Wilderness and Pioneer Civilization

‘In a Dry Season’ by Henry Lawson paints an image of the typical harsh and unforgiving Australian outback as well as it’s monotony. He attempts to illustrates its true nature and not romanticise about the sparse landscape or the difficulty of growing crops. He demonstrates the integrity of the bush characters which is heightened compared to lesser individuals. “The least horrible spot in the bush, in a dry season is where the bush isn't - where it has been cleared away and a green crop is trying to grow.” The word “horrible” reinforces that fact that the bush isn’t a hospitable place. The visual imagery through the descriptive language paints an image of crops starting to grow in the shade and suburban areas. The harsh, unforgiving and dangerous Australian environment is illustrated through Henry Lawson’s short story ‘In a Dry Season’ through descriptive language and visual

Distinct visuals have been created in the minds of the responders through ‘Henry Lawson’s’ two well known short stories, ‘The Drover’s Wife’ and ‘In A Dry Season’; these visuals of isolation, stoicism and the struggle to survive in the harsh rural Australian outback through Lawson’s use of sibilance, misjudgement, symbolism, third person narration and also complex word choice. In contrast John Constable of the visual The ‘Flatford Mill’ has used bright colours, brushstrokes, positioning and also symbolism to create the distinct visuals of tranquillity, serenity and freedom in this text.

An exposed and desolate house set in the untamed outback is the setting of ‘The Drover’s Wife’. Lawson describes the two-roomed house as being “built of stringy bark”. Similarly, he identifies the environment around the house, such as “bushes… of rotten native apple-trees” and a “waterless creek”. Lawson further explains the surroundings and her isolation in this quote “Bush all round- bush with no horizon…the country is flat”, here Lawson has used the word “no horizon” to state that there is nothing in the distance. This allows the reader to visualize the bush as being clear, flat and empty. These quotes demonstrate that the family is poor and lives a difficult life because the house is made of stringy bark; this offers discomfort and no protection

The works of the authors Jack Davis and Doris Pilkington reflect the unfair treatment towards Indigenous Australians, where Doris Pilkington shares the story of her mother in the Rabbit Proof Fence. The aboriginal children that were taken from their family during the period of the Stolen Generation were treated as if they were dirty and contaminated. In Jack Davis’s Honey Spot, Peggy’s father the forest ranger expresses his perspective towards the Winallis by falsely accusing them of chopping down trees illegally in the state forest and assuming that they are dangerous and untrustworthy based on what he has heard from people he

A bird sits on top of its nest and gazes out at the morning sun. Her eggs are safely snuggled underneath her. Then there is a loud sound of a chainsaw. The whole tree starts to shake. The bird is in panic, if see leaves she will lose her eggs if she stays she might die. The tree all of a sudden falls like a bowling ball in the air. The bird looks for her eggs and sees then lying on the ground. Cracks in every egg bring great sorrow to the bird. The once bright future has become a chaotic doom. This essay will use audience, purpose, and situation and claims to prove Wilderness preservation is the key to the article, The Puritan Origins of the American Wilderness Movement,

Imagine that you are now leaving the parking lot of your local Wal-Mart. Just before you pull out onto the busy highway you notice a single man walking along the highway with a bed role, back pack, and looks as though he has been walking for days. Now imagine that one person and add to it a thousand others. This is most likely the closet imagination we have to what a nomadic people would look like. Unlike the single man you might have imagined, nomadic cultures have plans, they have purpose in their actions, and they have lived this way for thousands of years spanning multiple generations. The man that you imagined may not have been an imagination. We have all been introduced to these various demographics rather or not we live in big cities. However, imagination or not, both have the commonality of stereotyping. Based on our own culture and beliefs we have certain presuppositions about the two groups of people mentioned above. One of the best ways of dispelling the issue of stereotypes is true understanding based on knowledge and truth. Like most of the western culture our first reaction to the individual at Wal-Mart is to ignore it or at the very most, do the minimum that is expected. The nomad has a rich history and even personal story. The people and their culture of Turkmenistan deserve a closer look and are is desperate need of missionary efforts from the Christian church.

The Wilderness in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Mary Austin’s Land of Little Rain, and Gary Snyder’s The Practice of the Wild

Forty Years in the Wilderness Clouds of dust billowed behind our jeep like a filthy veil. Scrawny boys in underwear left their jacks to chase us. Seconds later, they trailed off calling "gringos." A bachata blared in the distance as we pulled up to the palm hut that doubled as a ranger station. Two shirtless rangers leaned against grimy cases displaying ceramic idols and shards of bowls.

Max Oelschlaeger is an American ecological philosopher and works with the Center for Environmental Philosophy at the University of North Texas. Besides The Idea of Wilderness, Caring for Creation and The Environmental Imperative are two of his other books. The Idea of Wilderness won the Texas Institute of Letters’ 1991 Carr P. Collins Award and the 1998 San Antonio Conservation Society award. Oelschlager argues that the change of the idea of nature to the idea of wilderness has changed through the writings of environmentalist, scientist and that religion has played a huge impact on how we view and understand our relationship to nature. He hopes that humans realize their relationship with nature and learns to appreciate what nature has to offer. Oelschlaeger uses more archaeology evidence and reports and other works written by environmentalist and theologists.

Roughing it in the Bush is a story that chronicles the hardships and triumphs faced by early settlers in Northern Canada. Susanna Moodie creates vivid portraits of through the way she stresses the degradation relating her status as a gentlewoman, the necessity for manual labour in a new world, and the discrepancy between refined society and the pioneer community. Relaying a cautionary tale, Susanna Moodie uses a straightforward prose filled with hyperbolized descriptions that show a negative bias influenced by her personal hardships and way of life to inform potential emigrants about the realities of living in the bush and to forewarn readers that the pioneer life is not suited towards the upper class and rather, is detrimental to their economic and social status.