...Maiah Chambers 25 January 2015 American Philosophy Reading Summary "Walking” by Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking” was written around the 1850s and published in 1862, the essay discusses the importance of the connection to nature. Henry Thoreau starts his essay with the sentence "I wish to speak a word for nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and Culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I feel that this sentence sets the tone for the whole essay. Throughout this essay Thoreau talks of a man the leaves civilization and becomes one with nature. He sates the he has only met a few people that know the true meaning of walking. He believe that the people around he are too tied into society to pursue their connection to nature. Before going for the walk the person has to end all connection to society. He writes that "If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends and never see them again; if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man; then you are...
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...us who we are as individuals, it is odd that Dillard marvels at the value of “mindlessness.” Yet, in Anne Dillard’s essay, “Living like Weasels” she uses her encounter with a weasel to demonstrate how we would obtain more out of life through living carefree and without a worry. This freedom translates to a beauty hard for many to see and we should remain grateful for our conscious ability and the fact that our presence provides this beauty to the world. Dillard evaluates the rodent’s way of life, which in reality is pure freedom. This weasel is free to do as it pleases and is not involved in taking on mental activity. Further, the weasel has no human responsibilities and approaches life with no thoughts other than survival. If we approached each day without being mindful, our actions would not be distorted by our biases or motives. Dillard observes, “I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (91). When Dillard began her essay, she challenged the reader to consider, "Who knows what he thinks?"(88). Dillard is pondering if a weasel is mindless or if the weasel is able to make choices and live by consciousness. Dillard then shares the sleeping and eating habits of the weasel she does this to support the wildness of the weasel. She describes a weasel as wild because “he...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian Minister that left his home to find an entirely new meaning to life, which is exactly what Chris McCandless did as well. Emerson’s belief was that you should do what you thought was right, and not follow anyone else’s opinion but your own. In the biography Into the Wild, Chris demonstrates qualities that convey transcendentalism. He left his whole life behind to go into the wilderness and find a better meaning of life that didn’t involve any materialistic items. He wanted to travel on his own without the help of other people, which demonstrates that he relied on only himself to get through the dangers of the wild. Ralph Waldo Emerson would agree that Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist, because he followed most of what Emerson believed to individualize...
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..."My Little Bit of Country" by Susan Cheever What would you prefer; The relaxing life of the suburbs or the wild diversity of the urban life? Some would prefer one while the other would feel inexplicably horrible in choosing the other. “My Little Bit of Country” is an essay by Susan Cheever, this essay starts from when she was a little girl and ends in 2012 which is when she wrote the essay. In the beginning little Susan Cheever was living in New York and was pretty happy with her life there, but that wasn’t enough for the family, they wanted the American Dream with the white picket fence and a place in the “real” country, as Susan Cheever puts it. This did not please her and she really disliked the suburbs, that when she got older she would go to New York as much as possible. In the end she moves to New York again and is happy and forever satisfied with the urban life. The story is basically written with contrasts, contrasts and more contrasts. The most obvious one is the suburb life vs. the urban life; country vs. city. She very much dislikes the country life, it being a step down from the city: “Why would I want to scrape around the rough, dangerous ice of a country lake when I could glide around the smooth ice at the Wollman Ring and pause for a hot chocolate when my toes and fingers get too cold?” here she compares the natural procedure of the lake turning to ice with a manmade ice rink specifically made to be the most safe way to skate. Some would say that the country would have something special about it...
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...views on linguistic identity in her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. As a child growing up in south Texas to Mexican immigrant parents, Anzaldua found herself questioning her teacher’s unfair treatment of Spanish speakers at her school. Her essay continues by dissecting her problem of creating a self-identity through language in a suffocating Anglo-Saxon environment. Anzaldua’s main claim is that the strength of her Chicano roots over power any attempt to uproot her linguistic culture. Anzaldua’s self-identity is shaped through language by her writing style, evidence of robbed freedom and strong culture. In order to properly analyze Anzaldua’s text I will examine her use of language. After reading her essay it is evident that she manipulates her use of English and Spanish in order to raise a reaction from her reader. Linguistic use also drives home her thesis of a strong culture shaping self-identity. The next top of dissection will be Anzaldua’s person identity. As a feminist, she definitely uses language as a tool to express who she is as a person. She feels as though language robs her of her freedom to completely express herself. Lastly, I will examine the magnitude of Chicano culture. Much like a magnetic pull, Spanglish draw’s its culture participants in and gives the speakers an ultimatum: either speak Spanish or be considered a traitor. Each of the topics are thread that weave together to create Anzaldua’s essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. The most visible evidence...
