Nature Portfolio

A Nature Poem:

Water

I take on numerous forms big and small

I can cause devastating destruction 

Or be a wonderful source of entertainment

When I freeze I become rock solid

When I get too hot I evaporate (5)

People base their careers off of me

They plan their homes around me

I am perhaps one of the oldest ways of travel

To safely venture onto or into me requires a special skill

Although I can be dangerous I am the greatest extinguisher (10)

I take up seventy percent of the earth

And sixty-five percent of your body

You drink me

You clean with me

You cook with me (15)

You even paint with me

 And I am the most used substance on earth

Yet I am disappearing

I am not only on the earth but I also come from the sky

When snow melts I am there in its absence (20)

When I am clean I am crystal clear

When I am dirty I become murky and gray

I am sensitive to my surroundings

Though no human has conquered me

They have caused me some damage (25)

Although the desert is dry you can find me in a cactus

I am beautiful

I am strong

I am uncontrollable

I am the definition of life (30)

30 lines

The Most Beautiful:

The Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior

     The most beautiful thing I have ever seen was the rock formations along Lake Superior in Michigan. During a recent summer vacation with my best friend and her family, we traveled up through Wisconsin and over to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  Along the way, one of the things we decided to do was take the Pictured Rock Tour. On this tour they take you on a boat (similar to a ferry) and show you the many amazing rock formations that have formed along this 40 mile stretch of the lake. During the tour you are not permitted to get out of the boat and touch or explore the rocks but there are different forest trails that you can hike along to get to them.  You can also rent a kayak and paddle along the rocks at your own pace. You are probably asking what is so special about a few hard old gray rocks? These rocks are truly nature’s artwork.  Every color of the rainbow is represented.  Some are vibrant, some are pastel. They form gorgeous arches and have even influenced some of the nature around them. These rocks made the trees around them grow in different directions. Some even grew sideways out of the rock. They also formed big and small caves. Each one offered a different surprise including different sized waterfalls you could play in. Some of the rocks even looked as if someone had taken water colors and painted different color streaks along them. I even saw a few with huge holes in them that seemed to create a round picture frame in which you could see the crystal clear water through. It looked like it belonged on the front of a postcard. The rocks were able to support so many diverse animals. There were eagles soaring above them. Another thing that made this tour even better was the water. The water in Lake Superior was amazingly clear and blue, nothing like the dirty Lake Michigan in Chicago. It looked like Caribbean water. These formations really made me think about how beautiful the world really is.

Word Count: 350

Native American Creation Story:

How Grass Came to Be

     There was once a sky king who had one beautiful daughter. The sky king wanted nothing more than to keep his daughter happy. One day after playing all day on Earth with her friends, the daughter came home with cuts and bruises all over her feet. The daughter cried all night long and insisted that the king think of something so that her feet would not hurt when she ran on the hard Earth. The king soon became distraught because he could not think of any way to make the earth softer. So one day the king announced to all of the animals on earth that he was holding a competition.  He promised the winner anything he or she desired if he or she came up with a solution to his problem. Animal after animal came, and still there was no idea that satisfied the daughter’s wish. The wolf suggested snow but the daughter complained it was too cold. The crab suggested sand but she thought it was too sticky. The pig offered the idea of adding mud, but the daughter was not happy because it was too messy. The king became increasingly sadder each day, because his daughter was not happy.  One day the tadpole arrived at the sky king’s palace. The tadpole, as timid as he was, wondered why the ground did not have a soft covering similar to the seaweed and algae that covered the sea floor. With that in mind, the sky king came up with an idea that the daughter thought was perfect. The daughter insisted that this lush carpeting be green because it was her favorite color, and within days the king had his servants lay down the soft carpet that we now call grass. For the tadpole’s help, he was granted one wish. He wished to be able to live on land and experience what he helped create. So, when the tadpole grows up he transforms into a frog.

