ipl-logo

S. Merwin's Essay 'Unchopping A Tree'

820 Words4 Pages

There's little to no challenge in chopping a tree down, but what kind of challenge would be faced when putting back together a tree that has already fallen? Clear concise instructions are required, and that's what W.S. Merwin (292) provided in his essay "Unchopping a Tree.” Merwin clearly suggests an insightful meaning with his absurdity in his instructions of actually unchopping a tree. Merwin’s thoughts are implying that after ecological destruction of sorts, the efforts to restore our environment is just as difficult as putting a tree back together. In his piece, Merwin focuses on persuading the reader to preserve trees through a well-articulated position employing an important message: the irreversible effects of deforestation and how it …show more content…

We find Merwin takes a couple different approaches to his persuasion, the first position being in the first half in the essay when he makes it apparent to the reader the complexity of our environment and what the real life application of "unchopping a tree" would actually entail. “Now the tackle must be put into place or the scaffolding, depending on the surroundings and the dimensions of the tree. It is ticklish work.”(292-293) We find the speaker adopts a second person perspective in a very directive manner while listing instructions on how to put a tree back together. The steps taken in this essay to repair a tree and care for its surroundings is the kind of consciousness needed in the first place to protect and preserve the trees and the ecosystem that surrounds them. The tone Merwin used is important because it is constructive. His tone is not accusing, or outrageous, but the only call for action the speaker implies is the description of doing the impossible. If Merwin did not take the approach he did when establishing his tone, it could potentially diminish the effect on the reader if the reader feels attacked or judged, damaging the audience’s opinion. Merwin simply wanted to make the reader think about how much our environment matters, how delicate, and how irreversible the effects on it are, beyond mainstream

Show More
Related

Rhetorical Analysis: Last Child In The Woods

342 Words | 2 Pages

In this passage from Last child in the Woods, an extremely discouraged Richard Louv shows the separation of nature to both parents and children. By showing imagery through car rides in the present vs. car rides in the past he shows an extraordinary change. By his use of rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, and imagery Louv produces a captivating argument to fire up the modern generation. Throughout the passage Louv cites many sources, and deserves credit.

Read More

Returning The Gift Kimmerer Analysis

380 Words | 2 Pages

It is necessary return the gift to nature by protecting the environment, and avoiding over consumption of the nature resources. According to Kimmerer “For the gifts to continue to flow, we must give back in equal measure for what we take” (01). Kimmerer is insisting that as we taking more and

Read More

Deforestation In The Florida Everglades

585 Words | 3 Pages

The government has passed many conservation policies to protect animals, eco-systems, plants and trees itself and indigenous people’s way of life, but many of these policies get overlooked and require a lot of extra work. How it affects the rest of the world- This action is permanent, and all of the world is targeted as a potential setting for deforestation. It is predicted that the continuing action may result in very few rainforest across the entire globe. Cutting trees can also be harmful to our ozone layer, which protects earth from dangerous radiation.

Read More

Literary Analysis Essay On The Bean Trees

743 Words | 3 Pages

Clive Waswa Ms. Meara Honors English 16 December 2016 Literary Analysis: The impact of Poverty “The Poverty line doesn't measure Poverty, it measures extreme Poverty," (Shapiro Marcy). Barbra Kingsolver’s book The Bean Trees, Focusses on the social justice issue Poverty. The Main character Taylor Leaves Kentucky, to escape poverty, she was determined to be different from all others who dropped out of school and had children. She dreamt of being different and achieving something with her life. In the The Bean Trees, Barbra Kingsolver challenges the idea that people in poverty are lazy and never work.

Read More

Human And Nature In Lester Rowntree's Collecting Myself

999 Words | 4 Pages

The beginning of this essay is “ Twenty- five years ago my gnawing curioity to kow more about plants in their native homes got out of hand.. ”(Lester Rowntree, Collecting Myself). This first sentence of the essay directly give out the infomation for the whole essay: a people who moved herself into a forest, stay clear away for the moderrn life, and the purpose of this choice is for “study of plants”. But when read throught the whole essay, audience can not only realize what a live in a forest like, but also can get in touch with the deep thought for the relationship between human and

Read More

The Way To Rainy Mountain Land Analysis

898 Words | 4 Pages

How can one become one with their environment? Connection with one 's environment was always easier to maintain until the industrial age came into existence. With the birth of modern society came the birth of social responsibilities and burdens unknown to man. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “A place for literature,” Barry Lopez and N. Momaday Momaday explain the impact of lands on its occupants. In “the white heron,” Sarah Jewett explains the feeling of reconnection with one’s inner voice though nature.

