Journal: Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber

As a woman, I feel that Sandra Steingraber’s piece, Having Faith, is very important. It explains how much harm you can do to your own body as well as your children if you pass on these pesticides from your food to your breast milk. I think Steingraber is right in wanting this information to be explained to people everywhere, especially women because it so intimately affects their lives and the lives of those most important to them. I think it is right to explain to people the harm in pesticides so that women no longer have to be afraid to breast feed, which should really be the healthiest thing for their babies. As long as farmers use chemicals to grow their food, however, we can’t make the steps to living a healthier life, therefore women need to push the importance of organic foods and educate others.

Journal: Silent Spring by By Rachel Carson

I like the way Rachel Carson begins her piece with “A Fable for Tomorrow.” It makes her point of view very clear and shows exactly what she believes is the perfect way to live in the perfect town. She shows that perfect town, with “fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields,” and then explains all the things that could go wrong, such as the day no birds sang and the voices of no animal could be heard all because they had died from pesticides. This clear introduction set up nicely for her to explain how pesticides are killing animals and that although there is no town in America who has seen all the animals die like in the fable, every town has suffered from at least one of the horrible deaths of animals. I think with the mix of the story and the facts and anecdotes, Carson was able to change the way people think about pesticides and how they affect the environment.

Journal: My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

In the piece My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir, I love the quote “Wonderful that these sublime mountains are so loudly cheered and brightened by a creature so queer.” Muir is talking about a small grasshopper in the Yosemite Mountains. I feel that this line really gives a sense of scale to the world, this small grasshopper is living in the mountains, an immense, gigantic body of heavy stone, and yet, Muir feels that the grasshopper gives the mountains cheeriness. He sees the bounce of the grasshopper as a happy jump and therefore characterizes the mountains as a place of happiness. I think this shows that no matter how big a creature truly is in the world, their spirit can change the way others look at something. I believe this can be applied to humans as well, our character can really influence everything around us.

Journal: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir

When John Muir writes “The world, we are told, was made especially for man—a presumption not supported by all the facts,” I agree with him questioning how the world was created solely for humans while every part of nature has a role in the life circle which is necessary. I think it is greedy for us to believe that everything in the world is made to help us when there are so many other living creatures on earth. I think that Muir is a bit radical in saying people believe that anything which doesn’t help a human is satanic but I agree that religion sometimes can make us believe that we are the most superior of all species and that everything around us is there to serve us. I think religion makes us appreciate that everything around us has a certain purpose but it still puts human beings at the center of life.

Journal: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks by Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey makes a good point as he criticizes the “modernized” national parks. He writes about how for years it was understood that the parks would be “preserved in a primitive way so as to screen out those tourists unwilling to drive over dirt road,” but that was no longer the case. Roads had been built to allow for more visitations and the “old magic” was destroyed. I agree with Edward Abbey in saying the magic of nature is destroyed by placing roads within the parks. I believe the only reason parks need to increase their visitation is for money and no other reason. It is greedy of people to take profit in the environment while ruining its true qualities. To truly preserve the parks is to leave them in their original conditions, in their natural state. Putting roads in the park is like an oxymoron; modernization of nature’s beauty can’t be done without disrupting the nature itself and therefore should not be done.

Ninemile Wolves

I chose Ninemile wolves because I like the wildness of the piece. I like it much more than the other pieces we have read because it deals less with pollution and more with just the fight between humans and wolves. I also liked how Rick Bass wrote and expressed hope that the wolves would someday return.

Blood dazzler

I chose to use blood dazzler for my rhetorical analysis. I love the way that she writes and I love New Orleans so I thought it would be interesting to dissect her poems a little more.

Nick dudak