Looking at Nature
There are so many distractions in our world today that take our minds from the real world to a virtual one. Richard Louv is one of the many people who admit this. Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods. In this essay, he outlines the media distractions that turn our minds to a virtual reality. This is especially evident in children. Louv, in his essay, points out that children have so many things to distract them as they don’t have a developed enough mind to truly appreciate nature. In this essay, Louv relates many life experiences to describe the distractions of our world. Louv uses reference Elaine Brooks in this essay. Brooks warns, “True, our experience of natural landscape often occurs within an automobile looking
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out.” But as Louv points out, vehicles now have many media systems that will distract the minds of little kids and adults alike. Louv uses rhetoric to make his argument that people are separating themselves from nature. Richard Louv uses real life experiences to show his readers that humans are separating themselves from nature.
Louv makes it very apparent in his essay that media devices engross the minds of humans and take their attention away from nature. As Louv points out, vehicles are one of the main places a person can see nature without distractions. Humans tend to look out the window when they are passengers in a vehicle. They study nature and can see nature in all its beauty. Louv argues that the visual connection between people and nature in a vehicle is even optional now. Louv states, “A friend of mine was shopping for a new luxury car to celebrate her half-century of survival in the material world. She settled on a Mercedes SUV, with a Global Positioning System: just tap in your destination and the vehicle not only provides a map on the dashboard screen, but talks you there. But she knew where to draw the line.” As pointed out by the author, vehicles in this day in age have so many new options to both increase efficiency while driving, but also to distract the passengers. Brooks makes light of this situation,”‘The salesman's jaw dropped when I said I didn't want a backseat television monitor for my daughter,’ she told me. ‘He almost refused to let me leave the dealership until he could understand why.’” Louv’s friend knew the value of nature and decided against a rear-seat and in-dash multimedia devices as she believed that it was important for her and her children to look outside and see the beauty of nature. Louv than transitions in his essay asking many questions on why people have made so many
distractions. Louv raises many questions in his essay on why people have created so many distractions that take their attention off nature, and into a virtual world. In this section, the author gets a little more points in his statements, “Why do so many Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it? More important, why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” In this statement, Louv questions why people watch so much television. Louv makes heavy this situation, “Why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” Televisions and other media devices are very intriguing for people while nature is not. Many people would rather sit in front of a television than sit in a vehicle watching tree roll by as Louv points out. Louv warns us, “The highway's edges may not be postcard perfect. But for a century, children's early understanding of how cities and nature fit together was gained from the backseat: the empty farmhouse at the edge of the subdivision; the variety of architecture, here and there; the woods and fields and water beyond the seamy edges—all that was and is still available to the eye. This was the landscape that we watched as children. It was our drive-by movie.” The author points out that although nature isn’t the most pretty thing to look at, it is very educational. Louv argues that he gained so much knowledge from simply looking out the window in the back seat of a vehicle. Louv conjures up some images as he recalls his previous life experiences in the back seat of a vehicle.
In Christopher Wells’ book Car Country: An Environmental History he starts by speaking about his experience over the years with automobiles. He describes how happy he was to own his first automobile. Mr. Wells goes into detail about the inconveniences of driving in towns where everything is fairly accessible, and the necessity of an automobile in major cities. Although Mr. Wells enjoyed his first car, his local surrounding helped shape the attitude he has towards motor vehicles to this day. Mr. Wells also argued that car dependence in America is connected with the landscape. Wells rejects the notion that America ‘s automobile landscape emerged as a byproduct of consumer’s desires for motor vehicles or as the result of conspiracies to eliminate
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, writes about the separation between nature and people now, to nature and people in the past in his passages. He uses many rhetorical strategies, including logos and illustration, to analyze the arguments against these differences. The passages in this writing challenges these differences, and outlines what the future may hold, but also presents so many natural beauties that we choose to ignore. Louv amplifies the illustrations between how people used to ride in cars in the past, and how they find entertainment now. He asks, “why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” Louv writes about how children are now more interested in watching movies or playing video games in the car, rather than looking at nature and
In thi sicund cheptir uf Lest Chold uf thi Wuuds, Rocherd Luav mekis thi cleom thet thiri hevi biin thrii fruntoirs on thi cuarsi uf Amirocen hostury. Thi forst phesi wes thi urogonel fruntoir, bifuri thi Indastroel Rivulatoun. Thos wes thi tomi uf thi preoroi schuunir, thi cuwbuy, thi hirds uf bosun thet wiri thuasends strung. Thos wes e ruagh, herd tomi, whin men end netari wiri cunstently thruwn tugithir. Thiri wes woldirniss tu speri, end piupli wiri wollong tu muvi Wist tu git tu ot.
