“The Atchafalaya” is an article by John McPhee, concerning the flow of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya region. McPhee interviews several people who have jobs related to the river and the maintenance of the Atchafalaya’s water flow. The location of the Mississippi River is crucial because if it moves, it could potentially destroy all of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and, subsequently, their status as major shipping channels. Reading this article, I gained more insight on the importance of the river for the state of Louisiana and New Orleans. A quote in the article summarizes the reoccurring theme of society versus Mother Nature: “Man against nature. That’s what life’s all about” (McPhee). Everything that is done in the Atchafalaya …show more content…
She explains why people spend so much time making these objects that are so small that it is said it looks like clutter on a table. While the artists described in the article make objects and animals extremely small, they still wish to remain as accurate as possible without leaving any detail to the imagination. To do this, the artists generally make their objects a 12:1 ratio, so that objects are not too small, but just the right size. Additionally, Alice Gregory talks about how the miniature figures make her feel “perverted,” yet she is still intrigued by them (Gregory). By reading the article, I was exposed to a world that I had never known existed. The article mentioned that nearly everyone at the miniature convention was a woman and that many men are completely oblivious to the art form. However, this begs the question: why are these objects so small? Bebacker perfectly answered this question with the simple words, “To see if it could be done.” The entire culture of the miniature objects revolves around pushing the limits with still making sure that the piece is perfectly accurate. Dr. Wallman also answered this question with, “it happened because I needed a simple world I could understand… but your world isn’t simple, is it?” His explanation was that “no world with people in it” is simple. This further clarifies why people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on objects
Hochschild chooses Louisiana as a case study in contemporary conservatism. The state is in fact one of the worst in terms of environment education and economy, which are all tied together in very complex ways, and yet individuals align themselves with the republican party, even though data shows that its policies only exacerbate the kind of issues that are affecting these people. Besides cultural remoteness from Berkeley, there is another reason for the choice of Louisiana: It is a center of the U.S. energy industry—“the buckle in America’s energy belt”—and consequently the site of some of the worst environmental disasters in history, such as the Bayou Corne sinkhole (). Louisiana is now a center of petrochemical industry and fracking revolution,
Such as having to have small body parts, as said in the book, ‘my nose is small isn’t it.” (Napoli pg 33). This is just one of the many times throughout the book where, Wei Ping has to have another small body part to please a man. This is different in our culture because, us men do not set a perfect standard for girls, to be very small and little.
Additionally, scientists had been warning New Orleans and the government that climate change would lead to increased storm activity and that the city’s defenses weren’t strong enough for such a storm. However, these warnings were ignored by the government and no preventative measures were taken which has influenced the effects of the storm. The reason for the poor response of the government and their negligence of the warnings is arguable. However, it is positive that the reason for this is that the majority of the people affected were the poor, and mostly colored, citizen of New Orleans. The city is racially and economically segregated and these citizen lived in the lower parts of the city, which go down to 11 feet below sea level.
Other places around the world may speculate as if slaves have to work in such congested areas, but that is not true. Senator Hammond says, in lines 10-14,“Through the heart of our country runs the great Mississippi, the father of waters, into whose bosom are poured thirty-six thousand miles of tributary rivers; and beyond we have the desert prairie wastes to protect us in our rear.” A country such as the United States has a tremendous Mississippi River that converges over many other smaller rivers. The placement of his usage of words regulates the transition he wants to make later
Those who dwell at the top of society generally control the politics within the area of their influence. When analyzing the politics and complexities of Mississippi, especially in the Delta, those in lower classes can be met with refusal when “[attempting] to address the economic problems confronting them in the face of failure of the political system to speak to those issues, a political system dominated by planters” (Whayne 3). Since the rich people in the area have long-had control of politics in the area, the lower class has been unable to oppose elites in their society. Power struggles between the rich and poor classes have caused many to live in a broken system that does not allow economic progression for an individual. The desire to keep this political power has motivated government officials to manipulate the public and take advantage when they have the opportunity; especially in impoverished areas.
