Introduction Anne Fadiman is an American journalist and widely recognized for writing about critical and sensitive issues of the society. In the famous work ' In the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down', the author has focused on critically examining the intense collision between two different cultures, American and Hmong, by referring the case of Lia Lee (Fadiman, 1997), where Lee has been portrayed to be quite young and not physically well to speak for herself.…
Never has a man left the embrace of nature once he found himself enamored by it; this infatuation is found in both John Muir’s and Aldo Leopold’s writing, a sense of wanting to protect this deity they call Mother Nature, a moral and ethical responsibility which every human being has to this Mother. Both John Muir and Aldo Leopold recount their almost romantic encounter with Mother Nature in their books Our National Parks and A Sand County Almanac, respectively. However, in both books it is notable that each man carries instilled in the very fiber of their being a sense of dissatisfaction toward the process of mechanization and industrialization; processes which unfortunately…
In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass, she makes a compelling argument for the planet’s sustainability. Through several chapters, she illustrates how, despite how the Earth provides for all of our needs, we do not repay the favour and instead destroy the life it has left. We are not realizing the value of preserving the environment; instead, we are adapting to the thought that the extended use of fossil fuels is typical, climate change is irreversible, environmental pollution is an unfixable problem, endangered species are beyond salvation, and society has become increasingly disconnected to the planet as it once was. Kimmerer articulates this throughout multiple chapters.…
There are so many bad things in this world and the environment is one of them bad things. Our environment will never just go away but it’s definitely needs to change. It’s causing damage to our friends and family, it’s taking away all of our animals, and it’s hurting the world we know around us. If we don’t do something about it, will the world’s population go down because of a great amount of people dying? Will the animals become extinct and no one ever talk about them again? Will the oceans be able to hold their ground and keep producing the oxygen it’s giving us? Throughout this essay, Sandra Steingraber does a great job using ethos, pathos, and logos while talking about the environment and the issues it is causing to the people and the…
Terry Tempest William’s written essay, “A Shark in the Mind of One Contemplating Wilderness,” delivers to us, with intended purpose using shocking truths of greed and destruction. Actions took under the cloak and disguise of the needs of civilization, creating more jobs, or even to boost the rich man’s governmental legacy of our badly raped and abused national economy. How continued acts of greed and wanton disregard for the environment, are endangering nature the wilderness areas we have sought to protect? Acts that leave behind damage and destruction where once nature and wilderness thrived. A land no longer able to maintain and support the natural balance of the animal populations as it once did.…
The flora and fauna of the world is delightful to humankind, much like a popsicle might be a delight to an individual. When one considers the rainforests and the deforestation that takes place there in order to support a growing human population, this relates to the consumption of the popsicle. People may neglect to think about the consequences of deforestation or the use of fossil fuels, even though they may be a participant in these processes through their consumption of paper products or devices that need energy. The person consuming the popsicle might also be in denial about the impermanence of the popsicle, or the consequences of consuming it. Russ Crest, an author at Beautiful Decay magazine, says of Myers and Berg’s work; “ Sometimes something must be broken or fractured in order for us to see its value. This may be especially true for our environment. Only when we see the consequences of our actions do we begin to understand our complicity in fracturing it” (Crest). People do not notice the destruction of the environment until awareness is brought to it, either in their real life or in news media. Until then, people take nature for…
Duty and responsibility to the living and non living aspects of Earth seems reasonably obvious to the common person. Humanity has been gifted with awe-inspiring and picturesque scenery and worthy resources that have allowed us to evolve past the belittled ape or animal. Yet, even through our actions in past and present, humanity has shown an aptitude for non-committal towards their obligation to the very thing that provides them with life. The over-industrialised world, monopolistic commercialism and disreputable capitalism have led to the metaphorical hell on earth represented in Scott’s panorama of…
"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" the book by Anne Fadiman is an interesting book that contains different situations where different cultures and traditions clashes as a result of different barriers. In this brief work I tried to shed light on some of these barriers that could exist in our clinical practice and how these barriers could be understood in different cultures. On the other hand, there is no doubt that cultural differences play an important role in problems analysis as well as the illness differential diagnosis, that is why it is important for policy makers and legislatives to set goals that help in including people from diverse cultures into health care systems such as the one of the United States of America. Finally,…
