The mountainous region shows to be a beautiful and lively place until you get stuck within its grasps. The mountains can be a symbol for some people as a version of prison or a place with no escape. Living in the mountains for a long period of time can put you into a socially placed group for people that have a certain way of talking or way of dressing. A common theme that appears within Ron Rash’s stories is that the unknown and unruly territory of the southern Appalachians can be dangerous and foreign to outsiders.…
Reaction: One of the important things to note about Conroy is his sense of humor. He engages the children by making them laugh both at himself and at themselves in order to break the invisible barrier between his life and theirs. He also understood that the children learn more from their parents than him. He learned that he is a influence on their lives and teaching life lessons is an important part of the job as a teacher.…
Author Garth Stein has written multiple popular books but when word of his now New York Times bestseller, The Art of Racing in the Rain, got out, it was thought that he would not be able to pull off a novel from his perspective of choice: a common household pet. But he has done the impossible by taking aspects from his life such as his love of animals, his family and hometown, as well as car racing, then applied it to the fast-paced life of Enzo, a caring, an oddly human-like dog.…
In Bradbury’s story, There Will Come Soft Rains, he personifies many objects in the house. He described the cleaning animals as having eyes and sucking at dust. He personified the clock as being afraid that no one would hear it. At one point he describes the house as being self protective and bordering on paranoia. The door also recognized the dog’s voice. By giving the house and all of its machines a personality, he makes the house appear to be the main character.…
In the poem, “Desert Pilgrimage” by Pat Mora, it dramatizes the conflict between losing the connection with nature and heritage and the desire to keep the connection alive. The speaker walks through a metaphorical desert, which signifies the journey her ancestors took to move from Mexico to the United States, and in this journey, she reconnects with the earth. She spends her day picking flowers, harvesting herbs, and at night she sits on a boulder, looking at the stars. From this admiration of the natural earth, she tries to reconnect with her roots. In specific, she remembers a woman who was a large part of the speaker but now ceases to be in her life. The speaker takes this journey with this woman by looking at aspects of nature that remind her of the woman.…
At the beginning of the book it starts to talk about Ruth, James McBride's, mother. We learn of the life Ruth had and who her family was. Learning that Ruth was Jewish and the her family consisted of two siblings and her parents. The father was Fishel Shilsky and the mother was Hudis Shilsky. These two got an arranged marriage in order to get/stay in the U.S. Fishel, or Tateh (meaning father), was a mean and crude father and never really liked his children. Hudis, or Mameh (meaning mother), was kind of mild and loved her children, but also suffered from polio. Tateh used to be a rabbi, but then moved to the colored part of town and started a business. Mameh never really loved him, but she could not leave him because she could not provide for the…
Maybe it is due to my admiration for nature, but it seems all tribes made great attempts to both explain natural events and create an association of these events with human life. Welch clearly depicts the Blackfoot people as being of this same mind frame. The names and life given to the wind, the sun and various animals’ reports on their own view of the world they live in. The relationship a male Blackfoot has with “his animal” shows this relationship between humans and…
Chris McCandless was a person who every parent would dream of having. He majored in many subjects and graduated with his high honors, but you wouldn't think expect his next step after graduation. In April of 1992, he packed up his bags, abandoned everything he had, and gave the rest of his savings to charity, to go on a journey to Mt. McKinley to start his new life. The story, “Into the Wild” was powerful how Jon Krakauer style of writing made Chris McCandless’s Adventures seem real and even pop out of books to the readers. Krakauer uses many stylistic devices/techniques in order to reveal his tone about Chris McCandless.…
In his novel, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, Matt Taibbi juxtaposes the wealthy and the poor in order to illustrate the disparity between the treatment of high-class criminals and lower-class citizens. The novel also notes the growth of the inequality and the schism between the classes. He uses illuminating narratives from both of the classes to demonstrate the huge difference between the rich and the poor in terms of how they are treated by the American justice system. Taibbi’s book opened my eyes to the extent of this injustice and from that I have learned a great deal, most which I can apply to my position as a Resident Advisor.…
One way Gary Paulsen shows the theme about nature is by using imagery in chapter 1. There, the author says, " Part of the chant of an ancient Navajo prayer rolled through my mind: Beauty above me, Beauty below me, Beauty before me… That is how I felt then frequently still feel when I am running dogs" (Paulsen 3). This piece of evidence explains how Gary Paulsen felt when he was in nature. This made him want to know. Not only is there evidence in Chapter 1, but also evidence In Chapter 8 for imagery describing nature. In chapter 8, the text says," The wind seemed to scream as we cut through the night ... somehow we had gotten in the worst part of the weather" ( Paulsen 80). This quote shows what Paulsen had to go through once. This was…
In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir made himself America's most expressive spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness. A crucial figure in the creation of our national parks system and a visionary forecaster of environmental awareness, he was also a master of natural description who suggested with exceptional power and intimacy the landscapes of the American West. “The Boyhood of a Naturalist” is Muir's account of growing up by the sea in Scotland, of coming to America with his family at age eleven, and of his early fascination with the natural world.…
Cronon mentions John Muir who captures the “romantic sense of domesticates sublime” who says the Sierra Nevada mountains “Are compactly filled with God’s beauty, no petty personal or experience has room to be (Cronon, 6). Muir’s description of nature supports detaching oneself from the wilderness and purposefully avoiding an intimate connection by describing the Sierra Nevada as divine, as opposed to an extended family member like Mauna Kea activists do. Muir’s language support marveling the aesthetically pleasing aspects of nature…
C old Mountain , Charles Frazier’s debut novel, won critical acclaim and the National Book Award for fiction when it was published in 1997. As an author of travel books and short stories, Frazier had ample experience in writing about landscapes and using a condensed prose style. Frazier applied these literary skills in crafting Cold Mountain’s episodic structure and detailed descriptive passages. Frazier’s prose draws on the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the scope of southern novels by authors such as William Faulkner, and the appreciation of nature expressed in the poetry of Walt Whitman. Frazier lives in North Carolina, and his choice of Cold Mountain’s setting along the Blue Ridge Mountains conveys his profound identification with this hallowed terrain.…
John Foulcher writes interesting poetry because he can make the reader see, feel, and think. Summer Rain , demonstrate to the reader that Foulcher’s poetry is not only thought provoking and realistic, but it is also able to capture aspects of society through his unique use of imagery.…
This story, “Hunting Song”, helps us envision the deer hunting tactics of the Navajo people. Although the true moral of this story is terrifying, the author of this poem wrote it in a way that it sounds almost peaceful. He uses beautiful, environmental imagery such as the mountains and dewy flowers to help us picture this scene better in our minds. This story teaches us about the Navajo song writing tradition, their appreciation towards the deer, and their hunting tactics.…