Since the beginning of time, humans have always had some type of relationship with nature, whether it was negative or positive. Adam & Eve were exiled from paradise for eating from the forbidden tree. Neanderthals flourished living in caves while having constant interactions with nature. And now in this day in age the relationship continues. This ever-changing relationship between man and nature is the main focus of two writers, Wendell Berry and Terry Tempest Williams. Both writers have a similar voice and style in some aspects, yet differ in others. In Terry Tempest Williams, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” she talked about the women in her families’ struggle with breast cancer. She points out that the reason behind it is the nuclear testing that was done in Utah. Williams tone throughout her writing is brave and determined yet angry at the same time. This is shown when she writes “But as I walked toward the town of Mercury, it was more than a gesture of peace. It was a gesture on behalf of the Clan of One-breasted women” She writes this explaining when she crossed the Nevada Test Site on March 18, 1988 to try and protest the nuclear testing in the deserts. Not only does her Tone affect her voice & style but she uses many literary techniques as well. Terry’s essay is a narrative and has a lot of dialogue. This greatly affects her voice because the audience can relate a lot more than if it wasn’t a narrative. Besides that she also uses a lot of imagery and figurative language. While Williams presents her dreams she uses vivid imagery saying, “I saw this flash of light in the night in the desert” and “The women danced wildly as sparks broke away from the flames and entered the night sky as stars.” This use of imagery gives a des... ... middle of paper ... ...nd I realize it was to renew the life of that possibility that I came here. What I am leaving is something to look forward to.” So Wendell Berry’s ever changing tone and vivid imagery help him achieve his aim, which is to point out the importance that man must slow down and be cognizant of the harmful effects of quick actions. Both “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” and “An Entrance to the Woods,” gives a viewpoint on the human relationship with nature. Terry Tempest Williams critizes man for being ruthless when it comes to nature and other humans. Wendell Berry believes similarly the same thing. He believes that man needs nature just as much as they need civilization. However, regardless of the differences, both writers offer an insightful perspective on the forever changing relationship between man and nature. And this relationship is, and always will be, changing.
In Emerson’s article, Nature, the passage shows great value of how man and nature can be similar. The article shows in many ways how man can represent nature, and how nature can represent everything. Emerson’s Nature can be related to Guy Montag’s journey into nature in Fahrenheit 451, and the author’s ways of showing similarity between man and vegetable can be presented as showing how nature is mixed in with literature and humans.
Alex Johnson wrote a short story “How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time” that revolved around the idea of human and nature. Spoke about how the two are connected where sexuality, culture and science are part of the seven steps to queer ecology. Johnson asked questions such as “Where is the line between what is Nature and what is Human? Do I spend equal times in the parking lot and the forest? Can I really say the parking lot is separate from the forest? What if I end up staying in the parking lot the whole time? What if it has been a long drive and I really have to pee?” allowing the readers to not only consume information but cross-examine what the readers have read. Before reading the short story I always believe there was a slight line
“Thoughts in the Presence of Fear” is a manifesto written by Wendell Berry, dated October 11, 2001. It is a post-September 11 manifesto for environmentalists. Berry uses terms such as “we” and “they” as he expresses his ideas, regarding how our optimism for a “new economy” was founded upon the labors of poor people all over the world. I will conduct a rhetorical analysis of four sections of Berry’s manifesto; Sections XI, XII, XIII, and XIV; and discuss his use of ethos, logos, and pathos. Berry uses pathos more often in his paper, to instill feelings of guilt and fear in his readers. While many areas of his paper can be thought of as logos, Berry makes little use of ethos.
In nature, someone can hear the sounds of a creek flowing and birds chirping and insects buzzing; in civilization, someone can hear engines roaring, people chattering, and buildings being built. In nature, one feels happiness and contentment; in civilization, one feels guilt and misery and sorrow. These simplicities of nature are what appeals to William Cullen Bryant in the poem ‘Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood’. The poem tells the reader that nature is a happier place than civilization and that nature gives one the answers to their existence and problems of life that civilization created. Civilization is ugly and corrupt while nature is beauty and tranquility.
Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,
In Terry Tempest Williams’ essay, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women”, Williams recounts her experiences of the aftermath of the United States government’s above ground nuclear tests in Utah. These tests were conducted during the 1950s arms race of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. Despite the government’s claims that the nuclear testing would not have a negative effect on the surrounding residential areas of Utah, many women, including members of Williams’ family, developed breast cancer due to radiation. As the correlation was drawn between the increase of cancer cases and radiation was drawn, demand for the government to acknowledge this fault and provide composition rose. Although, due to sovereign immunity, which
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous” (Aristotle). Franklin Crabbe is the main character in the novel Crabbe by William Bell. Throughout the novel, Crabbe learns how pleasant, but forceful nature is. In the bush, Crabbe enjoys nature; he feels he’s significant, and realizes that responsibility is compulsory for survival. When people step out of their tedious routine into the nature, they gain higher self-esteem and learn to appreciate their surroundings.
Relationships with the natural world tend to dwindle as humans grow older resulting in disconnect. This relationship between humans and nature seems like it should be instinctive. When working on artwork and poetry, I focus on the political disconnect that humans have with the natural world. Turtle Mountain by Gary Snyder, The Rain in the Trees by W.S. Merwin, and Strike/ Slip by Don McKay also discuss the relationship between humans and nature, conveying the ever growing disconnect that humans have with the natural world. These poets express this disconnect through their personal connections. While Snyder has a spiritual and down to earth connection with the natural world and Merwin has an airy and non-physical connection,
Nature surrounds mankind; and, while it originally caused challenges for early settlers, civilians have created a strong bond with its beautiful attributes. This relationship is a strong theme in “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. As a result, these texts can be used to compare Guy Montag’s journey into nature, from Fahrenheit 451, to the one depicted in “Nature” and explain whether or not there is an occult relation between man and the vegetable.
When anyone has the chance to understand what they are attempting to save and respect, they can at last comprehend the dire necessity to display the appropriate affection to nature. Gary Snyder’s “By the Frazier Creek Falls” illustrate a beautiful landscape in a touching and loving matter that reveal the notion of how everything together in a natural environment is alive and just exquisite. He portrays this scenery how “The creek falls to a far valley. Hills beyond that facing, half-forested, dry-clear sky strong wind in the stiff glittering needle clusters of the pine-their brown round trunk bodies straight, still; rustling trembling limbs and twigs. Listen” (Snyder 41). Using the word “trembling” demonstrates how delicate nature is, and basically in other worlds, this all exist in a gentle, graceful balance that Snyder suggests we can dwell with peacefully. If we were to simply “listen” to our environment and sense how peaceful our natural surroundings surely is, respecting and preserving this peace can subsequently be compelling and urgent options. People can change their ways and routines and learn to live without the continual disrespect and destruction of the environment; by then, we can ultimately become part of nature and live in peace and unity with one another as well as
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.
Where would humans be without nature? Scientifically, no creature could have ever existed without nature; earth could not have even existed without it. Despite this, people treat the environment in varying ways – some abuse it, while others respect and cherish it. William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies points out these assorted reactions to wildlife. Through the British boys’ characterization, Golding illustrates that humans instinctively react to nature in one of three ways: avoiding nature, harmoniously living with nature, or tyrannically trying to control nature.
The poems, "The Bull Moose" by Alden Nowlan, "The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke, "Walking the Dog" by Howard Nemerov, and "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, illustrate what happens when people and nature come together, but the way in which the people react to these encounters in these poems is very different. I believe that when humans and nature come together either they clash and conflict because individuals destroy and attempt to control nature, which is a reflection of their powerful need to control themselves, or humans live peacefully with nature because they not only respect and admire nature, but also they can see themselves in the nature.
Biodiversity is described by Ruth Patrick as, “the presence of a large number of species of animals and plants…”(Patrick 15). In other words, biodiversity is the term for the measure of the variety of different species that do exist still on our plant. These species can range from the simplest bacteria to the very complex primates. Biodiversity can relate locally or globally. For example the Southern New England forest contains 20 or 30 tree species while in the rainforest of Peru there are hundreds of species of trees (Patrick 15). There are also further ways to view biodiversity and that is in levels. These levels can be the “diversity of higher plants, number of species, or expressed as sheer weight (biomass)” (Patrick 15). Biodiversity is different is each part of the world. Not every part of the world contains the same amount of creatures yet there are parts of the world that might contain similar amounts. These regions of the world have similar weather patterns and therefore similar species will develop there but they are not necessarily the same. One of the more important regions of the world that contain a large amount of biodiversity is the tropical rainforest region. “The forests comprise roughly 7% of the dry land surface of Earth and may hold more than 50% of all species” (Patrick 15). Yet us as humans do not know all of the creatures and organisms that live on this planet at all. We only have discovered, in one way or another, about 1.4 million species yet the number that is estimated is about 10-100 million (Patrick 15).