In “ Everybody’s Guilty – The Ecological Dilemma, “ author and professor of Human Ecology at University of California, Santa Barbara, Garrett Hardin, explains the current issue with invisible reverberations. Hardin calls attention to the readers about how innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment. “ We all acquiesce in the system of arrangements and practices that has created our ecological crisis” (Hardin, 40). In order to approve of our actions, individuals tend to hide from reality behind symbols and/or words. Incorporating rhetoric into our everyday lives does this.…
Environmentalists argue that Northern big cities have prevented one from fully connecting with nature. This proves to be evident in Jerry Mander’s essay “The Walling of Awareness” and bell hooks’ “Touching the Earth.” In “The Walling of Awareness,” Mander examines how the construction of big cities has impaired people’s relationship with nature. Similarly in bell hooks’ “Touching the Earth”, she argues that when the blacks migrated to the North they suffered both physically and mentally from their lost relationship with the land. Although Mander and hooks agree that we are disconnected to nature, both examine these losses and its consequences differently by their proposals to restore the lost connections. Mander suggests that we remove technology and return the earth to its true nature and hooks advise that we look towards our ancestors to help restore our relationship with the land.…
She says, “Man is a great blunderer going about in the woods… There is no scavenger that eats tin cans, and no wild thing leaves a like disfigurement on the forest floor” (Austin, 139). Humans are the external force that wreak havoc with nature. They disrupt the balance by leaving a trace and do not respect how it is. Humans view nature as a material resource at their disposal, when it truly belongs to no one.…
The comic strip, “A Short History of America,” rendered by Robert Crumb delivers an incredibly clear and significant message that illustrates the inevitable change and continual destruction of our environment. The central message further details that as our populous continues to increase, so does the congestion of our cities and the depletion of our natural resources. I would define my position in the audience as being sympathetic as I already acknowledge the fact that the world is consistently changing and do not need further persuasion. However, I find it fathomable that Robert Crumb was trying to reach audiences that are either neutral or resistant. By providing a progression of frames that exemplifies the changes that have already occurred, viewers can clearly see how people have overtaken nature and littered it with manufactured items.…
Over the years, the planet’s luscious greenery, vast bodies of ocean, and clear blue skies have declined at a steady rate with the overtake of industrial buildings and pollution from technology . For the explorers and hard-core transcendentalists who devote themselves to living on the healthy and undeveloped parts of the world, nature and “the life and simple beauty of it is too good to pass up.” (McCandless 12/7/16) If technological advancements continue to occupy most of Earth, this appreciative view of the planet will no longer be attractive to those whose lives depend and thrive upon its bare soil. To some Transcendentalist preachers, like Henry David Thoreau, nature is also perceived as “daily to be shown matter to come in contact with,” giving people a chance to ask “Who are we?…
Whatever produce man deserves they can get it at any store, be it crops we have grown, meats from animals we breed, or chemicals needed to produce pills. We are untouchable, and we can grow and provide for ourselves without limits, we believe there is no termination to the amount of intelligence, productivity and self-advancement that can be fulfilled. In recent years, evidence has shown that man's actions towards the environment is critical. First came global warming due to industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon, then came species that are endangered or rare due to man having total control of land. Evidently, man’s culture is currently affecting the nature we live in, the current personification of humanity, which is currently at flaw, but man believe to be successful comes with a strand attached. We can choose to stay on the same path we are currently in until the world is destroyed. Most of us are aware of the effects industrialization has on the planet but part of humanity has given up hope that the world we live in would ever be saved and we lost interest in…
In Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and you Fall Down is a book about the Hmong people coming to America and how they are treated in the American Health System. This book is an amazing book and is extremely intriguing and helps you learn more about culture sensitivity. This book focuses on culture sensitivity. It talks about a specific family known as the Lee family and how they struggle to communicate their beliefs on treatments. It also focuses on language barriers that are presented by refugees and foreigners. The Lees know their daughter has a serious illness and should be treated, but they are not sure how to administer the drugs the doctor prescribes. This book also provides substantial information on the history of the Hmong…