In the late 1800s, the South Umpqua River has been viewed as a potential money saver because of delivery prices. Since then, humans have changed its natural course. These actions, in turn, have caused the land to become much more productive for farmers and other residents, but a lot less productive to nature. Robert Heilman writes the story, “Who Owns the River?” in his book, Overstory: Zero with the intention to inform readers about the not- so natural causes of smaller wildlife population and climate changes. Heilman does an excellent job of using metaphors, personal experience, and scientific facts to show readers that he has done proper research. Robert Heilman’s story was written with the proper usage of scientific information, creativeness, …show more content…
“It is easier now to forget just how important the river is to our lives because it is always there, present in just about everything we do.” He goes on to explain that the people of the Umpqua tend to forget just how much they rely on its resources. Whether they use it for farm irrigation, fishing, or swimming, almost every person who lives in the land of the Umpqua has some sort of use for the river. It is hard for residents to appreciate the river to the full extent because it is always present and readily available for use at all times. He compares the local river to what used to be the Los Angeles River, but is now nothing but a concrete drain. Heilman’s fear is that the South Umpqua River will become just as underappreciated as the Los Angeles River is today. Heilman uses the perfect comparison between these two places. He explains, using a unique analogy, that if the people of the Umpqua continue to ignore the greatness of the South Umpqua River, it will eventually be nothing but a concrete drain, just as the river in Los …show more content…
Statistics and mathematical equations make stories, articles, and other forms of literature hard to translate for people who are not used to listening to scientists. Heilman is different because he writes with a natural flow that can be understood by all kinds of audiences. The primary audience is, in all likelihood, from the Douglas County area and can relate to his experiences or memories with the South Umpqua River. This makes it a lot easier for the audience to grasp his concepts because their residency gives them a visual aid. Chances are, a lot of the people who are reading the story have learned the same things about the area’s history as the author has. “I recalled passages from settlers’ diaries which mentioned the huge flocks of waterfowl, so thick that to hunt them they simply startled the birds into flight and fired randomly into the air, bringing down ducks and geese with every shotgun blast. Where had these uncountable thousands of birds lived and why weren’t they around anymore?” There are a lot of hunters in the Umpqua area, specifically waterfowl huntsman. If they are familiar at all with the history of waterfowl population, they have most likely known about the overpopulation that existed many years ago. Heilman uses a smooth, informative tone to teach readers about the wildlife populations and
Peter Skene Ogden was a very successful trapper and explorer without him the territory that now makes up the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah Idaho and Montana would remain undiscovered. The document “PETER SKENE OGDEN 'S JOURNAL OF HIS EXPEDITION TO UTAH, 1825” gives details about one of his most famous expeditions. It is significant because it shows what Ogden and his group experienced and the hardships they had to overcome. It also lays out a map of which way Ogden traveled with his group. Ogden was a Canadian by birth, but was a descendant of early American Ancestors.
Jimmy Carter wrote this essay to persuade his audience that industry should not develop Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for its resources . Carter used evidence, such as facts and examples to support his claim. In Carter’s writing, he clearly shows the reader how the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remains America’s last truly great wilderness. Many animals live there, for example, the polar bears, caribou, Dall sheep, and wolves.
David Baron’s “The Beast in the Garden” primarily follows the life of Michael Sanders, a biologist working mainly in Boulder, Colorado. Michael’s mission throughout the story is the study and prediction of the dangers of urban cougars. Living in a city of staunch environmentalists, Michael’s attempts to sway public opinion is a daunting task. As it would seem, the majority of Boulder environmentalists value cougar’s lives over human lives. Michael Sanders is a middle aged biologist, originally from a small town in Tennessee.
Because Brower views the island differently than he views the mountain and the river, he is able to compromise on developing the island without going against his philosophy, unlike he would if compromising on mining the mountain or adding dams to the river. McPhee’s use of the principle of narrative completeness with the Sierra Club cup helps to explain to readers why the degree of conservation that Brower is preaching is less on the
“The Atchafalaya” is an article by John McPhee, concerning the flow of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya region. McPhee interviews several people who have jobs related to the river and the maintenance of the Atchafalaya’s water flow. The location of the Mississippi River is crucial because if it moves, it could potentially destroy all of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and, subsequently, their status as major shipping channels. Reading this article, I gained more insight on the importance of the river for the state of Louisiana and New Orleans. A quote in the article summarizes the reoccurring theme of society versus Mother Nature: “Man against nature.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a film that the focuses on the Louisiana levee as a barrier between two completely different ways of living. Benh Zeitlin uses the community of The Bathtub to shine a different light on poverty. He discusses the idea that not all people share the belief that the higher your quality of life is, the happier you are. In fact, the people of The Bathtub do not have a linear view of socioeconomic circumstance at all.