Word Count: 326

Weather Experience:

Rain, Rain Go Away

Camping is something that my family does every year. We take our tent, and our trailer full of camping supplies and we head to the "wilderness" for a few days. I hate to brag but I consider our family to be experts. We come prepared for every situation. One year we decided to take our dogs along with us to experience the fresh air of nature. When we got to the camp site we unpacked our stuff and began to scope out the rest of the camp grounds.  Later, when we got back we were preparing lunch when another dog came walking by. One of my dogs, who was in the tent at the time started going crazy, he ripped multiple holes right through the tent. We tapped them up with duct tape and then proceeded on with our day. For days we had perfect weather but one day it took a turn for the worse. We were getting ready to start the fire for dinner when we saw the dark clouds rolling in. We started the fire anyway hoping we would be done before the rain hit our campsite. Before we could even finish that thought it started pouring rain. We packed up everything that we could into of our food tent, and headed inside. When we got inside we realized that the duct tape would not hold so we placed some bowls under the holes, deciding that that would be good for the night. After that ordeal we were all starving. We decided that we would get in the car and drive to the nearest restaurant. We finally sat down in Cracker Barrel where we ate our warm meal and watched the rain pour down. When we arrived back at the tent, we took one look inside and got back in the car. A hotel sounded way better for the night. How’s that for roughing it?

 

Word Count: 320

 

Reading Responses:

To Build a Fire

I thought that Jack London was making an interesting point when he decided not to give the main character a name. I believe the point that he was trying to express was a good one. By not giving the man a name London is saying that this could be any one of us and all men are the same. Many people believe that they are better than everyone else, or that they won’t fall into the same trap as others, so instead of taking precaution or listening to the advice of others they continue to be ignorant. The man in this story made me extremely frustrated. He was too prideful. Instead of listening to the wise older man’s advice, he wanted to do things his own way. Then, once it was too late and situations became detrimental he always made the same comment that he should have listened to the old man. The man’s death was absolutely preventable if he had listened to the old man. Another thing I found interesting in this story was the thought that if the man had been friendlier to the dog than he might have still been alive. The dog had these natural instincts to survive in the wild that the man did not have. The dog continuously thought about giving the man hints and warnings about things to come but he did not want to because he had no attachment to the man. He said their relationship was “one being the toil slave of the other”. The dog only needed the man to build fire “a survival tool” but if something were to happen to the man the dog did not particularly care, for there were other humans. Although this story was a bit frustrating to read, all in all, I thought it taught some good lessons.

Word Count: 304

Walden

At first Walden was confusing to me. I did not understand what his reality was and what he was imagining. But after I understood what was going on, I came to the conclusion that Thoreau provides an interesting outlook on humans and nature. Thoreau says that our lives are too complicated. We don’t need all of our fancy gadgets, the money, or the cars, etc. A simple life is a happier one. He says that “If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build rail roads?” His point is that we would not have the railroads if we didn’t allow ourselves to get caught up in building it. Thoreau has another point relating to the last quote “If we stay at home and mind our own business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.” I agree with that to a certain extent. I agree with him that our society is too focused on the fancy gadgets, and who has the best this or that to notice the joys of nature and others around us. But, I do not think that our world should stop trying to progress. Progress is important to the world, and I do not think that people would be satisfied with just nature or else progress would have never have been made at all. I think that there should be a balance between the simplicity of nature and the modern world. In my opinion Thoreau’s ideas are a little extreme to me.

Word Count: 274

Life On the Mississippi

Life on the Mississippi was okay. I thought it was funny that everyone wanted to be a steamboatman in town. Coming from a large town I also found it unusual that the town’s only source of entertainment was in watching the steamboats come in on the river. I would think that the people in the town would try to create other sources of entertainment. I also found it funny that the biggest ambition of the kids in town was to be a steamboatman. No one wanted to be a doctor or lawyer or even dreamed to get out of the town in any other way but by working on a steamboat. This story also reminded me of how simple a child’s dreams can be. Twain says that, “when a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first Negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life, …if we lived and were good…God would permit us to become pirates.” But, those dreams were all temporary dreams. For generations, most children aspired to be a steamboatman.  Twain says that “the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained.” I think that that is what must happen when one has unquenchable desire to live a more interesting life.

Word Count: 219

Thanatopsis

I liked the poem Thanatopsis. I found Bryant’s idea of death to be way more peaceful and kind than the usual idea of what death is supposed to be like. When I think of death I think of it as a bad, cold, dark thing. Images of the Grimm Reaper dance across my mind. But when Bryant talks about it in the poem in an airy way it puts you at ease. I found it interesting that Bryant says the only way this poem can relate to you is if you are a nature lover. I think he says this because he describes death as one becoming united with the earth. This is something a person who doesn’t like nature cannot appreciate. Bryant says, “and, lost each human trace, surrendering up thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements.” When Bryant says this he is referring to after you die. This can be peaceful to a nature lover because you are a part of the beauty that you love. You recognize the cycle of life as you are returned back into nature. But to the non-nature lover, they may find it disturbing to be a part of dirty nature. I really like nature so I found this poem to be very pleasant.

