Preview

What Does Smokey Bear Symbolize

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
365 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Does Smokey Bear Symbolize
This week’s reading in Understories by Jake Kosek was Chapter 5, which is simply, yet powerfully titled “Smokey Bear is a White Racist Pig”. In this chapter, Kosek insightfully argues that Smokey Bear is a symbol of the exclusionary, racist and nationalist history, that is engrained in the U.S. Forest Service. What has allowed Smokey to become such a long-standing symbol, even with all this tension and hate filled history?
Kosek opens by portraying the disdain that many local residents have for Smokey in New Mexico, claiming the bear is a constant reminder that the woods are no longer the Chicanos and acts as a “prison guard” who keeps these unwanted people out. As well as highlighting the opposing and more common view that Smokey is “a symbol
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Alone on a Mountaintop Summary
    • 339 Words
    • 1 Page

    Alone on a Mountaintop Summary

    In “Alone in a Mountaintop”, an excerpt from Lonesome Traveler (1960), Jack Kerouac describes his journey west as “a fire lookout”.…

    • 339 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Sand County Almanac: Summary
    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Sand County Almanac: Summary

    In this part of the essay I can see the relationship that developed between Leopold and the Oak tree. Leopold believes this tree and all other Oaks are special because they has beat all the odds he states, “Only one acorn in a thousand ever grew large enough to fight rabbits; the rest were drowned at birth in the prairie sea” (8). This section stood out to me because trees seem like a very common occurrence. I see them every day. It never occurred to me that they fight to live and to grow. When Leopold learns of the death this tree he and his fellow woodsmen mourn the loss as if it were a person (9). Leopold knows this tree has lived through a lifetime of experiences. Leopold states, “Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut, and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer (9, 10). To Leopold trees are history. Ever since I was a child I always regarded Earth and its nature as a museum. All the trees I saw as a little kid were there long before I was and will be there long after I am gone. Reading the essay “Good Oak” confirmed my belief about the connection between history and…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Arkansas/Arkansaw Book Review
    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Arkansas/Arkansaw Book Review

    Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State. Brooks Blevins. Fayetteville, AR. 2009. 242 pages…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Chris McCandless Story: The Author’s Perspective
    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Chris McCandless Story: The Author’s Perspective

    Christopher Johnson McCandless was an American hiker who adopted the alias Alexander Supertramp and ventured into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment, hoping to live simply for a time in solitude. Little did his family and friends know, but when Chris stepped into the Alaskan wilderness, he would never come out alive. Jon Krakauer documents Chris’s journey and the people he met on the way to his final destination. He struggled throughout his chronicling of Chris’s life to determine what drove Chris to leave his family and friends and go into the wild. Krakauer interrupted McCandless’ story with fragments of a narrative drawn from his own youth and experiences because he knew he could help the reader better understand the reasons why Chris went into the wild.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Jacoby Crimes Against Nature Summary
    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Karl Jacoby Crimes Against Nature Summary

    One of the important questions that is simple but yet compelling is the question of who actually lived in The Adirondacks, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon before they became national parks in the United States? Karl Jacoby asks this question in the novel Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation. Most people would focus on the positive efforts to protect nature in environmental tends but Jacoby examines the negative aspects of how nature was mistreated. In Crimes Against Nature, Jacoby argues that the history of the Conservation Movement has two sides. Jacoby seeks to challenge the traditional history of protection of the environment and nature. Jacoby describes that the narrative of conservation is more…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In How To Read Literature Like A Professor, By Joseph Conrad
    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Symbolism In How To Read Literature Like A Professor, By Joseph Conrad

    Marlow, the narrator, while trying to relax underneath a tree, comments harshly on the white worsted around an African American’s neck: “it looked startling around his black neck, this bit of white thread” [...] “Where did he get it?” (Conrad). The opposed colors between the thread and the native’s skin create a shock for Marlow. He does not believe the native is fit to have such a refined “thread from beyond the seas” (Conrad); only Europeans should be privied to objects as fine as the worsted. This self-aggrandizement shadows the obvious problems at the Company Station which Marlow has no desire and initiative to solve. The lives of the African American “criminals” does not need to be harsh, yet without Marlow realizing that the natives and himself and equals, he puts them in harm's way. Conrad also uses ill-omened imagery of a tree in Marlow’s stop to criticize European’s, Marlow’s in particular, self-aggrandizement. This tree is where all of the African Americans come to rest from disease and eventually die. Conrad describes it as a “gloomy circle of some Inferno” where “bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up” with “ attitudes of pain, abandonment and despair.” The natives “were nothing earthly now--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation.” This ominous imagery creates a sense of apprehension for the reader and for Marlow who becomes…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Environmentalism's Racist History Summary
    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Environmentalism's Racist History Summary