Drawing on experience for inspiration, Barbara Kingsolver writes books that are influenced by her life. The psychological school of criticism analyzes an author’s life and finds the underlying patterns within their works. Knowing Kingsolver’s background is necessary in order to see the parallels between her life and work. In Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams, the main character has aspirations, a paternal relationship and personal beliefs similar to Kingsolver’s experiences. The psychological school of criticism is the best approach to use when analyzing Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams because it shows the underlying similarities between Kingsolver’s book and life.
Twains essay “Two Ways of seeing a River” shows a complex usage of literary tropes. Throughout the text twain establishes a love for the beauty and features of the river; however, The text transitions this voice to one in which only the purpose of the river is seen. The river becomes linked to twain through these viewpoints. This allows for a Pedagogy to develop in which a Master-Student relationship is created. To create the pedagogical link between twain and the river we must first begin to construct the context, which through irony the text begins to craft the master and novice perspective.
A survivor is with no doubt a hero, a survivor has lived through emotional hardships, and unexplainable events that seem unreal to anyone who did not go through them. Survivors still manage to persevere when times get hard and push on because they know it is the only way that can save their lives. Many of the stories compare to each other when looking deep into the details of a story. The article “Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die” by John Blake relates to the third article “Survival Tips” because Kiley uses one of the strategies, which is tip number five. The second comparison is between the second article “Teen Girl Survives Plane Crash” and the third article “Survival Tips” because Autumn Veatch does a similar technique to the one talked about in tip number six.
Throughout Twain’s time on the river, his view on it changes. When he started, he was focused on the beauty that it gave and the story that it told. As he discovered everything about the river, his view of it changed. When Twain is exploring the river, he talks about how it is like a book.
In "Two Ways of Seeing a River," author Mark Twain compares and contrasts the way he perceives the river before and after he became a steamboat pilot. Before learning the science of steam boating, Twain did not consider that the blood orange reflection of the sun in the water and the solitary floating log could be anything other than beautiful. Now a pilot of a steamboat, Twain sees his once beautiful sun now only means that he will experience wind tomorrow, and that his free floating log simply indicates the rising of the river. For Twain, the knowledge of how things work dirtied the beautiful simplicity of his river, reducing it to a dull, spiritless waterway. I do not feel the same as Twain.
Within the excerpt Life on the Mississippi, the author Mark Twain, applies imagery in order to portray how his perspective towards his surrounding environment gradually altered as he began to truly contemplate and identify the Mississippi River. By first scrutinizing his surroundings the author emphasizes the magnificence of the river as this was his initial outlook towards the river. This perspective ultimately diminishes as a result of the speaker comprehending the true connotation of the Mississippi River. Nonetheless, the author questions whether acquiring knowledge can truly benefit an individual or impede one from being open-minded to their surroundings. Twains initial depiction of the Mississippi River is quite positive as conveys
The novel Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King is very interesting, the book contains a non-linear storyline with five different characters, along with a unknown narrator and coyote, and plot lines which at times can be very hard to follow, however the novel always keeps you on the edge of your seat with the stories on each characters allowing the book to flow. This is a very heavy novel to read since it includes descriptions of how first nations were treated at fort marion. In this essay, I hope to show the way the elders contribute to the story. In the novel, the elders play an important role in the story. More specifically, they bring everyone together at the end of the book, and they, along with coyote cause the earthquake that kills Eli.
The possible metaphor of how a flood devastates a village could be compared to how the new Europeans pushed the Native Americans out of their homelands and sent them farther west. Even though this is a thing of the past, the true meaning of this poem could still be applied today. Everyone’s beliefs, values, and traditions are not all the same, and there will never be only one that everyone would agree to, but everyone’s way of life should be respected. Forcing the Native Americans out and killing them if they resisted prevented the preservation of ideas, which means that invaluable information and new ideas were also lost in the process. In the present day, we know how inhumane that was, but we should know that individuality is a very key aspect of our life and is something that we should
The Swimmer Nature. “The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.” That defi-nition sets up two contrasts that are central in The Swimmer by S.J. Butler: man vs. nature. In order to explain how the two perform side by side in this short story, I will analyze setting and the devel-opment in the protagonist of the story as well as symbolism of a few somethings.