Week 7 Reflection

The polar extremes Abbey discusses are either being such an environmentalist fanatic or not caring about the parks at all and wanting to purposefully ruin them.  His writing style is very informal and makes the reader feel like they can relate well.  He is very funny, so I do enjoy his writing style quite a lot.  I feel like I can relate well to him and that we understand each other.

Week 6 Reflection

The argument in the text "Wildlife in American Culture" is that society is having a very negative impact on the environment.  I think that Leopold is right because we really could be better about preserving our natural resources.  We need to be doing all we can to help save our earth.  I am not a hunter, but I think a hunter would still think that although we need to help preserve our natural resources, we should still be able to hunt and use the animals for food.  I think that people from the East Coast wouldn't care about our natural resources as much because they don't have as many mountains or wide open spaces there.  They wouldn't care as much because they haven't seen how beautiful the earth can be if we don't pollute it.

A Fable for Tomorrow

Page 370.  The general argument made by Rachel Carson in her work A Fable for Tomorrow is that if humankind is not careful, we could lose all the beauty around us.  More specifically, Carson suggests that no one can take this beauty from us, but ourselves.  She writes, “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world.  The people had done it themselves” (p. 371).  In this passage, Carson I suggesting that unless society starts to take better care of the earth, all of the beautiful things we enjoy could simply disappear and we wouldn’t know what to do to get them back.  In conclusion, it is Carson’s belief that we need to take care of the earth we live in to enjoy it’s beauty.

            In my view, Carson is right because no one is going to take care of the earth or destroy the earth except for our society because we are the ones that make decisions to either help or harm the earth.  For example, we can help the earth by either carpooling or riding our bikes more often instead of buying and driving inefficient fueled vehicles that cause carbon monoxide poisoning in the air.  Although Carson might object that it’s not too late to turn back from this point, I maintain that if everyone starts making healthier decisions for our earth, we can turn back and make the earth a better place.  Therefore, I conclude that making the earth a better place for everyone, including the earth itself, should be everyone’s number one priority because without the earth, we couldn’t survive.

Easter's End

Page 425.  The general point made by Jared Diamond in his work Easter’s End is that if societies use up their resources, they become extinct.  More specifically, Diamond suggests that if American society doesn’t learn from the Easter Islanders mistakes, we will end up like them.  He writes, “unlike the Easter Islanders, we have histories of the past –information that can save us” (p. 431).  In this passage, Diamond is suggesting that we can save ourselves and learn from past mistakes of others.  In conclusion, it is Diamond’s belief that we can save ourselves from the fate of cultures like the Easter Islanders if we use our resources wisely and start living differently.

            In my view, Diamond is right because society needs to realize how wasteful we are being of our resources and start coming up with a plan to save our earth.  For example, if everyone were to start realizing that we don’t need buildings everywhere and we don’t need our inefficiently fueled cars as much as everyone thinks we do, our earth would start to somewhat recover slowly.  Although Diamond might object that people won’t resist this change, I maintain that although people will resist, the change will be well worth it to continue our society.  Therefore, I conclude that we need to learn from past mistakes and society needs to start making better decisions to help our earth recover before it is too late.

The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School started in 1825 and ended in 1880.  The purpose of the Hudson River School was to help young artists view the landscape of America and romanticize it.  Some of the unique characteristics in the paintings created at the HRS were the many trees, open fields, waterfalls, mountains, dramatic sunsets, and especially the spiritual light coming from above.  There weren’t any animals in any of the paintings because if the artists wanted to romanticize the landscape, they needed to show how beautiful and safe it was, rather than how scary and dark it can really be.  Almost all of the paintings were very bright and happy.  The paintings made you feel like you would feel much better if you were to spend more time in nature rather than in the city.  Europeans did not have any open wilderness at this time such as America had, and Europeans envied that.  They wanted to be able to live in the free, open air as Americans did and still do today in some cases.  After these paintings were viewed by Europeans, they would want to move to America.  The settings of the paintings looked very realistic, but also looked unrealistic because it was so bright and beautiful with all of the waterfalls, open space, and vivid light.  Some Europeans didn’t believe these were realistic because of those things.  They didn’t believe such beautiful places could exist.

            Autumn – On the Hudson River by Jasper Francis Cropsey is a painting created at the HRS in 1860.  The HRS really got it’s name from this painting.  It is one of the most famous because of that reason.  Cropsey taught himself to draw while younger in his life (Belson & Henderson, 2011).  He specialized in autumn landscapes so he used many bright colors as well as a lot of light.  He mostly portrayed nature through this season.  His work reflected the ideals of the HRS and Romanticism in the American West by always showing the sunny side of things, literally.  None of his paintings are dark or dreary, and all have very bright colors because he chose to mostly paint autumn landscapes.

