Okefenokee Swamp Analysis

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n the two written passages, the two detailed descriptions of Okefenokee Swamp written by two different authors, both seem to be factual, however when it is put together as a combination, it shows that at least one author is informing us about the Swamp, meanwhile, the other is entertaining us with figurative language about the Swamp. To begin with, going beyond the contrast in the atmosphere of the swamp, the two analyses are even contrary with the most quantitative observations. However, In the first passage, the swamp is described to be home to 175 species of birds, and yet in the second passage, it has shockingly hosted a massive immigration, now being home to 225 species of birds. The writers differ extraordinarily in their views of the …show more content…

In passage one it shows respect for the unique environment of the swamp "floating mats of peat" are not at home in the midst of rivers as they are in Passage 2. In the first Passage since it was here to inform, they were given a scientific name, "hummocks," and they are accepted as part of the terrain. Additionally, the mental picture each purports is entirely in contrast with the other's Passage 1 yields "extensive prairies," "bald cypress trees festooned with moss," "meandering channels of open water," and "exotic flowers." The imagery that is pictures in the firs passage is of freedom, of beauty, of the easygoing simplicity and relaxation we seem idealize in nature. The moss "festooning" the "bald" cypress trees lends a sense of spirit and independent joy to the life in the swamp, a high order, but a place still flowing as freely as the water in its trees. the second passage, however, is not home to flowing water, it is home to "muck, mud, slime, and ooze." There are no flowers in this swamp, there are only "leaf-choked acres" yearning to end. Here, there are not "rare" species of flowers, but "seething galaxies of gnats... paramecia that exist only to compound the misery of life." Here, the swamp is not a place of joy or idealism, but a place of punishment, of agony, of torture and ugliness which is the imagery that the author chooses to show

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