You’re asleep and falling into a dream, a dream that seems to be blended with reality, details of it so vivid that it seems to be real. First, you’re running freely through a field full of wild flowers with a gentle breeze blowing through your hair and then all of a sudden the sun moves away, dark gray clouds start to cluster together. BOOM! Thunder comes along, suddenly it becomes your worst nightmare with you running away from something, crying, sweating, screaming then BLINK, you open your eyes to see that you are safe in your own bed hugging your pillow and what you just experienced was the works of your mere mind. Just like in the beginning exert of “A Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, the author introduces suspense and invites readers in by first setting the scene of an ideal and perfect world where,”…all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.” The scene the author is painting shows nature and humans coexisting together and this type of interaction brings an image of beauty and peace to mind. She also mentions that the country was especially famous for its abundant and various types of birds and makes several references to them throughout the story. Different types of birds carry a different symbolism each for example, the dove is a symbol for peace and friendship but a crow can signify that something terribly wrong is near. Towards the end of the second paragraph, the author slowly weaves in some foreshadowing that the scenery is no longer going to be a representation of a picture perfect world. “When the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them.” Here, the author’s word choice of “flood” emphasizes that the migrants came in large number... ... middle of paper ... ...eme end of both sides. The author keeps readers entertained with her strong vivid vocabulary that helps them visualize easily of what is going on and puts readers in the mindset that the story is real because each event and aspect is realistic enough to be thought true. “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.” Concludes and ties it up that although everything happening seems to be very mysterious and almost like witchcraft, it isn’t. The final paragraph reveals that the ruined town does not exist but it can happen. This is short exert is giving us a look into the future of what may happen to America someday and if we don’t act now, that distant future will soon become reality somewhere. So in a way this is sort of like learning a lesson without actually learning it the hard way.
The most obvious type of symbolism used in this passage is the heather birds. The heather birds represent individuals. They
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
In the introduction of “Silent Spring” written by Rachel Carson in 1962, more than 50 years ago the writer attempts to warn us that human beings will end by destroying the earth in the opening quote. She shows that human beings are causing harmful effects to the environment and the environment becomes polluted day by day. First, to lead to the issue, the author starts with a fable. She describes a beautiful natural town, but then the appearance of human beings brought a strange blight and everything began to change. Stillness, illness, disease, and death emerged in the town. Although the town in this story is not a reality, but the events in this town is happening truly around the world. The author uses points through the introduction of the book to explain, support main idea. Time is one of the important themes in this reading. She says that “time not in years but in millennia”, it took a long time to produce the life that now inhabits the earth, for life adjusts and balance has been reached. However, the earth changes rapidly due to the impetuous and heedless pace of man. People bring toxics to the earth that would require time on the scale and life of generations to adjust these things. People create chemicals, synthetics that introduced along with radiation harm the environment and organisms. The toxic productions are introduced to the environment but people hardly know about the devils of their own creation. These productions cause negative effects such as kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and cause the polluted air. People use chemicals to control the insects but this method has had only limited success. Day by day, insects adapt these chemicals to survive, become stronger and more difficult to control. In the end, the chemicals lose. The writer also says that monoculture (single-crop farming system) does not take advantage of the principles by which nature works, people is simplifying the nature that has introduced variety. Rachel Carson suggests using polyculture (grow many crops in a field) 50 years ago. People also have to face with the modern insect problem. Because of the isolation from one continent to another, insect developed many new species. These species began to move out into new territories that is receiving considerable assistance from man. Although people know the necessary knowledge - chemicals, synthetics are harmful for the earth and human beings - but they do not use it.
Rachel Carson, born during the industrial boom in a small town called Springdale. There, a glue factory very near to her home exposed Carson, at a young age, to some of the effects chemicals can have on a small town. As Carson grew so did her ambitions to learn more about the environment. This determination won her a scholarship to Pennsylvania College for Women and later she furthered her education at Johns Hopkins University, studying Marine Biology. She was a woman always supportive to her family, so when financial trouble hit home, Carson left school to aid. She ended up writing her first book Under the Sea-Wind in 1941, which put financial issues at bay and left her with the ability to continue her studies, (Griswold). In the 1950`s Carson began to research the use of pesticides and their effects on the food chain and environment, leading to her most influential book being published in 1962. Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson changed the course of history because it informed the general public about what harms humans can do to the environment of our world and to the human race itself.
The story starts off with the narrator showing the reader that he was interested in going home by using phrases such as "Ever since this evening, when against a fading sky I saw geese wedge southward. They were going home". He goes on to mention that his home is beyond the mountains and he is not at home; he wants to be amongst his people and celebrate the night sky. The first comparison is made in the third paragraph of the story, "Here where fall hides in the valleys, and winder never comes down from the mountains. Here where all the trees grow in rows; the palms stand stiffly by the roadsides..."; The narrator is comparing the plants and trees that grow in the city and the trees that grow on the reservation. Clearly, the trees that grow in the city are systematically planted in rows and lack the aspect that makes them unique in any way. He admits that there is still beauty in this order; however, it is the beauty of captivity. The narrator goes on to say "A pine fighting for existence on a windy knoll is much more beautiful". He uses this ...
Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The White Heron” is a timely piece that depicts the struggle between nature and civilization, between the wild and the modern. The bright, beautiful forests and waters of Northern New England clash with the modern scientific advancements of man. Within her story, she describes a young girl named Sylvie whom is very closely connected with nature itself, grow up in the New England countryside far away from other people, even being described as, “afraid of folks” (670). One of her only friends is a cow named Mistress Moolly, and she often submerges herself within the delicate yet intriguing wildlife around her home. She loves being one with nature and she has even become seriously familiar with the lay of the land as well as most if not
What would it be like if someone were to fall asleep, and wake up in a completely different place? This is what happens in Nightmare Academy. The book has a great ability to grab attention and make someone second guess their thoughts on any character, as well as make the impossible seem possible. In this report, there will be an explanation of how the book is able to grab someone's attention, as well as how the book would make a person second guess the characters, and finally, how the book is fictional yet lifelike, or in other words impossible yet possible. But first, there will be a basic summary of the book.
In the fifth stanza, cold thin atmosphere, stoop, weary," and "welcome land" contrast sharply. which adds to the picture of the bird both concretely and symbolically. this bird's flight is beginning to represent the lonely and lifelong struggle of the writer himself in hope of finding his welcome land
With every action, there is an opposite but equal reaction, and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was no different. Carson foretold of what was going to happen when her book was released, and she was correct in her assessment. Carson’s book stood out against the common theme of the day of do whatever you want to the environment, and it is this reason that it drew so many critics when it was published. Attacks were made for the content of her book, attacks on her personally, and attacks on legislation that happened as a result of her book. Rachel Carson knew that this book must be released, as she became the voice of species and the planet that could not defend itself.
Throughout the late 19th century following the Industrial Revolution, society became focused on urban life and began to neglect the importance of rural society and nature. In “A White Heron” Sarah Orne Jewett, through Sylvia’s decision to protect the heron, contemplates the importance of nature and rural society. In particular, Jewett employs the cow grazing scene to show the importance of and solitude that Sylvia finds in rural life. When the hunter appears and Sylvia accompanies him on his journey to find the bird, his actions and speech reveal the destructiveness of urban society on nature. The scene when Sylvia climbs the tree to find the heron, initially in order to please the hunter and satisfy her new love for him, shows her realization
The excerpt from Rachel Carson’s Silent Springs explains how the human race has used their powers to alter the natural environment. These changes resulted in adverse effects, not only to organisms, but also to mankind. According to the extract, for many decades, life on Earth has been characterized by balanced interaction between the living organisms and the surrounding. The environment controlled the animal life habits and physical forms of vegetation. The situation has changed over time, and now people possess significant powers to change the environment. Human activities has increased to alarming levels in the past quarter century. Such powers have resulted in the contamination of the environment to a great extent: dangerous and even lethal materials are released into the air while others are disposed of in lakes and oceans, resulting in pollution. The pollution causes
This book was focused on the concern of pesticides that industries, along with us as individuals, have been dumping (both knowingly and unknowingly) into water. Carson was concerned that the chemicals which the farmers spread on their fields, and even the chemicals we use in our homes (among others), in the end, might come back around and harm us. The beginning of the book tells a story of a place, that was once so beautiful, turned dead and ugly due to a “strange blight that crept over the area” and destroyed everything. Later in the book, she goes on to explain that chemicals, particularly one known as DDT, are the major cause of environmental damage and the near extinction of many bird species. The book states that pesticides have a long life-span when exposed to the environment, affecting it negatively for many years. It also discusses how these pesticides can inadvertently affect people. She uses the example that people sometimes use pesticide to kill mosquitoes. These mosquitoes might then be eaten by a fish, which is then eaten by a bird, which is then eaten by mammals, including humans. There is also the concern that pesticides can be lethal when someone is exposed to them multiple times over a long-term period. Although the direct exposure to the chemical at the time of application may not harm you, there is a chance that the chemical may build up in body fat, leading to high levels of toxins in that person....
Each night, visions inhabit our minds during sleep and vanish with the morning light. These visions, these dreams, are without substance. Often, the waking mind recalls dreams only vaguely, if at all. A complete, separate world seems to exist within each of us; a world that can only be found through sleep, through dreams. What are dreams? Why do some people find nightly reverie in the comfort of their beds, while others dread sleep, terrified of the content of their dreams, and yet others recall no dreams to fear or fancy? Speculations on dreams are common and vastly variant. Some people imagine that their dreams are prophetic, while others insist that dreams are merely random firings of neurons. Perhaps a more encompassing view of dreams is appropriate. Neural firing causes dreams, but the randomness of dreams is questionable, since dreams are often correlated with the immediate emotional state of the dreamer. The theories that are presented here do not completely explain dreams. There are many missing pieces to the puzzle of the mind, and our theories on dreaming still have rather large holes.
At the time when pesticides came out they were thought to be the miracle chemical, got rid of bugs, helped crops grow and countless other things. What the people that used these chemicals did not know was the ugly side of using it. Like the old saying goes "if it's too good to be true, it usually is" and that is exactly what happened with using these chemicals. Yes they did help get rid of nasty disease carrying bugs and helped to eliminate other diseases, but at what cost. It took a few years but the ugly side of these chemicals really started to show its head. "Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life" (p.6)? Such a very good question, not only was she telling you what this stuff was doing she was also making you think. People can be told anything but to actually have a good example of what is going on really tends to stick with people more. Not only did Rachel just talk about what was going on and about how bad these new chemicals were but she also made it a point to lay down concrete i...
“Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?” – this quote by author Alfred Lord Tennyson achieves to introduce an interrogation many have had over the years, and presumably ever since the notion of dream was invented. Indeed, the idea of dream argument questions whether it is possible for a human to be certain that he is awake or not. This quote illustrates the difficulty there is to decide was is true and what isn’t. It questions our perception, our judgment, and in a larger way the world we are surrounded by. I remember hearing my parents say “don’t worry, it was just a dream”. But isn’t it scary to imagine that the life I live presently is in fact one vast dream? And if it were the case, whose dream would it be? Do I have proofs that I am fully awake?