Contemporary writer, John M Barry, in his passage from Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, seeks to communicate the extraordinarily perplexing river that has a life of it’s own. Barry illustrates the incomprehensibility and lifelikeness of the Mississippi, and how that makes it so alluring, by establishing it as far superior to all other rivers. Barry opens by contrasting the views of other credible intellectuals in stating his fascination with the mechanics of the river. His initial two paragraphs fail to identify the Mississippi River itself, but hint at the rivers magnificence by mentioning its “turbulent effects” and “river hydraulics.” Barry continues to awe his audience with extensive discussion of all its velocities …show more content…
Barry defines the Mississippi’s unpredictability through an “uncoiling rope.” One cannot experience an act such as that of an uncoiling rope, in it’s smooth, but quick movements. Its destination cannot be anticipated and its course of action can only be speculated. By using a single phrase, like “uncoiling rope,” Barry guides his audience to a complete picture of the fascinating Mississippi. He gives life to the Mississippi by relating it to a snake. His snake-related diction, such as “roils” and “uncoiling” present the river with lifelike qualities that extend Barry’s purpose in saying that the incredible river can actually stand on it’s own. Furthermore, Barry describes the river in similes in order to compare the Mississippi to a snake, in a sense of both power and grace. The river “devours itself”, “sucking” at the surface around it, and “scouring out holes” in its depths. Barry’s combination of personifying diction and similes provide his audience with a relation in which one understands the Mississippi’s paradox of strength and unpredictability, and
To continue, Wigmore develops his argument by looking at the multiple tensions that existed on both sides of the river. In one way, Wigmore paints the positive picture that these b...
As I looked out the window of the restaurant, I could see the sun bouncing off the sparkling water below. Boats and other water craft scatter the water as well as people on water-skis and inner tubes. The picturesque view makes life seem so much better and just looking at the river makes a person calmer. The scene just described is the view from the window of a restaurant called Sophia in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the corresponding river is the mighty Mississippi. Although Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, this scene could be found right here in the valley of Phoenix. The way this is possible is through the Rio Salado Project.
The bubbling pool of acid: Acidification most disastrous event in the history of our planet
In “Ask Me” by William Stafford, Stafford uses tone,idiom, and symbolism to explain why thought his life was like a river. William Stafford uses the river to help him be able to answer any questions people might have for him.
The fallout of the 1927 flood demonstrates the one of many continuing struggle in dominating the Mississippi River despite understanding the true nature of the river. For example, “The average gauge readings through the last three months of 1926… of the three largest rivers… was the highest ever known… no one at the Weather Bureau or the Mississippi River Commission correlated or even compiled this information” (pg 175). The failure in understand the nature of the river prelude to more elaborate control schemes by expanding the federal government’s responsibility in seizing full control of the Mississippi River from states jurisdiction. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers is fully responsible in constructing va...
This article by Greg Braxton gives us his thoughts on the change that “Black Lightning”, will bring to the television universe by telling us that this show will focus on the problems that many African Americans are facing today. Braxton appeals to the rhetorical device of pathos and he appeals to the emotions of the audience by saying, “This is personal to me,” this essay will be him appealing to the audience about why this essay is important to him, and that this show will be a change to most who watch the CW network. This article tells of the story of Pierce an African American who wants to make a difference in his community by, “combatting racist cops and a violent gang,” and this show is bringing to the attention the issues that face many
The Los Angeles River is a look into what the future holds for the Umpqua River. Heilman’s son asks what “the big concrete thing,” is while flying to Los Angeles and to his disbelief is that the Los Angeles River was a river, especially when the river looked like a storm drain (Paragraph 6-7). Later the Umpqua River is described to have creeks that have so much debris removed from them that the creeks are no different from concrete
From the very beginning of the passage, John M. Barry “sucks” the reader in- similar to the way the Mississippi River would do to anything in its way-through elevated diction. He uses words like “extraordinarily dynamic”, “turbulent”, and “complex.” He goes on to say that studying the river is a science of “chaos.” All of these words transmit Barry’s fascination. He is so perplexed and astonished by how dynamic the river is that he says it is chaos, or having unpredictable and seemingly random behavior. His elevated and well-chosen diction shows that he has actually studied the river and is knowledgeable about the way it works. By doing this, Barry builds his ethos, something he continues doing in the first paragraph by alluding to a renowned physicist, Werner Heisenberg. A physicist would very obviously know about the inner and complex mechanics of a river like the Mississippi, yet the very appropriate expression he is quoted for shows that he is just as surprised as Barry and believes that not even God could explain the mechanics of the river.
In Joseph Boydens short story “Abitibi Canyon”, the narrator is the mother of Remi, a child with a mental disability. They live in a reserve where the people argue about the construction of a dam in their river. She is against it because it will ruin the place where she likes to camp with her Shirley, Mary and Suzanne. The way she sees the dam is an important image. She pictures it as a “concrete monster lying in our river and controlling it like some greedy giant” (364). The dam will ruin a place that has a lot of personal significance to her.
Dave Barry’s “Road Warrior” is a humorous essay that discusses different types of “rages” that exists on a daily basis in American life. Barry begins by discussing road rage then goes into parking lot rage, and shopping cart rage. He explains that these rages are unnecessary, and how they just create violence in the world today. While Barry was writing this article he was living in Miami, Florida discussing the problems of road rage in the city. If anyone has ever felt road rage, or any kind of rage this is for you.
The following essay being summarized and analyzed, “The Inheritance of Tools” by Scott Russell Sanders was originally published in The North American Review in 1986 and later selected by Gay Talese for The Best American Essays in 1987. This essay chronicles the story of the author learning about his father’s death in which he is quickly reminded of the tools and techniques he learned from his father which was passed down through multiple generations. I will discuss the themes portrayed by the author as well as the organization and connections between ideas, and transitions within the text.
Scientists are constantly forced to test their work and beliefs. Thus they need the ability to embrace the uncertainty that science is based on. This is a point John M. Barry uses throughout the passage to characterize scientific research, and by using rhetorical devices such as, comparison, specific diction, and contrast he is able show the way he views and characterizes scientific research.
Eiseley, Loren “The Flow of the River” from Fifty Great Essays 2nd ed. 2002 Penguin Academics New York.
The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line - that was the woods on t'other side; you couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and warn't black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots drifting along ever so far away-trading-scows, and such things; and long black streaks-rafts ... and by and by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off of the water, and the east reddens up.
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, the river stands as a symbol of endlessness, geographical awareness, and the epitome of the human soul. Hughes uses the literary elements of repetition and simile to paint the river as a symbol of timelessness. This is evident in the first two lines of the poem. Hughes introduces this timeless symbol, stating, “I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” (Hughes 1-2). These opening lines of the poem identifies that the rivers Hughes is speaking about are older than the existence of human life. This indicates the rivers’ qualities of knowledge, permanence, and the ability to endure all. Humans associate “age” with these traits and the longevity of a river makes it a force to be reckoned with. The use of a simile in the line of the poem is to prompt the audience that this is truly a contrast between that ancient wisdom, strength, and determination of the river and the same qualities that characterize a human being. The imagery portrayed in the poem of blood flowing through human veins like a river flows ...