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...The Horse symbolizes personal drive, passion and appetite for freedom. Among all the spirit animals, it is one that shows a strong motivation that carries one through life. The meaning of the horse varies depending on whether this animal spirit guide is represented as wild, tamed, moving freely or constrained. This not only define the horse as a symbol, but it also can relate to not only Antonio’s father; but to all the male characters in the story. This essay will explain how the horse plays such a role in the character’s personality. “His dark, wild eyes held me hypnotically, and I could hear the deep sounds a horse makes inside his chest when he is ready to buck (p.37) experienced by Antonio Marez. In this part of the story, Antonio...
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...HUYNH PHUC HOANG SAMPLE ESSAY IELTS Writing Sample Essay IELTS Writing Some people think that in order to prevent illness and disease, governments should make efforts in reducing environmental pollution and housing problems. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? The prevention of illness and disease is a challenging problem for any community. Although many people may be skeptical about the effectiveness of an investment in improving the environment and providing more housing for the public, I believe that it is a good solution to the issue, as will now be discussed. On the one hand, ameliorating environmental contamination can hinder the spread of disease and illness. Today, people’s health is deteriorating due to the adverse effects of poor air quality, making us more vulnerable to viruses and health problems. A number of urban citizens suffer from lung cancer and throat cancer due to the dangerous level of exhaust emissions from traffic and industrial activities in many big cities such as Beijing and Hanoi. Therefore, improving the environment should be treated as the top priority among other concerns of the government. For example, an outright ban on the use of private vehicles can decrease the amount of harmful fumes released into the atmosphere, contributing to the clean-up of the environment. On the other hand, the provision of more accommodation for the public is also a highly effective measure to reduce health risks....
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...Gr.301 Russu Cristian Narrative Essay The legend of the Coral Island - NOPOMBALU The legend of the Coral Island - NOPOMBALU Once upon a time there were a handsome hunter, his name was Lawongo. In the jungle he only hunted wild hogs. The animals often destroyed the villagers' fields. The villagers were very grateful. With Lawongo's help, their fields were safe from the wild hogs. Lawongo was also very great in playing a flute, it was so melodious, like the night butterflies, dancing over the fire. Everybody always enjoyed listening to his flute play. One of the people was a beautiful girl. She always listened attentively, with those passionate eyes looking at him. Lawongo knew there was a beautiful girl who always paid attention to him. Lawongo fell in love with her. The girl also loved him, later they got married. They were very happy. They loved each other and promised to be always together. They would be together until they died. On one night, Lawongo had a strange dream. In his dream he was hunting a very big wild hog. The hog attacked him. He did his best to kill the hog, with monstrous tusks. He used his knife to stab the hog and it finally died. Its dead body, was as big as the moon in the sky that night. On the next morning, Lawongo went hunting. It was still early in the morning and he did not want to wake his wife up. In the jungle ha did not see any animals. He could not find any wild hog either. He felt very strange. He walked and he felt very...
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...experiences and changing one’s environment can lead to a person finding his or her own identity. They may physically dissociate to spend more time with self while searching or changing their own identities. As Christopher McCandless does in Jon Krakauer’s essay, “Selections from Into the Wild,” where McCandless decides to get away from his normal life of interacting with people and takes a trip to Alaska on its own. He goes to this unplanned trip to Alaska without having any clue of hiking or the environment in the woods and does not rightfully prepare for this trip. Existing his real world and entering into this solitary world on its own is dissociation as Martha Stout discusses in her essay, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday.” Stout...
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...Michael J. Piperato English 122-30 Fall 2014 Essay #2 A home only exists as a home when the inhabitant makes a connection with that place. This connection is not the same for everyone. Some will feel a bond with brick and mortar while others find solace amongst the tall grass and aging trees. This is the beauty of a home, it is not the same for everyone, but perfect for the one person that matters. This link between place and person is bound by differing elements such as the tranquility of the landscape, energy of the environment, relationship with the animals as well as the community surrounding it. If you were to describe an ideal home, you’d likely find peacefulness and serenity to be apt adjectives. After a long day of work or school, it’s important to be able to have a place to relax and unwind. For some, this place of calmness is found “amongst the wet grasses and wild barley-covered meadows” (Rogers 334). A person who calls the wild their home counts down the hours until they can bask in nature’s glory. For others, their sanctuary is “in the inner city” (Clifton 324). These people find peace where many would see anything but. They’ve grown so accustomed to the lights and sounds, silence is deafening. Neither is right nor wrong but a manner of preference. While some look for peace as they rest their head, others seek a dwelling that rejuvenates them as they rise. These type of people seek a place with revitalizing energy, an area that “radiates purity” and...
