The following essay, "A Summer Life", Gary Soto expresses his guilty and impure lifestyle as a six-year-old boy. Soto uses many literary devices during his recreation of an experience he had as a boy to show his guilt and regret; furthermore, he also exemplifies the joy and thrill that his younger self-believed. Soto's use of diction expresses the evils inside him as a six-year-old; though, he uses the device also to show his guilt now as an adult. He wasn't sinful all the time he was driven to it.
The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell by Kristiana Gregory is a fictional story set in 1857 that tells about how the immigrants from the new colonies traveled to Oregon to restart their lives with their family. Along the way, immigrants suffered from poisonous foods, exhausted animals who pull the family’s wagon with all of their belongings, and the struggles of illnesses and the loss of friends. On the trip, people from the new colonies traveled in wagon trains and made giant circles when camping overnight. Along the trek to Oregon, numerous people died, some drowned or were sick, and some got lost looking for food for their meals. Some women would get ill too, but would later find out they were pregnant and would have a baby during the journey.
In "Natural Bridge/Rogue River Canyon," Paul Halupa draws a picture of two dominate forces, a wall of lava and a river. Both the lava and the river are metaphors, lava being the inevitable end of life and the river is the present life that is unstoppable; raging towards the lava. Halupa overall tone isn't sad, but understanding. He understands that people work hard all their life; moving fast and not appreciating how short life is. Halupa’s poem expresses the human condition is like a match, it has an explosive start, then stays consistent till it slows down and burns out.
A Summer Life by Gary Soto is a story about the time where he sinned at six years of age. In this story he steals an apple pie from a market and goes to back to where he lives. He starts to feel guilty about the sin that he committed. During this experience he goes through three personal stages of fear. Soto goes through the details of his guilt for the incident and shares fear of divine punishment, anxiety about the community’s reproach, and disappointment in himself.
John Muir was naturalist, author, philosopher, and a great advocate for preservation in which he took interest in since he was very young. Later in his life, he wrote many letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature which were read by millions. His most powerful quote consisted of few words, “Climb the mountain and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as the sunshine into the trees Although both Gifford Pinchot and John Muir sought the need of nature in humanity, their views greatly differed. Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation’s natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use. On the other hand, Muir sided more with preserving the land than conserving (Muir, John).
Francis Parkman wrote an important document about The Oregon Trail. Francis was born in Massachusetts,Boston but then sent off to his grandfather because he was a poor health child. He was born on september 16, 1823. At age 16 Parkman enrolled in Harvard and was accepted. Francis’s father wanted him to be a lawyer instead of Francis’s desire, journalism.
Since the beginning of the book, Bill Bryson describes Katz unwillingness to take on the challenges from hiking the Appalachian Trail. He does not understand why Katz agrees to hike with him, and Katz does not know what he got himself into. Bryson constantly describes Katz’s immature behavior and outlook towards the hike. However in this passage, Bryson shows Katz’s attempt to change his attitude by revealing his inner thoughts concerning the woods. Bryson reveals Katz’s occasional thoughts of viewing nature using positive words such as “admiration” and “marvel”.
My overall impression of the book generally good. I enjoyed reading the many essays written by Aldo Leopold. The book has influenced me to look at the world through his eyes and mind set. He sees nature are his companion and friend. Many of the essays in A Sand County Almanac relate to Richard T. Wright’s book Environmental Science.
One Man’s Wilderness: an Alaskan odyssey, by Richard Proenneke is a true story of the authors trip into the Twin Lakes region of the deep Alaskan wilderness. Richard was sick for a long time and after he got better, he then decides to live to the extreme because his time was valuable. One Man’s Wilderness: an Alaskan odyssey and Into the Wild are similar because both authors were adventurous people who kept documents of their journey. Richard hiked many miles throughout the Alaskan territory and he was sure to never rush his hikes and he took in all of the breath taking views that he so much admired. Chris McCandless in Into the Wild is similar to the author because they both test their limits in the outdoors.
California Hills in August is a poem by Dana Gioia. The first stanza explains how a person can understand why someone might look at California hills and think how can they possibly produce anything other than weeds and dirt. The author starts to progress things by talking about how easterners scorn the hills of California. Lastly the poem states that only it’s natives can truly appreciate the beauty of this wonderous place, people call their home. The theme of this poem is quite simple and obvious that there’s a certain beauty for this land only a Californian native can truly apricate.
In his autobiographical narrative, A Summer Life, Gary Soto recreates his experience of his guilty six-year-old self, who stole an apple pie. Through his narrative Gary Soto retells his guilt through the usage of contrast, imagery, and allusion. Soto uses contrast such as “hell, holy...shadow,angle,light” in order to show the reader his knowledge of what he thinks the meaning of good and bad is. In paragraph two he states that “Boredom made me sin”(Soto 7). This quote shows that Soto knew what the consequences of stealing is, but he still decides to steal the apple pie.
Muir describes this day as "one of those incomparable bits of California winter, warm and balmy and full of white sparkling sunshine, redolent of all the purest influences of the spring. " His journey began in December of 1874, as he was
The perception of wilderness can be problematic. One of the most prominent points that Cronon made in his evaluation is the ideology that wilderness is an illusion to escape reality. This perception can be ambiguous because it segregates humanity from nature, by establishing the idea that wilderness is separate from everyday life. Also, Cronon calls attention to the issue of dividing the land and calling it wilderness. The issue of this isolation is that it disintegrates humans and nature, rather than bringing them more in unity.
Aldo Leopold was a huge contributor to the revolution of conservation in the 20th century. He introduced the idea of a dynamic, non-equilibrium perspective into conservation biology, specifically with his book The Sand County Almanac, written in 1949. His contribution to the American wilderness movement involved the ecological land ethic, which enlarged the boundaries of the community to include soils, water, plants, and animals. He addressed philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation and how we can obtain natural resources in a way that does not create detrimental damage to the surrounding ecosystem and species involved. He also believed that this world was not intended for man to take what he wants, but for us to preserve a relationship
The Calypso Borealis adventure was a difficult challenge to overcome but in the end, it was worth it for Muir. Wordsworth has strong feelings for the daffodils and nature. "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. "-MLK. Wordsworth and Muir express their strong connection and passion they have for nature using similes and personification to describe the way they feel about Nature to the readers.