Read More

Technology In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

1189 Words | 5 Pages

Nature can unlock someone’s purpose because it lets others see what the world has become an what they want to make it. It can also bring people together as Montag recalls, “And on either side of the river was there a tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (158). The leaves are the bonds between people that let countries heal and reconcile.

Read More

The Progressive Era Dbq

884 Words | 4 Pages

They are being cut down for fun, or for as long as a dollar can be made out of it (Document A). These trees, as long as the ones cut down are replanted, could be used as the foundation for the future generation, serving as the paper bound by a cover, as the furniture used to live in, as part of the pencil to write their ingenious ideas on. Deforestation is still a problem today, but luckily for us there are trees still standing. Our mission is to keep them standing, or else our futures will burst into flames before our very eyes, like the firewood burned in a fireplace during

Read More

Aldo Leopold The Land Ethic Summary

614 Words | 3 Pages

He argues that we should treat our land with care and respect as we now treat one another, for we will be ushering a new era of change the is all for the better. The second half of the essay begins with "The Ecological Conscience". Starting off by stating “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” and going on to describe how our fight for land is improving it is moving far too slow. This transforms into the

Read More

Analysis Of Planting A Sequoia By Dana Gioia

1100 Words | 5 Pages

Dana Gioia’s poem, “Planting a Sequoia” is grievous yet beautiful, sombre story of a man planting a sequoia tree in the commemoration of his perished son. Sequoia trees have always been a symbol of wellness and safety due to their natural ability to withstand decay, the sturdy tree shows its significance to the speaker throughout the poem as a way to encapsulate and continue the short life of his infant. Gioia utilizes the elements of imagery and diction to portray an elegiac tone for the tragic death, yet also a sense of hope for the future of the tree. The poet also uses the theme of life through the unification of man and nature to show the speaker 's emotional state and eventual hopes for the newly planted tree. Lastly, the tree itself becomes a symbol for the deceased son as planting the Sequoia is a way to cope with the loss, showing the juxtaposition between life and death.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of A TED Talk Essay

578 Words | 3 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis of a TED Talk: Emma Marris: Nature Is Everywhere, We Just Need to Learn to See It Emma Marris address the idea about how people view nature and what they consider to be nature. Marris claims that the problem with how people view nature starts with the general definition of nature. Marris argues that the definition is too strict and limited. She declares that nature is everywhere, but people lack the ability to see it: If nature stayed true to the definition there would be none and there would be a negative effect on the following generations. Emma Marris is an environmental science writer whom earned her master’s degree in science writing at John Hopkins University .

Read More

Last Child In The Woods Rhetorical Analysis Essay

812 Words | 4 Pages

The harsh reality surrounds the fact that as time and technology advances, the separation between people and nature increases as well. Louv, in his rhetoric from Last Child in the Woods (2008), argues why the separation between society and nature is distressing.

Read More

The Thing In The Forest Analysis

916 Words | 4 Pages

In A.S Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest”, the author uses the elements of a short story to craft a dark, mature fairytale. The title of the story, “The Thing in the Forest”, in the sense that it foreshadows the main idea of the story. The audience expects more than just a "thing", as listed in the title. Byatt emphasizes through figurative language that the main characters, Penny and Primrose, are dealing with more than just a creature in the forest that affected them for the rest of their lives, and that with this use of symbols to express a larger meaning to objects in the story. A.S Byatt emphasizes more on plot and setting, characters, theme and symbols.

Read More

Analysis Of Body Ritual Among The Nacirema By Horace Miner

581 Words | 3 Pages

In this article, the tree symbolizes truth. It is ironic that Washington cut down the tree when he was all about being truthful.

Read More

Importance Of Environmental Education Essay

1316 Words | 6 Pages

Introduction: Our earth is the most precious gift of the universe. It is the sustenance of ‘nature’ that is the key to the development of the future of mankind. It is the duty and responsibility of each one of us to protect nature. It is here that the understanding of the ‘environment’ comes into the picture. The degradation of our environment is linked with the development process and the ignorance of people about retaining the ecological balance.

Read More

More about S. Merwin's Essay 'Unchopping A Tree'

Related Topics

Open Document