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...Christopher Cox Patricia Huhn English 121 20 February 2012 Education and Language Education and its effects on the individual is the primary focus of the essays by Richard Rodriguez, Leslie Silko, Firoozeh Dumas, and Gloria Anzaldua. Rodriquez’s “Achievement of Desire” illustrates how education can take the place of one’s cultural tradition in pursuit of knowledge. The loss of language is the focus of Silko’s speech, “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective”. “The F Word” by Firoozeh Dumas shows how profound words in one language can be funny in another, as well as hurtful. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, she talks about how the education system tried to remove her culture by taking away her language. The two authors take opposite views on education and how it directly affected their lives. While embracing education by becoming a scholarship boy, Rodriquez shows how his desire for knowledge overcame his families’ desire for cultural tradition. Anzaldua expresses her feelings about how education continually tried to forcefully remove her Spanish heritage. The term “scholarship boy” came from Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy and means that the student must move between two culturally extreme environments during their progression of education. In Rodriquez’s account of his early educational experiences, he demonstrates Hoggart’s core definition of being a scholarship boy to the tee. While finishing his dissertation...
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...WRTG 2010 Essay One Textual Interpretation / Close Reading Although we are all familiar with the essay form, we may not be comfortable analyzing essays as arguments. However, essays, like all forms of writing, implicitly or explicitly take a stand, make an argument. To grow as critical readers – and thinkers – we must be able to analyze and make our own interpretations of what a given piece of writing is trying to teach us, to persuade us. For this reason, your first essay in WRTG 2010 asks you to develop an interpretation of one of the following essays: * Benjamin Franklin’s “Arriving at Perfection” * Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” - Zora Neale Hurston’s “Colored Like Me” As DiYanni explains in the Introduction to 50 Great Essays, an interpretation is not a summary; in fact, interpreting what an essay means can only happen once the reader has not only an accurate grasp of the content but has also gone further to observe details, connect those details, and make inferences about the author’s argument based on those details. Your interpretation, then, will not be a summary of your selected essay; instead, it will be your argument as to a primary meaning and persuasive purpose of the essay. As with any piece of writing, an essay can have multiple interpretations; thus, your interpretation should be arguable, debatable, forcing you to support...
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... Our world today is populated with distinctive cultures and their unique languages, communication, beliefs, etc. that make our universe exquisitely diverse. As human beings, we tend to adapt to our own culture quite fast and we become used to perceiving our group of people as the only thing that is "good." We fear wanting to assimilate or broaden our knowledge to other cultures, for it is our natural instinct to shut out anything unfamiliar to us. In her essay, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Mary Louise Pratt argues for importance of understanding the point where two cultures clash, the contact zone, and that it can be powerful to engage in one's culture by expanding our grasp of knowledge and wisdom in the diversity we live in today. Pratt introduces three major concepts in her argument that exemplify the objective of her essay: the contact zone, autoethnographic texts, and transculturation. Upon viewing two other pieces by Richard Rodriguez, “The Achievement of Desire” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Rodriguez and Anzaldua demonstrate Pratt's argument by supporting her concepts about the influence of contact zones between two juxtaposing cultures. In her argument, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Pratt introduces the theme of her argument, the contact zones: the point where cultures clash and come together in unison. Where one culture has a lot more power than the other. A contact zone is the root of how every race and ethnicity should come...
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...and my mentor is getting on me about this class ... Mkt1 Marketing Plan For Small Appliance Wgu Free Essays www.studymode.com/.../mkt1-marketing-plan-for-small-appliance-wgu-... WGU MKT1 Marketing Plan. Company Q 3-Year Marketing Plan Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 4 Mission Statement 4 The Product 4. 230970 Mc Donald mkt1 318 1 5 06 15 marketing plan ... www.academia.edu/.../230970_Mc_Donald_mkt1_318_1... Academia.edu Company G 3-Year Marketing Plan Assessment Code: 318.1.5-06-15 Student Name: Jeremy McDonald Student ID: 000230970 Date: July 25, 2013 Mentor ... Hello, You are helping me with a questions i asked for VZT1, https://www.coursehero.com/.../8661641-Hello-You-are-hel... Course Hero Jan 23, 2015 - Answer to Hello, You are helping me with a questions i asked for VZT1, things are looking good and I am getting ready to submit. However I ... Western Governors University - Overwork and Underpaid ... https://www.glassdoor.com/.../Employee-Review-Western-Gov... Glassdoor May 10, 2011 - Cons. The pay is low, almost 15% lower than that of pay for most community college faculty, but without summers off. Evaluations based on wild ... Vzt1 - Term Papers - Fvaldez - TermPaperWarehouse.com www.termpaperwarehouse.com › Business and Management Mar 12, 2014 - Read this essay on Vzt1 . Come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample essays. Get the knowledge you need in order to pass your ... https://web5.wgu.edu/aap/content/mkt1-company_g-ma...
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...Every day, millions of people around the world, use a means of transportation to go from their homes to their place of occupation or enjoyment. Sometimes people just follow the same patterns day after day from when they wake up in the morning too when they go to sleep, with no other change in daily activity other than their food choices. People make these choices to better suit their lives and help pave their future. Why do people move from place to place so frequently? Or better yet, people should be asking them selves, “Why do we travel”? In two separate reading pieces this semester, Michael Lipschutz noticed a strange connection in the motivation behind people’s reason to travel in the novel “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, and the essay “A Supposedly...
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