transparent eye-ball' and feels that "I am part or parcel of God" (16). Emerson's emphatic words are perhaps the best description of the enthralling emotions of a 'sublime' experience as possible.
Some of the things he did for the park was helping preserve the forest. Most of his writings came from the forest and all of its beauty, enthusiasm, and spiritual quality that just filled him with so much joy. He herded sheep in his first summers at Yosemite.(Tolan,Sally,Page 24) He became a guide and lead tours through Yosemite and knew the area like he lived there for 10 years. John often left the tourists and went for a hike and went for a hike at Vernal Fall.(Wadsworth,Ginger, Page 56) John Muir has a Redwood forest in San Francisco. Many people love Muir's love for exploration, and knowledge of nature. He continued his studies of glaciers, and as he continued he came to the sense that the glaciers were the reason for the carved out valleys and the canyons of Yosemite. Though other scientists didn't believe him he kept pushing for more
Have you noticed that we feel a powerful desire to connect with nature during difficult times? Whether we are injured, depressed or sad our inclination towards nature increases. Patients in hospitals recover faster if they are in a room with a nice view. Why? Because nature is so pure and powerful that can restore our spirits and heal our bodies and minds. The beauty of nature has been praised in art, poetry, writings and films. Naturalists, poets and writers have documented the many benefits of spending time in nature. "Calypso Borealis" by Muir and "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by Wordsworth are two great pieces of literature where our hearts are filled with an indescribable emotion. John Muir and William Wordsworth express their relationship
Muir’s wilderness is rooted in the idea of an aesthetically pleasing natural scape given they fit into certain criteria such as, “ none of Nature’s landscape’s are ugly so long as they are wild” (Muir). The attachment of this emphasis on an aesthetically pleasing landscape was partial truth, which drove people out the national parks. While these places where indeed wild and beautiful, Muir sold the masses on this idea of all nature being pristine and pure, when in reality that was not the
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
As I read John Muir’s “A Wind Storm in The Forest”, I come to realize how passionate the author is pertaining to wind and nature. He uses descriptive language to bring out the full beauty of the winds. For example John Muir states in his narrative “A Wind Storm in The Forest” that “After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like grasses before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant falling” (526). The author gives winds the quality which no human could ever possibly obtain, and that is sheer power. However the author also describes the winds as always not beastly, but rather sometimes gentle and calm. John Muir wants the readers to understand that wind is has its many beauty’s and miracles; you just have to be willing to look
Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882), the leader of the Transcendentalism in New England, is the first American who wrote prose and poem on nature and the relationship between nature and man Emerson's philosophy of Transcendentalism concerning nature is that nature is only another side of God "the gigantic shadow of God cast our senses." Every law in nature has a counterpart in the intellect. There is a perfect parallel between the laws of nature and the laws of thought. Material elements simply represent an inferior plane: wherever you enumerate a physical law, I hear in it a moral rule. His poem The Rhodora is a typical instance to illustrate his above-mentioned ideas on nature. At the very beginning of the poem, the poet found the fresh rhodora in the woods, spreading its leafless blooms in a deep rock, to please the desert and the sluggish brook, while sea-winds pieced their solitudes in May. It is right because of the rhodora that the desert and the sluggish brook are no longer solitudes. Then the poem goes to develop by comparison between the plumes of the redbird and the rhodora . Although the bird is elegant and brilliant, the flower is much more beautiful than the bird. So the sages can not helping asking why this charm is wasted on the earth and sky. The poet answers beauty is its own cause for being just as eyes are made for seeing. There is no other reason but beauty itsel...
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
There is a little too much greed going on in society. My definition of greed is when a limitless person selfishly wants something and the obsessive addictions is that enough is never enough. The dictionaries definition is ‘an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power.’ People do not realize that greed concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. People think the need of wanting something is just a thought, however if you continue to think about it, eventually the person will find a way to allow greed to take over the thoughts. Greed can make a man, but it can also destroy him ten times over. It is one thing to want money or materialistic ideals, but the necessity almost unavoidably becomes greed. Greed is something
The power of nature is all around us and can be found almost anywhere. One is able to study nature through experiencing it firsthand, looking at a picture, watching a movie, or even reading a familiar children’s story. I believe that by learning more about nature we can grow closer to God. Emerson states, “Nature is so pervaded in human life, that there is something of humanity in all, and in every particular” (Emerson 508). Like Emerson, I believe that humanity and nature were created by God and we can learn more about the Spirit of God by studying nature. I also see that nature has the power to influence our emotions and actions. I see evidence of this through various landscapes such as the desert, the beach, the mountains and the jungle. I thought about the vastness of the desert during a recent trip to the desert with my class. I think about nature and my love for it when I am scanning through my photo album and see pictures that capture me enjoying the mountains of Utah. When I watched the movie The Beach I was struck out how nature, specifically the beautiful beaches of Thailand, influenced the actions of every character in the movie. Of course it is hard to read a legendary story such as “Jungle Book” and not see what a powerful effect nature and its’ animals can have over humans.
Many poets are inspired by the impressive persona that exists in nature to influence their style of poetry. The awesome power of nature can bring about thought and provoke certain feelings the poet has towards the natural surroundings.