The story is realistic because most girls deal with not being the unrealistic image society portrays. Moreover, this story could be used to show others who are not happy with their size to not worry about others opinions because those opinions can contribute to their unhappiness or insecurities. As I was reading, a question as to why Louise always ate in private if she was comfortable with her weight kept coming to mind. Why did Dubus make her eating chocolate in her bed at night
According to Gateways to Art, a textbook authored by Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields, their interpretation is that the artwork is “a homage to Marilyn and a reflection on the morality of us all.” (156). They are able to draw this conclusion based on the iconographic meaning of each individual item and the way in which they are arranged on the canvas. Mirrors are meant to reference vanity and also the “transience of youth, beauty, and life” (DeWitt et al. 155). The compact, makeup and pearls refer to Monroe’s mask to the world (DeWitt et al. 155).
White understands that some people may argue that we are destroying or “raping” nature through development and urbanization. However, White does not believe this; he believes as long as humans work with nature, instead of against forces of nature, to fulfill both their purpose and the purpose of nature, in this case, the flow of the river, both humans and nature can prosper together. White uses the example of humans embracing natural water flow fluctuations in the Columbia River rather than setting up storage tanks to manually control the river. This example shows how humans can utilize the natural work and energy of the river and nature to reach common goals. The Colombia River is not only a creation of nature but also a creation of humans.
The Everglades used to be a beautiful place that was home to many rare endangered species. But thanks to construction, agbusinesses, and draining the Everglades we have destroyed this one beautiful piece of land. To lead off, a mass increase in construction around and in the Everglades lead to a total destruction of it. In “ The Florida Everglades ” it says “ The construction cuts off the flow of fresh water to the Everglades.”
The Mississippi river holds various interesting characteristics and its complexity is explained by John M Barry. In Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John M Barry incorporates strong adjectives, long lists, and vivid similes in order to communicate his fascination with the river to his readers and spread fascination to his audience about the river. Barry incorporates strong adjectives at the beginning of his piece to draw the reader's fascination with the river. Barry's excitement with the river is expressed when he mentions “an extraordinarily dynamic combination of turbulent effects. ”(lines 2-3)
The story tells the reader about how two girls, each owns a Barbie doll with their one outfit piece and they made a dress out of worn socks for the dolls. One Sunday, they both went to the flea market on Maxwell Street, where the dolls of the other characters in Barbie were sold with lower price as a big toy warehouse was destroyed by fire. They did not mind to buy the dolls at the flea market even though the dolls were flawed, soaked with water and smelled like ashes. Barbie is widely pictured as a successful girl, who is perfect in every way; with her beautiful face, a slim body, nice house, secured job and a handsome boyfriend which is the fancy of every girl. The story tells the reader of the expectancy for women to have this immaculate figure, ignoring the fact that each person has different body fat percentage and body mass index which may affect their sizes and weights.
Spike’s decision to interview those from New Orleans and Louisiana offers a much larger quantity of information, and also can introduce the aspects of traditions and civilization of that region that were not completely destroyed by the storm, such as Mardi Gras. To fuel the interest gained from the audience, “authoritative” peers were interviewed to provide more factual and historical information aside from domestic opinion, as well as including media from political meetings, and news
Within the excerpt Life on the Mississippi, the author Mark Twain, applies imagery in order to portray how his perspective towards his surrounding environment gradually altered as he began to truly contemplate and identify the Mississippi River. By first scrutinizing his surroundings the author emphasizes the magnificence of the river as this was his initial outlook towards the river. This perspective ultimately diminishes as a result of the speaker comprehending the true connotation of the Mississippi River. Nonetheless, the author questions whether acquiring knowledge can truly benefit an individual or impede one from being open-minded to their surroundings. Twains initial depiction of the Mississippi River is quite positive as conveys
Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” takes a sarcastic approach to backlash at society and send the reader a message about what beauty really is. In “Barbie Doll”, A Barbie doll is used to show and symbolize what society views as what a female should aspire to become “perfect”. “Barbie's unrealistic body type…busty with a tiny waist, thin thighs and long legs…is reflective of our culture's feminine ideal. Yet less than two percent of American women can ever hope to achieve such dreamy measurements.”
The narrator is joined with her friend who also has a Barbie doll that is slightly different. During the short story the narrator explains how she and her friend make the best of what they have and what they don’t for example when she explains how they invented a dress from a sock by just cutting holes in it. (339) The narrator farther on in the story visits Maxwell Street where they end up getting a good deal on more Barbie dolls due to the fact that they came from a burned down factory and smelled of smoke. (340) What really caught my attention was not that fact that they could get such a great deal on multiple dolls, but rather the attitude of the narrator after receiving the dolls.