Human Connection to Nature
Americans today are starting to realize the importance of nature. Over the course of time we grew distant our connection with nature.With technology today continues to advance and automotives that tie in with our daily lives. However, Americans are beginning to respect nature and it’s values just as we did when the Native Americans lived all off the land. Americans are starting to rebuild our connections with nature again to receive all it’s values and to be one with nature again. The viewpoints of our connections between humans and nature are strongly expressed in Annie Dillard's essay “Living Like Weasel” and Mark Twain’s essay “The Lowest Animal”. Even though both these authors show a different view with our
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connections with nature one this is clear while comparing and contrasting the two pieces: Humans have grown apart from our connections with nature, but when we do connect and interact with nature it reveals deeper meanings in life and may teach us how to live a better and meaningful life. In Annie Dillard's “Living Like Weasel” she speaks about her deep connection she encounters when meeting a weasel at the pond. In this essay Annie Dillard makes it clear that connecting to nature leads to better life experiences. When Annie encounters the weasel she makes a deep connection with the animal. Annie says while looking at the weasel “It was a blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of the brains, with all charge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons. It emptied our lungs, it felled the forest, moved the fields and drained the pond; the world dismantled and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each other that way our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. But we don’t we keep our skulls”(Dillard 3). In this quote Dillard is able to make a deep connection with the nature that surrounds her. When she looks at the weasel it gives her a deep and intense look back at her. While in this intense stare that they have between each other Dillard is able to make the human connection with Nature and she feels as if she is inside the weasel's head proving not only to herself, but others that humans share commonalities with nature and we can make a deep connection with nature if we give it our full undivided attention. When encountering the weasel she is able to learn an important life lesson on how to live. “I think it would be well and proper, and obedient, and pure to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death when you’re going no matter how you live cannot you part”(Dillard 4). Dillard is able to take a key life lesson away from her encounter with the weasel. After this she realizes that in life you just need to go for what you really want in life. You need to live life not looking back on what you did or what you could’ve done and just go for what you believe in and trust your gut with no second guesses. Lastly Dillard proves why we need to respect and value nature in our lives. “But I might learn something of mindlessness something of the purity of living, in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive”(Dillard 3). In this quote Dillard gives a reason to respect nature. If humans can learn to respect nature and value the natural world and the products of it we can learn so much. If just plug into nature instead of ignoring it and plugging in on our electronics and disrespect the values nature holds our lives can be improved by so much. Nature provides the tools we need to live a long happy stress free life, we just need to acknowledge it. However, some authors see humans actionstowards nature opposite of Dillards. In Mark Twain's “Lowest Animal” he argues the opposite of Annie Dillard.
Twain argues that humans have totally disrespected nature in all regards and are destroying nature goes on. Although the great commonality they share is how nature should be treated. In the beginning of Twain's essay he talks about how indians used to disrespect nature for fun and games. “I had come acrossed a case where many years ago, some hunters on our great planes organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl - that and to provide fresh meat for his leader. They had charming sport. They killed 72 great American and took part of one of them and left 71 to rot”(Twain 536). In this quote Twain talks about how we have taken nature for granted. Since the first native Americans settled on the land we haven taken we have taken natural tools for granted. Instead of studying these great animals the people slaughtered them for no absolute reason. If we can look at nature differently rather than playing it like a game, we can take so much from it. Humans also the nature which we hold within ourselves for granted. “I convinced myself that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge”(Twain 537). Instead of forgiving others around us and loving them no matter what they did to us we want to make them pay for it. We oftentimes take others for granted and hold a grudge against them for the simplest …show more content…
things. We as humans ourselves have a nature to us and when we hold grudges it takes the nature away by the anger that we let fill inside ourselves. Instead of respecting the natural aspects in this world and learning from it we take it all for granted and we suffer the consequences. Humans are as well very obscene and if we payed more attention to nature that obscenes of us could very well vanish. “Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity-these are strictly confined to man; he invented them”(Twain 537). Although some might not see how nature can us distance from this issue it can. If we can take a step back and slow our lives down we can be calm and eliminate this vulgarity. Nature itself is a very calm and beautiful subject. If we can properly introduce ourselves to nature we can soak ourselves in with these characteristics. Often times this vulgarity comes in stressful times such as school and work and many other things in life. When our lives get rough this vulgarity makes us look ugly and sound that way too. However when times are tough nature is a great place to turn to because it holds so many great things. If we learn to appreciate nature more we can live a more peaceful, and joyful life. Both Annie Dillard and Mark Twain believe in utilizing nature to its fullest extent.