Word Count: 216

Nature

I enjoyed Nature I felt that Emerson’s ideas were true. He believes that Nature is an escape from regular life. You can find serenity in its peacefulness. In most aspects I agree, with him. I think that when you see some nature it is able to provide that sensation because it is truly that beautiful that your mind is transported to another place. But, when Emerson says that any bit of open space can give you this feeling, I do not agree. There is something about fresh air that is peaceful, but I do not think that it is the same kind of peacefulness that Emerson is talking about. I think that it takes more than just a field in the middle of a city to give you the sensation Emerson explains in Nature. Emerson does provide a thought that I really like about nature he says that “the power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man…” I think that this is very true, Emerson is saying that if we do not open our minds to the wonders of nature and have a positive welcoming attitude towards it then it doesn’t matter how beautiful the nature is. Sometimes we have such negative attitudes towards things that we ate blinded o the wonders around us. I think that this statement is definitely true. Especially when dealing with nature. We often take it for granted and complain about it, because there are too many bugs or its too dirty and so we don’t enjoy ourselves. But, if we changed our outlook then nature would look different too.

Word Count: 270

Response to Essays:

 

I read the three stories Walking by Henry David Thoreau, River Driftwood by Sarah Orne Jewett, and The Divine Soil by John Burroughs. All of the stories provided a different outlook on some of the ways humans view nature. Walking was about how humans need to take advantage of the wonderful nature around us. Soon, there will no more nature to venture out into. We won’t be able to roam for miles into the forest/ nature. He believes this because humans feel that to progress we need to develop every bit of land that doesn’t have a building on it already. Thoreau expresses this concept by saying “At present…the best part of the land is not private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure-grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only, when fences shall be multiplied, and man-traps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of God’s earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds.”  Thoreau is saying that the best thing about the land is just experiencing nature and not developing it into something else. I agree with Thoreau because even though he wrote this in 1862, the same goes for now in 2012. The land we are living on is even more developed than before and we are entering a time of environmental catastrophe. We still don’t notice that we need to change. Near my house there was once a beautiful public golf course, and although it was somewhat developed for human pleasure, it was still wooded, and provided a nice habitat for many animals. Now recently it has closed down and in its place there are a few big concrete department stores. I think that Thoreau’s ideas were right on point. I never really realized how much I missed the nature until man came and destroyed it.

In the story River Driftwod I like Jewett’s point when she says that, “There is something distressing about being eaten, and having one’s substance minister to a superior existence! It hurts one’s pride. A death that preserves and elevates our identity is much more consoling and satisfactory” because we have once forgotten that we were once not at the top of the food chain.  It is a humbling experience to go out into nature without the safety of modern comforts, because even with a gun, there are things bigger, and mightier than us. I think we often forget this because we are not used to going out into the wilderness.

In the story The Divine Soil I also agree with the author in that we (humans) do not appreciate the true beauty of nature. We are so used to seeing nature that we humor ourselves by making up things to replace it. He says, “We have invented the whole machinery of the supernatural, with its unseen spirits and powers good and bad, to account for things, because we found the universal everyday nature too cheap, too common, and too vulgar.”  I can relate to Burrough’s idea because we take the idea of leaves turning beautiful colors, or the sun rising for granted. We get bored with the idea of nature so we do not treat it with enough respect.

Word Count: 566

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classmate You're Thankful For

Thanksgiving is that time of year when you surround yourself with the people you truly care about and reflect on everything that you have to be thankful for. Thanksgiving traditions vary just as much as the families themselves do, but one thing that everyone does during thanksgiving is count their blessings. In the end nothing matters more in life than the wonderful family and friends you acquire over the years. One classmate I am thankful for is India McGuffin. Although I did not know her until this year I am so thankful to have her in American Literature. I can always go to her when I have any questions about an assignment, and she is a very good partner when it is required to work in a group. This year we were also on the swim team together which was fantastic. Since, we had morning practices and American Literature together (which was the first class of the day), she would always cheer me up with her wonderful sense of humor. On this Thanksgiving day I am glad to have one more person I can add when I count my blessings.

