Annie Dillard's Style.

Humidity! There is no a better way to describe the Ecuadorian coast more than humid. The drops of your own sweat are confused with the minuscule drops of water, that are evaporating every minute at a higher rate. Clothes seem to weigh double that they actually are. Breathing becomes uncomfortable, every breath is a mixture of water and hot air that almost hearth you nose. There is no point on taking a shower because there is no way to be dry again.

The biggest irony is that in this hot and humid weather allows thousands of endemic species to grow. A small change on the humidity percentage and a large quantity of animal species But when a human enters this environment, the lost of liquids is alarming, and can cause death.

Casey Property & O Brien

Mainly the relevance that the O’Brien’s “Buffalo for the Broken Heart” has is the ethics to approach the environment. That should be the essence of the English Department when building something into the Casey Property; respecting the place, and make an effort to cause the least impact on it. Another fundamental concept from O’Brien that can be implemented, is the pursue of a natural state of the land. This last concept would be especially useful to create a project in the corn field, planting harmless species and try to create a safe space for animal species.

Roosevelt Response

Roosevelt structures his speech trying to create a connection between his audience –Arizona citizens- enhancing his appreciation for the people , stating the honor that he has, when he is in their presence and using a rhetoric that call to an alliance between the people and him. Then he talks beauty of the place and; this is the base to his main claim, which is to preserve the natural state of the Grand canyon and preserve the forest in benefit of the community.

Momaday Response

In “ A First American Views His Land” Momaday tries to reach a general public interested in the environment. His purpose is to expose the moral relationship that Native Americans had with the earth and the natural world. Momaday structures his essay in such way that the reader can understand the difference between the “occidental” way of relate to the environment and the Native American approach. He introduces the “occidental” way by describing the hunting scenario, and then making the contrast between the opposing perspectives that each vision of the nature presents. He exposes the Native-American way of hunting as a much more sophisticated way of get from the earth, contrasting it with the less sophisticated Paleo-Indian way to hunt to the extinction. He continues to describe the Native American form of society, the moral approach to the nature and finally the importance of this type of approach to “shape our efforts to the earth and natural life within it.” A very important characteristic of the structure of this essay , are the poems that contribute to change ideas between paragraphs and summarize in the form of a poem each talking point. But most important they repeat ideas that have a resonance in the whole essay.

Having Faith

Sandra Steingraber uses mixture of two styles that fuse together, to make a very effective claim about the importance of the discussion about the dioxin molecule on breast feeding. She first begins with “relaxed” style using informal language to provide a personal background; she introduces her audience to her interest of science, more specifically about food chains and then mention her studies. Then she switches to a much more technical language, utilizing statistical evidence to support the claim that the dioxin molecule is a real problem, which has to be considered. But the most effective use of this fusion of styles is made towards the conclusion, when she appeals to the emotional side of the audience identifying herself as a mother, and continue to explain the “dioxin paradox”. She construct the ethos with her own personal experiences and her logos with a more scholarly writing style.

Edward Abbey Response.

Abbey’s audience is people willing to preserve the wilderness of Natural parks in the United States. Abbey approaches his audience by creating a At the beginning of the story, Abbey construct the pathos and ethos trough a very informal narrative and language. He describes himself as a worker of the national park; his narrative describes in a very detailed fashion several specific experiences that he is going trough as a National Park worker. This is how he build credibility and authority. Then he makes the audience sympathize with the feelings and the positive emotions of the wilderness experience. Once he has build ethos and pathos trough his personal experience he states the problem of the Industrial tourism. He switches to a much more formal tone to explain the potential harm of the industrial tourism and the necessity of our society for “wilderness”.

Thoreau and McCandless Comparison

Thoreau and McCandless (as presented in the movie), share a lot of their fundamental motivations to escape and rebel society. The idea of the individual opposed to the community, and the discovery of the true self. But even though, in essence the motivations are the same they approach them from different ways. McCandless shows stronger feelings towards his fusion with the wilderness, and his critique to society is much more political, while Thoreau demonstrates a higher priority to the creation of a self space” in which one is the creator, and then the fusion with nature.