Andrew Simms, a policy director and head of the Climate Change Program for the New Economics Foundation in England, presents his argument about the impact SUV’s have on our roadways, and the air we breathe. “Would You Buy a Car That Looked like This? “. The title alone gives great insight on what the article is going to be about, (vehicles). “They clog the streets and litter the pages of weekend colour *supplements. Sport utility vehicles or SUV’s have become badges of middle class aspiration” (Simms 542). Simms opening statement not only gives his opinion on how SUV’s are the new trend, but he also paints a picture of what we see every day driving down our roadways. Simms also compares the tobacco industry’s gap between image and reality to that of SUV’s; stating that the cause and consequences of climate change resemble smoking and cancer. Simms comparison between SUV’s and cigarettes shows how dangerous he believes SUV’s are.
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
In a society dominated by visual activity it is not uncommon to be faced with images
Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.
We all tend to miss out on a lot of wonderful things around us when all we do is look at a screen. We don't acknowledge nature because we are all connected socially and don’t realize how beautiful she is. ”Yet I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender, the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any natural object…” (Thoreau). If once in awhile we would stop and look at all the nature around us we'd realize that we are missing out on many beautiful things and change our thoughts about it. The beauty of nature could last for a long time, while items like the devices that let you look at all the social media can just come and go. “The indescribable innocence and beneficence of nature - of sun and wind and rain, of summer and winter - such health, such cheer, they afford forever!” (Thoreau) If you were to lose everything the beauty of nature will still be there to show you that
In society there is a longing for a story to have a nice and neat happy ending. Broadway and the theater originally would give this to their audience, especially in America. Give the audience what the want! They want happy endings that mirror their own values and interpretations of how the world should be and at the end of it should be, “and they all lived happily ever after.” The fairy tale ending is something society hopes, dreams, and strives for since we could listen to our parents read us fairy tales with these sweet stories of finding true love and having to fight the odds to be the Prince or Princess you deserve to be. With Into the Woods, Lapine and Sondheim sought out to explore what could go wrong with “happily ever after.” Effectively leaving the audience with the adage, “be careful what you ask for…”
The book "Woods runner" tells the story of a young boy living in a British Colony in the time of the Revolutionary War. The British eventually come to Pennsylvania and one day while he is hunting and he realizes they have burned his house down with his parents inside. He later investigates and finds bodies in the burned down house but aren't his parents and believes they are still alive. He follows the trail of the British soldiers and learns that their headquarters are stationed in New York City. He then sets on a journey to the headquarters in New York City to rescue his parents. On his journey he meets a young girl named Annie Clark who joins him on his journey because she has lost her parents in the war. Later,
Louv mentions an SUV that has a global positioning system that talks to you and provides an in-dash map and the capability to have a television in the backseat. He also mentions the surprise of the salesman over not wanting the “backseat peace.” The reader is just as surprised seeing as how generally uncommon it is to have a TV in the backseat and a luxury car. The question is established as to why someone would need that distraction in a car used for long excursions. Louv then directly asks the reader to consider why “Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it?” In this situation, one would debate whether or not the added bells and whistles to a car are not only necessary, but are also connecting us to technology in an ironically disconnect society in relation to the world they’re trekking over. Louv directly makes a connection with the reader using questions and descriptions that create considerations into the argument he’s making.
Bill Bryson the author of the short story ‘A Walk in the Woods’ constructs the story in a certain way to try to get the reader to accept his attitudes and values about how dangerous and death defying Earl V. Shaffer and other’s are in attempting to travel the trail. He uses the techniques of emotive language, unusual language and use of first hand accounts in the short story ‘A Walk in the Woods‘ . The use of descriptive and humorous language, combined with conversational text has allowed Bryson to express his feelings and opinions on his and others experiences on the Appalachian Trail to the audience.
Human eyes are perhaps the most crucial organs among the five body senses. Eyes serve a wide range of purpose to the human being but the most important is the fact that they are the link between an individual and his or her surroundings. A person’s self-awareness to their immediate environment is supported by the use of eyes, marking how essential they are to us. Magnificent scenes like the graceful lines of snow capped mountains, the lush prairies, the meandering rivers, the vast infinite oceans, and all other fabulous man made iconic structures, can only be aesthetically absorbed and artistically appreciated through our eyes. In addition, the entertainment content in media relayed through films and television, Internet games and books.