            Another piece from the HRS is Rainy Season in the Tropics by Frederic Church.  He became Thomas Cole’s only pupil at age 18, and soon thereafter started exhibiting his work (Belson & Henderson, 2011).  He loved doing paintings of the arctic as well as the tropics.  Church portrayed nature as very bright but calm.  He loved doing paintings that had anything to do with water and he enjoyed that atmosphere of being around waterfalls, lakes, or rain.  Church’s work reflected the connection with the HRS and Romanticism in the American West by showing all of the different water areas.  He loved to show the waterfalls and the lakes and how beautiful the surrounding environment was.

            Thomas Moran’s Chasm of the Colorado was painted from 1873 to 1874.  He is most famously known for doing pieces on the Rocky Mountains as well as Yellowstone (Wikipedia, 2012).  He loved doing pieces that were of canyons or mountains right after it had rained or just started to rain.  He did many elaborate things with clouds, making his pieces look very realistic in that aspect.  To romanticize the American West, Moran used very natural colors to help emphasize how important nature should be to everyone.  He wanted to show how beneficial it could be for you to just go out in the wilderness by yourself and just enjoy the beauty around you.

            In conclusion, because of these paintings, people from Europe wanted badly to come to America.  If they wanted so badly to come to America and see these beautiful landscapes, we should want to protect them as much as we can.  “Find…encouragement and inspiration in precisely the present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and enthusiasm of lovers” (Allen & Almonte, 2009, p. 354).  This means that although we should be happy with the current circumstances, meaning how our landscapes are now, we should want to protect them and better them as much as possible.  The painters from the HRS Romanticized the American West because of our beautiful landscapes.  We should want to continue that romanticism and keep them looking as beautiful as we can.

References

Belson, J., & Henderson, R.  (2011).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  http://whitemountainart.com/biographies/bio_jfc.htm

Belson, J., & Henderson, R.  (2011).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  http://whitemountainart.com/biographies/bio_fec.htm

Wikipedia.  (2012).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Moran

Allen, P., & Almonte, P.  (2009).  That is the question.  United States of America:  Pearson.

Week 5 Reflection

The significance of the Peach Blossom in the culture is that the Peach Blossom represents life and happiness.  In the poem, I think it represents these things as well, but also represents the beauty of simplicity.  I've realized in my own life that if I make more time for more important things, my life becomes much more simple rather than always worrying about big things in my life.  Life is really about being happy with the little things.

My footprint for the Ecological Quiz was 4.92 Earths.  I could lighten my footprint by buying more organic foods and using compost piles rather than a garbage disposal.  I could not travel so much by car or plane, I could ride my bike and walk more places, especially when it is nicer weather outside.

In the selections from Walden reading, these were three quotes I found and related to.
1.  "What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can" (page 351).  I really like this quote because when people tell you that you can't do something, it gives you even more motivation to prove them wrong and show them that you can do what they said you couldn't.  I've realized this in my own life and it always turns out that I can do the things that people say I couldn't do.  It makes me feel more accomplished too when I complete those tasks.  I thank the people silently that said I couldn't something, because they were my motivation to complete that event.
2.  "Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown" (page. 352).  This quote really got me thinking about how much we take for granted in the United States.  We have so many freedoms and luxuries that so many other countries don't get to enjoy.  Many cultures don't even know about the existence of such freedoms or technology that we have here today.  It made me really grateful for everything I have and made me appreciate the simple things in life, as well as the bigger things I don't really even think about.
3.  "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone" (page. 360).  The reason I liked this quote so much was because it made me realize how many things we really don't need.  Society and the media makes everyone think that we need all of the newest and most hi-tech things there are out there, but in reality, they just make our lives more complicated and more problematic.  For example, everyone wants and iPhone, but the second you buy it, they come out with a newer "cooler" version of it, making you need to save up all your money all over again.  We don't always need the newest thing out there, because if we try to simplify our lives rather than focus on trying to just get more "stuff," our lives will be much better off.

Week 4 Reflection

A reader can learn through reading Literature because it helps you to gain new experiences though otherwise you wouldn't get to experience.  If no one ever read, no one would ever understand each other or what other people are going through in the world without them actually going through it themselves.  It is the closest thing we can get to to understanding each other without fully experiencing it ourselves.  People are reading less today because the media is making it seem like it is a total waste of time and there are much better things to spend your time doing, like watching pointless TV shows, or spending hours on end on the computer.  There are much fewer critical readers and writers today because no one understands how or when they are actually using their critical reading or writing skills.  People don't understand what they mean, so they don't know how to put them to good use.  You cannot be a good critical reader or writer unless you are constantly thinking about how to better those skills as you are reading or as you are writing.  Unless you are really reading or writing the majority of your time, you won't understand how to obtain those skills and put them to work.  Poetry can be very helpful when developing these skills because it makes you think and interpret what the poem is trying to say.  The poem usually doesn't just state what it was about, otherwise it wouldn't be poetry.  Poetry makes you think about how YOU interpret it rather than how others see it.  It gives you a chance to use your critical skills, as well as to be creative in the way that you think about different aspects of the world.