The Monkey Wrench Gang

What was extremely refreshing about Edward Abbey's book, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" was that it was a book with a actual storyline, along with dialect. This story is about a group of evironmentalist that try to stop drilling that is happening in their town. A man, George Hayduke, returns home from the war just to find that his town is being threatened from the oil industry; after this discovery, he attempts to save his land by destroying the inventions that hurt is land. This book mixes chaos with comedy. You can tell by reading this book that Edward Abbey has strong feelings against the destruction of natural land.

Each character in the book is described in detail. Not only are the characters described well, but the land that the men are trying to save is described very well too. For example, on page 101, "Most of the way he was able to walk on bare rock, on the smooth, slightly rolling surface of a stratum of sedimentary sandstone...Good solid well-knit stone, deposited, cemented and petrified some twenty-five million years ago..." There is another section of the book were Abbey describes the water: "...the rolling waters shone like hammered metal, like bronze lame, each facet reflecting mirror- fashion the blaze in the sky." The book may be seen as a comedy, but it is talking about a very serious issue: saving from the damage that human are doing to it and conserving it as well.

How Long She'll Last in This World

With knowledge of both nature and biology, Maria Melendez creates poetry that touches upon different topics, such as life, nature and grief. Maria Melendez has a special way of portraying the natural world and how she experiences it. For me, reading poetry does not always come easily. Some of the poems in the text had to be read two or three times to get the entire concept. Some poems I had to read twice to make sure that I was right about the topic of the poem. Some of Melendez's poems were about labor or her children, comparing them to nature. Maria Melendez attempts to intertwine our lives with nature as well in her poems.

There are a few poems that have to do with big topics as well, such as a poem about the terrorist attacks in NYC, or 9/11. There is even a poem about the death of Matthew Shepard. It wasn't until I had done a little bit of research that I had realized what the poems were about. Without the research, I would not have realized what the poems were really about. The poem about 9/11 is titled "American Adhaan." There is a lot of imagery in this poem to describe the ashes coming from the Twin Towers: "the slow are'e stokes of great egret's wings deny the crude thickness of this air."

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian

Wallace Stegner is mainly based on John Wesley Powell's life and his adventures in the Colorado. Towards the end of the book Stegner writes about Powell's involvment in politics and how he tried to bring in land and water policies. In "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian," Stegner not only has good detail in writing about Powell's accomplishments, but also his philosophys and ideas that his work was based on. The book also includes some information about Powell after all his famous excusion down the Colorado River.
Though both John Wesley Powell's "The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons" and Stegner's "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" are both based on the same man and place, I felt that Powell's was easier to read, most especially since it was the actual man talking about his experiences, as oppose to someone else telling his story. Both books are great reads, but I suggest that readers read Powell's book first. Stegners book seems to have three dimensions: historical context, political context, and personal context. Not only does Stegner know a lot of Powell, but he also knows about the rivers as well, so the reader knows that he is a reliable source. This is a great book to read if someone wanted to know how Powell was and what he did throughout his explorations.

A Sand Country Almanac

The patterns that I have seen in all the books we have had to read for Professor Francis class is that all the book that we have had to read have mostly been in journal format, just like Aldo Leopold's book, "A Sand Country Almanac." The only thing that seems to be different about this book is that it deals more with the important ecological issues that are going on. Some of these issues include issues like conservation and appreciation. It is towards the end of the book that Leopold talks a lot about these issues. On page 265, Leopold informs the audience, " Many of the diverse wilderness out of which we have hammered America are already gone...No living man will see again the long-grass prairie, where a sea of prairie flowers lapped at the stirrups of the pioneer." This creates of vision of a dull landscape and it is enough to urge someone to want to save and conserve nature.

On page 269, Leopold states, "Physical combat between men and beast was, in like manner, an economic fact, now preserved as hunting and fishing in sport." The book is also based a lot on ecology, which is the study of organisms and their environment. In other words, the book is based on how animals in nature interact with each other to survive. I found this piece of literature very interesting and informative. The preservation of North America is an important thing to talk about since North America is starting to loose it's beautiful landscape that it has to offer.

"My First Summer in Sierra" by John Muir

"My First Summer in Sierra" by John Muir seems to be the easiest book to read so far in this course; it seems to be more like a story rather than a journal. This book reminds me of Thoreau's book, since both books are journals. One of the differences that I notices between the two book is that Thoreau seems to love nature and everything it has to offer, but Muir seems to feel more blessed to have nature. I think "blessed" is a good choice of words because Muir also seems to be pretty religious in his entries because he mentions God pretty often, as we discussed in class. He appreciates this gift that God has made for us.

Muir also seems to be more about mountains rather than the forest, like Thoreau. While describing his surroundings, Muir does a good job in inspiring people to go visit and save these mountains in the Yosemite country. Not only does Muir describe the landscape of the mountains, but the plants and animals as well. There is a sentence in the beginning of the book where Muir meets a dog, Carlo. The dog goes up to Muir and he says "He looked me in the face with eyes expressing intelligence...as if he perfectly understood all that had been said and had known me always" (pg.6). In the very beginning of the book, Muir is offered a job as a shepard, and he got more out of the job than he expected.

The Exploration of the Colorado River and It's Canyons

For John Wesley Powell's book "The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons." Powell wrote about his journey he took with nine other men. Looking at his companions, they seems to be all different and alike at the same time. Many men seem to have worked in the army or had been a solider at one point in their lives, so many of the men have common ground already. other men are simply hunters. like Dunn and Hall. One of the men, Howland, is a printer, editor AND a hunter. I liked how Powell said that the quietest man on the expedition, Seneca Howland, is every ones favorite companion.

I enjoyed to look at the different drawings that Powell provided for us. The drawings of the Indians were interesting. Looking at the drawings and photos on the canyons, you can tell that this journey must have been exhausting. There are many things that the explorers have to face, such as rough rivers and Indians. In one passage, Powell states, "The reading of the barometer taken, we start down in company, and reach camp tired and hungry, which does not abate one bit our enthusiasm as we tell of the day's work with its glory of landscape" (pg 147) The journey may have been a tough one, but in the end, the travelers are rewarded by the beauty of the scenery of nature. They may have been exhausted and tired in the end, but just looking at the scenery seems to leave them rested and at peace.

My favorite part of the book was on page 303 where the men are in an Indian Camp and they witness "the nature of a theatrical performance." It was entertaining to see it done in class, especially when classmates attempted to say the Indian names. The story was based on an Indians named Tumpwinai'rogwinump and a boy that tried to kill him. This got the class engaged in the work of the book.

Henry Thoreau

For Thoreau's Journal, there was another entry that I found interesting. In the entry on Dec. 27, Thoreau says, "It is suprising what things the snow betrays." He says this again on Jan. 1st: "The snow is a great betrayer." Thoreau said that he felt that the snow was a traitor. There are many animals that use the color of Earth to their advantage. For example, there are some rabbits and other small creatures that blend in, or use camouflage, to hide from their predators. The color of their coats are either brown, black or some other earth-tone color. Once the snow starts falling and covering the ground, these animals become more obvious and easier to prey on. "Tree sparrows are more plainly seen agianst its white ground." (pg. 243)

Not only does the snow makes the animals more obvious because of their coat color, but the snow also leaves tracks of the animals footprints, making it easier for humans to track them down when hunting. "I had not seen a meadow mouse all summer, but no sooner does the snow come and spread its mantle over the earth that it is printed with the tracks of coutless ice and larger animals." (pg 241) Thoreau feels that the snow betrays them by exposing them to their enemies; snow makes the chances of the animal surviving the winter, lower.