Didion, however, sees the disappointment as not being so manmade, but more of a thing of nature. She describes how a certain aspect of nature can drastically negate the quality of life in California, and even in
Sarah K. Castle, in her scientific fiction “The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek” develops the story to tell the nature-culture hybrids and its effect on human-kind and other creatures. The story sets in one location called “Horn Creek” and the main character “Sue” a park ranger and a narrator of the story. The author shows the effect of human meddling with natures at the very beginning of the story. A “Grand Canyon” which is the story plays had been mined and it starts to be closed for visitors and Horn Creek was one of them. In this fiction author is more about to say that human kind intervention in nature is the reason for the natural world disaster.
Hearing the voices of local citizens helps one understand the struggle people went through when nature’s unpredictability caused harm to the land and people. A fictional example of how
Throughout the opening paragraphs of Joan Didion’s essay there is a detailed description of the human experience with the Santa Ana winds. This description demonstrates a distinct feeling and point of view towards the natural disaster known as the Santa Ana winds. Her writing describes several interactions and reactions to the wind allows the reader to understand the relationship between the Santa Ana winds and human beings. Overall Didion’s diction along with the use other stylistic elements clearly conveys her feeling of anxiety towards the winds.
In “The Great Santa Barbara Oil Disaster, or: A Diary” by Conyus, he write of his interactions and thoughts that he has while cleaning the horrible and momentous oil spill that occurred in Santa Barbara in 1969. In this, there is a stanza that he writes that appeals to the entirety of the poem, the one that begins on page three with “Day six” and ends with “again & again.” ; this stanza uses tone and imagery which allow for the reader to grasp the fundamental core of this experience and how Conyus is trying to illustrate the effects of such a disaster on a human psyche. Day six of this poem is the day that starts with a dishonest sense of normalcy of an urban environment. Conyus introduces the idea of toads croaking in a setting combining two worlds, “asphalt rain pond”; this paints the picture of nature and man coinciding to try to live together harmoniously in an environment that
The Short Story ‘To Build a Fire ‘by. Jack London is about man vs. nature. The story takes place in Yukon, Canada, east of Alaska. It’s so cold your spilt is ice before it hits the ground. Temperature from 25degress to -75 it can cause your flesh to freeze.
In “Thirty Acres” by Dr.Philippe Panneton and “Volcano” by Nancy Lord, the nature destructive force in the two prose are fire and the volcano, which symbolize the isolation, destruction in emotion and life, as well as the new changes in life. The explosion of the volcano makes Julia think of her dull life and fells despair as she know that she can't change anything, and the fire gives Euchariste a punishment for his greed and brings changes for his and his son’s relationship. The destructive force of nature in “Thirty Acres” and “Volcano”—fire and volcano symbolize the two protagonists’ isolation. When the volcano is going to blow up, the dust and cloud “feel like a curtain,” which make Julia stay at home, revealing the isolation between her life and the outside world.
California is one of the most earthquake prone states in the U.S. Due to the state being on a fault line, it is constantly subjected to earthquakes whether they be mild or intense, which constantly puts the cities that lay on the fault line or are near it at risk. The earthquake described in Mark Twain's’ essay “The San Francisco Earthquake” is a rather “hysterical event” to Twain. He sees it as a miniscule or petite quake, where as others see it as a more drastic event. Twain's’ essay argues that the people's reaction (particularly the higher class) to the earthquake was rather excessive.
He argues that urbanization of this area threatens its survival, and likens such growth to a cancer (Abbey). While he, like Muir, is enamored with the beauty of nature, Abbey has seen the effects of human intervention on the Western United States, and advocates for preservation instead of promoting the lands. A century of growth and exploration changed the focus of the environmentalists since expanded use of fossil fuels led to destruction of some of the formerly unspoiled areas. Muir’s emphasis was on reveling in the magnificence of the mountains, while Abbey cautions of the effects of exploration and accompanying greed on the health of the
The Santa Ana Winds Analysis There are moments when mother nature does something that may be inexplicable to mankind. There is not always an explanation for why things happen, sometimes they just do. Joan Didion tries to describe the instinct that people have that tells them the Santa Ana winds are the reason for the change in the climate and within one another. Didion sets a dreadful tone to her essay by associating a set of words that contain unhappy connotations, with the wind. She begins the essay by setting up an unpleasing mood for the audience.
Joan Didion’s “Los Angeles Notebook” is an essay that highlights the deeply mechanistic view of human behavior by using images that are both enticing, yet horrifying at the same time. Her audience is broader than the people of Los Angles, who she discusses in articulate detail. Being that her audience is generally aimed at people who are concerned about humanity and the way people operate together in certain scenarios. There is an eerie sense to this piece, as the subject is the hot winds known as foehn by scientists, but otherwise known as a “Santa Ana” by the people of the region. Didion claims that, in the simplest terms, “to live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior,”
Rhetorical Analysis: Comparison The Santa Ana Winds are strong, dry northeast winds that happen in the autumn and the winter of southern California. In the two passages “Brush Fire” and “The Santa Ana”, both authors describe what it is like to live in the area where these fires occur. They use their own perspective of the winds and talk about how they affect the people of Southern California. Although they both describe the same winds, they have different attitudes towards them.
In the essay “The Santa Ana” by Joan Didion the aim is to inform people of the Santa Ana winds as a fierce force of nature by describing its effects on the residents and the environment. She uses good examples of the live in the Santa Ana region and using negative describing words to get her point across. Overall the Santa Ana winds cause major problems with the people and land by drying the water and helping start fires. These problems add to the negative feelings of the essay.
Since these creators are the source of the idolization of nature, she writes to them in order to reverse their misconception. Oates realizes that their subject is not the authentic force, but rather one that was handed endless meaning by artisans. She addresses them mockingly, utilizing rhetorical questions as a way to aggravate their thought process. Including herself in the audience of authors, she toys with the image of authors and jokes that the reason they write so profusely on nature is that “...we must, we’re writers, poets, mystics (of a sort) aren’t we, precisely what else are we to do but glamorize and romanticize and generally exaggerate the significance of anything we focus the white heat of our “creativity” upon?” (Oates 226).
To Build A Fire is a short tragic tale by Jack London that narrates about a man’s last days on the earth. The story’s protagonist is passing through the sub-freezing land of the Yukon when he becomes the victims of an unforgiving and harsh force of nature. Before embarking on the journey, the man is warned against walking alone on such severe weather conditions and even if his instincts also warn him, he decides to ignore all the signs and his conscience and to follow his ego. He makes several attempts to light a fire but does not make it. It is after several attempts that the man finally gives in to the forces of nature and awaits his now evident death.