    From the article, it is apparent that Grant considered destructions of different species of both plants and animals as environmental racism. Thus, he continuously called for conservation, preservation, and safeguarding the endangered human race, animal, and plant species in the American society. According to Jedediah Purdy, a writer for the New Yorker, Grant regarded conservation and access to wildlife and public land as a measure of character. The Grant’s idea was considered the “America’s best idea” (Purdy 01). It is further noted that Grant’s initiative to conserve the endangered trees and wildlife species influence many people nationally and internationally including Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler among others. Grant further called for the protection of a human race, the “Nordic” people. He regarded the Nordic as a special natural aristocracy group of people. According to Grant, the Nordics were “marked by noble, generous instincts and a gift for political self-governance, who were being overtaken by the “Alpine” and “Mediterranean” populations” (Purdy 01); thus, they were vulnerable and required protection and preserving. Therefore, Grant’s environmental racism targeted protection, preservation, and conservation of endangered human race, wildlife, and plant…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Barn Burning - A Symbolism Analysis

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Barn Burning - A Symbolism Analysis

    In William Faulkner's 1939 short story "Barn Burning," a young boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), is faced with and forced to endure the abusive and destructive tendencies of his father, Abner Snopes. As the story unfolds, several examples can be found to illustrate Faulkner's use of symbolism to allow the reader to sense the disgust for Abner Snopes, the significance in the lack of color usage throughout the story, and finally, Sarty's journey.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The View from the Bottom Rail
    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The View from the Bottom Rail

    In today’s society, racism and stereotyping occur in every aspect of life. No one should ever take anything for face value before they examine it first. In reading the narrative, “The View from the Bottom Rail” by James Davidson and Mark Lytle and “Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas” by Harold Bloom. I became very aware on how American history can be looked at as one sided or bias. Even in today’s society, there is still a lot of biasness presented in American history that is told when it is related to the history of slavery. For us to understand history, we must enable ourselves to look deeper into the articles and examine the prejudices and the source of information that is left out before accepting the validity of the article.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Luther Standing Bear
    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Luther Standing Bear

    Koster, John. "Luther Standing Bear Went From Pine Ridge To Carlisle To Hollywood." Wild West 25.5 (2013): 22-23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 May 2013.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pinchot's Conservation Movement
    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pinchot's Conservation Movement

    T.H. Watkins argues that the movement did preserve the environment because of Gifford Pinchot’s role with the forest. Watkins states, “President Roosevelt would establish the first federal wildlife refuge” (158), and the forest will be handed to Pinchot’s care. He became the first the nation’s first chief forester and divided land with rangers in charge of each land to make sure laws were followed. Watkins states, “Individual forests were divided up into management units, each with its own ranger or ranger force, and administrative headquarters were established” (159). Roosevelt and Pinchot’s efforts made a huge difference in the forests…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Whiteness of Ceremony
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Whiteness of Ceremony

    The first example of “whiteness” is illustrated by Tayo, a half-breed Pueblo Indian and the protagonist of the novel, who was “mentally damaged after his time in the white man’s war” (Cutchins 77). His experiences left him unable to think clearly, and he kept flashing back to his experiences in the war. He was highly medicated at the veteran’s hospital. His thoughts were scattered into white smoke. The doctors had him heavily medicated for a while; “For a long time he had been white smoke” (Silko 13). The white smoke symbolizes nothingness “because white smoke had no consciousness” (Silko 13). His thoughts were white smoke. His body was white smoke. White smoke was nothing. He was nothing. The perfect example of white smoke and the nothingness that it embodies.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Sorrow of War Mythical Creatures
    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sorrow of War Mythical Creatures

    The wilderness is not a person as such, but rather an ominous, brooding, and omnipotent force that continually watches the "fantastic invasion" of the white man. The activities of the white people are viewed throughout the book as insane and pointless. They spend their existence grubbing for ivory or plotting against each other for position and status within their own environment. Their whole society seems to have an air of unreality about it. It is as if they are building their whole lives on nothing more substantial than a morning mist, easily blown away by the merest puff of wind. Marlow comments: "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it . . . I've never seen anything so unreal in my life" (37). In contrast, the wilderness appears solid, immovable, and ominously threatening. During Marlow's stay at the Central Station, he describes the surrounding wilderness as a "rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to . . . sweep every little man of us out of his little existence" (49). It is difficult to say, however, what the intentions of the wilderness actually are. We see the wilderness entirely through Marlow's eyes, and it is always somewhat of an enigma. It is "an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention" (56).…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Appearance Vs. Reality In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Appearance Vs. Reality In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” we are met with the challenge of determining appearance vs. reality. Throughout the story Brown faces many things he does not know to be true or false. Some of these are the symbol of the woods, plot of the meeting in the woods, and the character of the townspeople.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Young Goodman Brown
    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Young Goodman Brown

    The next use of symbolism is the setting of the journey and meeting in the woods. Early Americans looked at the woods as a test of strength, bravery and endurance. It took a lot of courage for someone to enter the forest because it was unknown territory and they would not emerge the same. "He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all gloomiest trees of the forest…that the traveler knows not who may be…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics