The Good Rain By Timothy Egan Summary
Daniel Kim
English 101 H
A Critical Response to Egan’s “The Good Rain”
Timothy Egan’s “The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest”, explains to the readers about the changes Seattle had gone through in many years in the past. The essay begins as Egan kayaks toward the Elliot Bay, explaining about the change of life in Seattle’s past and present times. He points out how different Seattle looked in the past compare to its looks today. As he states on page 127, “The city has changed its look three times in the last thirty years, and half a dozen times in the last century.” He argues that the process of continuous remodeling has led many hills to be cut in half; some rivers and lake even disappeared. Yet, he also mentions that the city is not finished; argues that no matter how complete the city becomes, every wave of fresh tenants wants to remodel. Egan tells a story about George Vancouver, the first pioneer to explore North West region and target Puget Sound onto a map eventually impacting the region to become populated; full of villages, mansions and cottages. He also tells the reader of how Seattle was named after a person named “Sealth”, a native …show more content…
American who had done great deeds to improve and develop Seattle into one of the most beautiful city as we know of today. Egan seems to be concerned about how overwhelming desire of people is giving immeasurable impact to the scene of nature.
As Egan quoted George Vancouver’s passage on the bottom of page 129 about how beautiful and perfect the region of Seattle was in the past; the climate, abundant fertility, and the landscape. The region of North West was a perfect fit and place for people to live, ultimately leading the nature to be buried on the bottom of the city. Egan seems to be worried about how people’s never ending desire is continuously destroying and bringing only negative impacts to the nature. He seems to transparently say that, as long as mankind lives, people’s desire will continuously develop the city into bigger and more perfect place regardless of how beautiful the nature
is. Personally, I believe that Seattle will continue its phase to evolve into bigger city. Bellevue, which is only twenty minutes away from Seattle by driving is clearly a proof to see how significant impact Seattle is giving to the neighbor area. I meant, Seattle is already beautiful, but it’s not perfect enough to satisfy the tenants, which is the reason why I think Bellevue will go through a constant stage of developments and eventually become a city like Seattle. Just like how Seattle had changed its look three times in past thirty years, I’m guessing that Bellevue will too. Seattle is a great place, definitely one of my favorite. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a real solution to make both people’s life and nature to co-exist together. It seems like one side have to lose it all for other to gain, or live, and I just can’t imagine what people will do even if there was a way to co-exist together.
English 101 H
A Critical Response to Egan’s “The Good Rain”
Timothy Egan’s “The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest”, explains to the readers about the changes Seattle had gone through in many years in the past. The essay begins as Egan kayaks toward the Elliot Bay, explaining about the change of life in Seattle’s past and present times. He points out how different Seattle looked in the past compare to its looks today. As he states on page 127, “The city has changed its look three times in the last thirty years, and half a dozen times in the last century.” He argues that the process of continuous remodeling has led many hills to be cut in half; some rivers and lake even disappeared. Yet, he also mentions that the city is not finished; argues that no matter how complete the city becomes, every wave of fresh tenants wants to remodel. Egan tells a story about George Vancouver, the first pioneer to explore North West region and target Puget Sound onto a map eventually impacting the region to become populated; full of villages, mansions and cottages. He also tells the reader of how Seattle was named after a person named “Sealth”, a native …show more content…
American who had done great deeds to improve and develop Seattle into one of the most beautiful city as we know of today. Egan seems to be concerned about how overwhelming desire of people is giving immeasurable impact to the scene of nature.
As Egan quoted George Vancouver’s passage on the bottom of page 129 about how beautiful and perfect the region of Seattle was in the past; the climate, abundant fertility, and the landscape. The region of North West was a perfect fit and place for people to live, ultimately leading the nature to be buried on the bottom of the city. Egan seems to be worried about how people’s never ending desire is continuously destroying and bringing only negative impacts to the nature. He seems to transparently say that, as long as mankind lives, people’s desire will continuously develop the city into bigger and more perfect place regardless of how beautiful the nature
is. Personally, I believe that Seattle will continue its phase to evolve into bigger city. Bellevue, which is only twenty minutes away from Seattle by driving is clearly a proof to see how significant impact Seattle is giving to the neighbor area. I meant, Seattle is already beautiful, but it’s not perfect enough to satisfy the tenants, which is the reason why I think Bellevue will go through a constant stage of developments and eventually become a city like Seattle. Just like how Seattle had changed its look three times in past thirty years, I’m guessing that Bellevue will too. Seattle is a great place, definitely one of my favorite. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a real solution to make both people’s life and nature to co-exist together. It seems like one side have to lose it all for other to gain, or live, and I just can’t imagine what people will do even if there was a way to co-exist together.