Dillard writing

Drosophila Melanogaster is one creature that I have come to know more intimately than I would ever care to. The common fruit fly is an abundant model organism for genetics research with many different mutations. I spent 3 days a week for 3 weeks staring at them, separating different mutations from each other. Cinnabar eye is a mutation causing the eye to be a slight shade more brown than the traditional red coloring. In order to separate them I must painstakingly stare at the eye under multitudes of light adjustments. Most think that fly eyes are strange and then don't give it a second thought. After hours of studying them, I started to have dreams of people with fly eyes! Then it was aliens, and dogs with those horrific eyes! Then came a different mutation, Vestigial Wing. This one causes both wings to be shriveled and non-functioning.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart

1. "Buffalo for the Broken Heart" fits in with nature writing because the core idea/moral of the story is to keep the land as it originally was as much as is possible for a person to sustain themselves as well. Dan tells the story of how he would put up many extra miles of fencing, when he had cows, in order to rotate the pastures so that the land would be more fertile and natural since cows will naturally eat the grass in their immediate area until it is dead. He made the switch to buffalo primarily because he wanted to bring back the prairie to its original habitat before man hunted out the buffalo and started ranching cows in their place. O'Brien has an intimate connection to the land and its creatures almost as if they replaced the kids he never had.

2. As I said in the previous question, I think that the land and its native animals almost replace the spot that a child could have in his heart. When he describes how beautiful his land looks, and the way his buffalo play in the field, I can picture him saying some of the same things about a son or daughter. He has the same sense of accomplishment in caring for the land as a father may about watching a son win his first baseball game.

3. I don't think that I have any authority to give him any critiques on the way he uses his land. First of all because I have minimal farming experience, but most importantly because he has a strict belief in how his land should be run. Many people could probably take that land and make it more profitable, but the methods required to do that are against O'Briens morals.

Spring Break

For spring break I went to San Diego with my family. We rented a house on the boardwalk of Pacific Beach. I would sit on our front patio for hours on end just watching the endless train of people walk by. These are not the same type of people that one could see sitting at the mall or even in an airport. For some reason this boardwalk attracts some of the most interesting people I have ever seen or met. Whenever I made eye contact with a passerby I would be friendly and say "Hi!" followed by whatever comment felt appropriate for that person. Some people would ignore me completely and others I actually became "friends" with and we talked for a while! There was no bias to who I talked to, but one person will stay in my mind forever. The people of Mission Bay call him "Slomo". This comes from his daily ritual of skating down the boardwalk every day on rollerblades, in slow motion! His actual name is Dr. John Kitchen. As I was people watching off of our porch, he happened to fall and I went to help him up, and offered him a drink. He accepted and we chatted for a while enjoying a couple beers as the sun went down. I inquired about his life story leading him to become "Slomo" and was thoroughly surprised by all of it. All in all, the memory of me sitting on the patio with this man enjoying the people watching (with one of the primary persons watched!) and meeting a new friend will stay with me forever.

For more info on "Slomo"

http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050912/news_1m12jenkins.html

Muir Analysis

John Muir aims to show the reader that the world was not created for mans use alone, but all creatures used and enjoyment. His use of language is essential for getting across his message in various tones throughout the piece. One of these tones came across in a condescending way in order to make his point seem like the only viable correct option. “They have precise dogmatic insight of the intentions of the Creator, and it is hardly possible to be guilty in speaking of their God any more than of heathen idols.” He takes the extreme position that some people hold and makes it sound utterly ridiculous. Another tone that is prevalent is sarcasm, relating in a similar way to making the opposing position sound illogical and lacking any common sense backing as when he says, “How about those man eating animals ... Doubtless man was intended to for food and drink for all of these? Oh, no! Not at all!” This tone is very well suited for his intended purpose of persuading people that the world was created for all creatures. He provides logical evidence and presents it in a way that is extremely hard to argue against.

Sams Song Analysis

Audience: People who are interested in travel

Purpose: To portray a picture of where they are

Pathos: makes you want to go there
Ethos: They have traveled there, becoming more of an expert than most
Logos: -

Momaday

N. Scott Momaday's target audience is the" white man" who may not have the same grasp on the spiritual aspects of the land and experiences with the land. I feel that this can include todays hunters. In our day and age hunting has become a sport more than anything. To Momaday, hunting was for survival and in a way out of respect for Mother Earth. He took the bisons life but at the same time honors the it for helping him. Momaday is also talking about the ideas of earth being our mother and the sky being our father. That comparison is particularly effective because when we are children those are the people that provide for and take care of us. His goal is to make this realization set in so that we may have the same respect for Mother Earth and Father Sky as we do for our family. One of the strongest peices of this work is the vocabulary used. The words chosen are extremely powerful and descriptive giving the reader an incredible visual of the wold he is talking about.

