In Greg Peterson’s, view, a renowned environmentalist "Our downfall as a species is that we are arrogant enough to think that we can control Mother Nature and stupid enough to think it is our job.” But we as humans ignore that fact, we ignored it for centuries and we still do. In Tangerine, we see that that idea is perfectly woven into the story. In Tangerine, most people are not affluent and the land there had gone through many stages of development that worsens the rift between man and nature but yet they have an uneasy balance with nature. One that may not last.
Journal 1 Krakauer, Jon. Into The Wild. New York: Villard, 1996. Print. Journal 2
The author Richard Louv wrote an essay on the connection of nature to humans in the modern world. He expands on the fact that technology has taken away our abilities to appreciate nature for it’s true beauty. Children growing up in today’s world aren’t having the resources to appreciate nature and it’s beauty because of technology, according to him. He gives examples of the changing technology in the world: cars, mobile devices, advertisements, you name it. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv uses rhetorical devices to display his thoughts through examples and evidence.
Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental.
In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.
She writes, “The Windigo is a spirit of excess, of consumption gone out of control” (Kimmerer, 297). Kimmerer uses the Windigo as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked consumption and exploitation of the Earth’s resources. Kimmerer also uses Windigo to critique modern society’s obsession with private property and overconsumption, which has led to ecological harm. Through these two figures, Kimmerer highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge and storytelling in shaping our relationship with the natural world and also shows the importance of a reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world, as well as the dangers of overconsumption and
When thinking of the wilderness one might picture a scene from a camp site. Untamed dense forest, and endless jungle probably come first to mind and although this might be one meaning of wilderness, Mellor’s perception of wilderness and pastoral opens our thoughts on how we view the unpredictable and the known. In “Lure Of The Wilderness” by Leo Mellor, he shows the meaning of the unexplored wilderness and the surprises that come with the unknown, while humans try to tame what is wild and create a pastoral environment around them. Mellor’s writing helps understand hidden aspects in the short story “Wild” by Lesley Arimah, when Ada is blindsided with a plane ticket to visit her aunt in Africa. She travels to a place mostly unknown to her, besides the relatives living there.
In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.
The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.
The frontier ideology is defined as an allure of nature that is culturally spread and shaped by people’s ideals of how the wilderness should truly be. The problematic effects resulted by McCandless’ journey into the undomesticated land of Alaska are analogous to the quandaries that the frontier ideology creates for our environmental. Just as the ideology is embedded in his mind; it is also embedded in the minds of many others. However, McCandless story can actually teach us about the plights with our culture and in doing so, allows us to move forward. This has turned into a myth in which many believe that the most important parts of nature are areas that have been untouched by human hands.
Sarah K. Castle, in her science fiction “The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek” develops the story to tell the nature-culture hybrids and its effect on human-kind and other creatures. The story sets in one location called “Horn Creek” and the main character “Sue” a park ranger and a narrator of the story. The author shows the effect of human meddling with natures at the very beginning of the story. A “Grand Canyon” which is the story plays had been mined and it starts to be closed for visitors and Horn Creek was one of them. In this fiction author is more about to say that humankind intervention in nature is the reason for the natural world disaster.
We should value nature and its animals much more (Becker, 1971). In today’s world we have what Becker calls a “power-saw mentality” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). Instead we’re greedy with what nature has to offer us. “Man takes what nature offers us, but usually only what he needs” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). There is a psychological difference in today’s world of what we enjoy out of nature (Becker, 1971).
Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.
Many believed the Dust Bowl and floods of the Great Depression were natural disasters and framed destruction of the Great Plains as the result of weather, not human-created tragedies, even though scientific evidence proved otherwise. However, when the news and government framed stories a consequence of weather conditions they failed to communicate the balance of nature was overturned thanks to the unbridled settling of the land that caused ecological disaster. Although FSA photos and conservation photos of that era documented loss of open places and spaces, Lorentz reminds us that in America’s quest for domination over the land, almost forgotten how much we rely on nature for survival. The news presented only part of the story, devastation. Largely missing from reporting why ecological disaster came about, the connection between water and soil, and how unrestrained use and poor planning led to disaster.
“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Lament” by Gillian Clarke are the two poems I am exploring in this essay, specifically on how the common theme of human destruction of nature is presented. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Cheng explores the damage of nature caused by humans and man’s reckless attitude towards this. In “Lament”, the idea of the damage of oceans from the Gulf War is explored. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Boey Kim Cheng explores the theme of human destruction of nature as a response to William Wordsworth, an romantic poet who celebrated nature’s beauty in his poetry.