However they present this feeling on opposite sides of the spectrum. Annie Dillard presents this position in more of an optimistic point of view. She talks about how her encounter with nature has made her life better to live for herself and how it can help us as well. However, Mark Twain shows a more negative connotation to his presentation. In Twain’s essay he shows how we have taken nature for granted and how man is practically the worst being on the planet. Both of these authors connect to the real world today. In Annie Dillard's case, which is a more positive light on how we treat nature to learn and grow, we have begun to embark on a huge project to preserve all natural parks. We have started to begin our process to connect with nature more so we can begin to learn from it and utilize it for its true meaning and have a great life. The real world, unfortunately, still connects to Mark Twain's essay as well. Humans today still disrespect nature to a great extent. People today still hunt for game and leave animals behind to rot or even worse they don't finish the job and leave an animal behind to suffer. We also have polluted our world an extreme amount. Factories around the world have made the air worse and worse for not only us to breath in, but animals around us. However, the world is changing more so for the better than the worse which is a great thing for us to be proud of
considering how humans used to be before us. Our connection with nature has grown increasingly distant, but whenever we can make a connection to it and interact with nature it shows deep meanings into what life is all about and teaches us many things. Both Annie Dillard and Mark Twain's essays show us why we need to connect with nature and grow our relationship with it. There are so many things within nature that we as humans can learn from to improve not only ourselves and our own lives, but the people around us and their lives as well. Not only is nature a living home to hundreds of animals around the world, but it is one of the greatest teachers a person will have in their lives.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The American Experience. Ed. Kate Kinsella. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. 388-390. Print.
In Emerson’s “Nature” nature is referred to as “plantations of god” meaning that nature is sacred. Also mentioned, is that “In the woods is perpetual youth”(#) conveying that nature keeps people young. Therefore, these excerpts show that nature is greatly valued by these transcendentalists. Transcendentalists would likely care significantly about the environment. In contrast, nowadays nature is often and afterthought. Natures’ resources are being depleted for human use, and the beauty of nature is also not as appreciated by modern people as it was by transcendentalists. The threat to nature in modern times contrasts to the great appreciation of nature held by authors like Emerson and
Man has destroyed nature, and for years now, man has not been living in nature. Instead, only little portions of nature are left in the world
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
Though scholars have primarily focused study of Pudd’nhead Wilson on the novel’s messages of race and identity, Mark Twain wrote into it an examination of scientific values versus natural values. Much of the book concerns itself with the title character’s methods of detection, and in the character of Pudd’nhead Wilson the reader finds a strong critique of scientific positivism. In the employment of natural scenery for certain human action, man’s misuse of nature is criticized. Likewise, the conclusion of the novel also focuses on social manipulation of natural processes, with a pessimistic conclusion. Pudd’nhead Wilson rejects the interference of social construction and scientific interpretation in man’s experience with nature.
While discussing Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, we attempted to address an important challenge -- Is the close observation and description of nature merely an idle thing for people in today's world? It could be suggested that nature writing and the close enjoyment of natural environments is merely "recreational" and not intellectually, economically, or politically worthy of our efforts. Perhaps this activity has "spiritual value" or gives us a "sense of peace." But does it really have anything to do with the way we live in the world today? It seems to me that this question is central to the whole course of study and that we need to be able to answer it convincingly and in some detail.
“Get lost in nature and you will find yourself” (Anonymous). I believe that this sounds like something Annie Dillard would say. Dillard is famous for her pieces about nature. She believes we have many lessons to learn from nature, and that if we lived more like animals we would have better lives. This is particularly the case in her story “Living Like Weasels”. I disagree with Dillard in this sense. Unlike Dillard I believe that it is our civility that makes us human, and has allowed us to grow as a species. In my essay I will tell you about my own encounter with nature, how we can learn from nature, and the disadvantages of being wild.