Symposium

I forgot my phone to take a picture of Patricia speaking, but I felt that this picture was relevant because of the mention of the picture her husband showed her. That picture was of a dog on a power line because of the high water levels. She said that she normally didn't really understand animal people, however, this picture made her realize that some people consider their pets part of the family. I have a definite soft spot for animals, (I sometimes still cry when the dogs die in movies), thusly the passage about Luther B. was one of my favorites. Hearing her read the passages gave me a much better comprehension of what she was trying to convey. In retrospect I was reading the poems with a completely different rhythm and tone in certain cases. One of my favorite parts was her opening poem dedicated to the 5th grade class that she taught. This made me respect her on a more personal level, because it showed a little bit of her character. The poem itself also reminded me of how when I was younger I wanted to be able to express myself, and get the same joy from poems that other people did. Unfortunately, I was neither able to fully gain the ability to write poetry, nor an adequate appreciation of it. Listening to Patricia Smith present her own poetry actually gave me a much deeper appreciation of this book, and kept my interest entirely.

Snapshot #3 Sailing

The wind is blowing strong and consistent from the SE corner of the lake. My dad and I can't possibly pass up these conditions. We rig up the Hobie and leave the lift; the anticipation is killing me! Immediately we are leaned out over the edge trying to keep the windward hull in the water. This isn't quite enough weight over the edge (this is where I come in handy); I get out on the trapeze and prop myself on the side of the hull (with my balance depending on a rope), when the boat is at a 45+ degree angle. Usually it only lasts for about 15-30 seconds, but on this day we made it across the entire lake without having that hull touch water or flip over!

Snapshot #2 Winter Park

I suffer through the bitter cold and wind of the Timberline lift to reach the summit in order to reach pristine powder and deep woods skiing. On this particular day we had 13 inches dumped overnight, and we caught the first lift up in the morning. I was running a line down the mountain, and decided to stop in a clearing to catch my breath. The area was about 10' in diameter and I was perched on top of a large boulder. A gust of wind comes through the trees and snow starts falling gracefully all around me. Once it stopped, I smiled, said a silent thank you, and continued on my way.

Snapshot #1 St. Croix

On a beach in St. Croix, the sand is glistening from the rays of the sun as it sets. The only other girl my age at our resort happens to be stunningly beautiful and we have been chatting at the bar all afternoon sipping on refreshing tropical drinks. The waves lapping on the shore, combined with a crisp breeze off the ocean makes for a scene worthy of a postcard. It has been a spectacular day, and the night has yet to begin.

Author Questions

1. What influences did you have in your younger years that has influenced your writing greatly?

2. When writing about the environment, are you actively trying to influence the readers opinion on the issue or is the intent more just to raise awareness? What different techniques do you use to accomplish that goal?

Clarion

This is the town square in Clarion, IA where live and work during the summer, this picture gives off the quintessential small town feel for me. In the background there is the one screen movie theater, and there is a sign advertising the Farmers Market which plays a huge part in farming communities. The flag is also iconic because of the patriotism that abounds in rural America. I would have left out the street light that is awkwardly in the top portion of the picture and maybe had a group of people on the lawn to symbolize the tight community bonds.

The major theme of this piece would be that we must take care of the nature not only to preserve it for future generations, but to pay it back for all it has done for us as well. I think that the underlying tone of this piece was very angry or frustrated at the general population for completely taking the environment for granted. She sounded like she was scolding the people for allowing this to happen. It took the "we need to maintain our environment for future generations" political position, and made it more of a "we need to respect the environment for what it has given us".

My map is a road map of driving between both of my houses. The reason I chose to use this is because it is where I spend a large chunk of my time. I have spent many hundreds of hours going back and forth between them, and most of them I am alone. I use this time to think about what is going on in my life and my choice of music usually usually reflects/reinforces my thoughts. It may seem plain and unoriginal, but I see this road map as illustrating the time that I spend doing what is normally just getting from point A to point B. To me it represents the thoughts that came up during that time. Nothing inspires random thoughts about my life like an hour and a half of corn fields.