Relationships with the natural world tend to dwindle as humans grow older resulting in disconnect. This relationship between humans and nature seems like it should be instinctive. When working on artwork and poetry, I focus on the political disconnect that humans have with the natural world. Turtle Mountain by Gary Snyder, The Rain in the Trees by W.S. Merwin, and Strike/ Slip by Don McKay also discuss the relationship between humans and nature, conveying the ever growing disconnect that humans have with the natural world. These poets express this disconnect through their personal connections. While Snyder has a spiritual and down to earth connection with the natural world and Merwin has an airy and non-physical connection,
The weasel is slowly moving through the ruff, tall grass and sudeley spots a mouse six yards away. This weasel soundlessly swaggers over behind the petite mouse. All of a sudden, the mouse’s throat is being crushed. The wesel walks away with a tender, fresh meal for the night. Weasels must do this every time their stomach’s are empty. Us humans only have to walk over to the cabinet and grab our favorite snack to eat. This correlates to the short story “Living Like Weasels” written by Annie Dillard on intellect over instinct. She tries proving the point that we should be more like weasels. I agree to a certain extent. This essay helps bring lessons that prove we should act more like weasels. But I don't agree on her saying that we must live
Twain claims that his observations are based on experiments executed in the London Zoological Gardens. With these examinings, he went on to state that humans displayed a variety of shortcoming not seen in other animals. His first point was that humans were cruel, while other animals were not. This was backed by the story of the hunter killing seventy-two buffalo, and eating only part of one. He contradicted this by experimenting with anacondas and calves. The anaconda only killed what it needed, as opposed to the Earl. This seemed to suggest to Twain that the man descended from the anaconda, and not the other way around. Perhaps the Earl did not respect the buffalo, which is true. But does it mean that all humans always kill to be cruel and wasteful? Or could some animals exhibit sig...
Since the beginning, humans have lived off nature, depending on it for survival. But, slowly, humans began to control and take advantage of nature. Richard Louv asserts in “Last Child in the Woods,” that today, man’s connection with nature is scarce and is rapidly decreasing. Louv argues against the separation of man and nature, utilizing a series of rhetorical strategies: including an anecdote, hypothetical example, and imagery, exemplifying “how cities and nature fit together was gained in the backseat.” Since this opportunity is lost in the youth, they are missing out on the experience of nature due to technology.
Essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, clearly depicts his view of the environment in the passage “Nature.” Throughout the passage, he describes the beauty of nature, which human kind only recognizes when they are into the state of “solitude.” In his perspective, nature allows people to escape from the depraved world and at the same time, it will make you feel acknowledged. Emerson speaks in an admiring and peaceful tone in order to emphasize the significance in the relationship between human and nature.
It is clear that modern man is setting the stage for his own demise due to the careless wasting of the Earth and its natural resources, this fact has been evident for several hundreds of years. Many Romantic Era poets used “nature vs industrialism” as a theme of their poetry in attempt to shed light onto respect for nature. Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, and Lord Bryon (George Gordon) are all good examples of Romantic Era poets who saw the connection between nature and humanity was distancing itself from. They used their works in attempt to influence readers to make a change in the path we humans, as a whole, were going down.
It may not be present today, but many hundreds and thousands of years ago, man and nature had a relationship that was of giving and receiving. Air, water, and soil have been taken for granted in this modern day, leaving us humans on the search for more abundant and materialistic objects; overall, making us lose touch with what we are made of. The relationship between man and nature has been analyzed by many texts we have assessed in class, determining this as an over-arching theme we are studying. In class discussions, we have commented about the reasons there were cosmonogies written, or why pots and vases were made with nature scenes. Overall, we determined through group work and discussion, man was in tune with nature and there was an ebb and flow relationship established.
To understand the nature-society relationship means that humans must also understand the benefits as well as problems that arise within the formation of this relationship. Nature as an essence and natural limits are just two of the ways in which this relationship can be broken down in order to further get an understanding of the ways nature and society both shape one another. These concepts provide useful approaches in defining what nature is and how individuals perceive and treat