Word Count: 190

Community Stories

An Account of Experience with Discrimination

            “The old slave holding spirit” can be related to the idea of community shaping a person and their beliefs, because “the old slave holding spirit” is one of those ideas. When something like slavery is ended, the beliefs of people do not just end right along side it.  When you instill a belief in someone’s mind and you drill it into their heads, that’s all they know. They simply cannot just stop believing what they believe because a change in the law. They must free their slaves but they still feel the same way about them. In their minds a black person is still a slave, they still have no rights, and since the white people were still in charge there was seldom anyone powerful enough to force a change of opinion upon them. The American communities had a strong effect on what the people believed because people are influenced by others around them. It is easy to believe something when everyone else around you believes the same thing.

            Primary documents such as this story differ from a reporter of short story in the perspective they give on the community because those people were not there. A primary document has a greater influence on a person because they can give an exact account. They are not telling a story from the outside in, they have personally lived through the event. When someone else tells the story, such as a reporter they can only recreate the scene at best.  They have gathered their information from other people, articles, and try to relate it to their own experiences, but I also think that there is some benefit from having these kinds of documents. Sometimes when a primary source tells about their accounts they are biased, or can be tainted by what the person would like to believe, which can cause a story to be less than credible in the end.

Word count: 324

To Be Young Black and Gifted

            Hansberry feels that life in Chicago was difficult due to poverty.  She says her people are “poor, tired, and determined to live.” She explains that the houses were dull and shabby, but expresses that they are still proud through the example of their clean white linens hanging high over their gray beaten down houses.  Hansberry feels that living on the Southside was also fun. She explains the games that they played with other children in the neighborhood, and how they used to lie in the park on hot nights and tell stories.  Hansberry also talks about her family. She says her family is not of the loving type. They were passionate and did not like to take part in the embracing each other for fear of seeming weak. They only time they openly showed “weakness” was when her father passed away and her mother hugged her children. That was the first time she had ever seen her mother do such a thing.  Her father she talks about more so than the rest. She calls her father brilliant. He was knowledgeable about anything and everything.  Hansberry is shocked to realize that even her father must know fear because to her he seemed so smart that there was nothing he could possibly fear.

            The attitudes Hansberry’s family instilled in her were to never betray family and race (which was the most important). They were also taught that “they were better than no one but infinitely superior to everyone. Their parents said that there was nothing enormously difficult about life; that one succeeded as a matter of course. Life was not a struggle- it was something that one did. One won an argument because, if facts gave out, one invented them- with color. The only sinful people in the world were dull people. “

            The effect of being the Youngest on Hansberry was that she was used to being alone. Hansberry was significantly younger than the rest of her siblings, so she had no one to play with when she was young. She says that her siblings thought of her as a nuisance, that being with her was more so a chore than fun, so they preferred to not hang out around her.

            There are several aspects of community and family experiences that are represented in Hansberry’s letter. The family aspects represented are the need to protect the family, and the need to provide for the family. The aspects of community shown in the letter are the aspect of sticking together, the aspect of fighting for equality, the he aspect of fighting for what you believe in, and the aspect of sacrifice for others.

Word Count: 447

Final Resonse to The Crucible (all acts)

Overall I thought The Crucible was just ok. I expected the ending of the book to be a little bit more dynamic. I thought that it was sad that Proctor died at the end of the story because he did not do the crime he was sentenced to death for. I also found it almost kind of repulsive how Abigail had no remorse for anything she had done. She didn’t even care if she accused her own cousin, Mary Warren, of a crime (punishable by death) if it meant that she could walk away unscathed. I had hoped that Abigail’s lying would come back and destroy her in the end, so it was a little bit disappointing to me that she just ran away, never to be heard from again.  In the epilogue the author said that Abigail was seen as a prostitute in Boston later on. I found that only a little bit ironic due to the crime that she committed (adultery) with Proctor. Something else I found disturbing was how blind to the truth Danforth was. He never realized that people were lying just to save themselves, and that the people who would not confess to witch craft were telling the truth. In the end, the whole community knew the truth, except for Danforth, the only person who decided a person’s fate. The only positive thing I found at the end of the book was that Proctor finally made peace with Elizabeth over the crime he committed, which was a major problem between the two of them throughout the duration of the play. 

Word count: 265

Outline

Robert Taylor Homes Outline

Through greed and racism the Robert Taylor homes have become one of the most infamous examples of public housing gone wrong in Chicago.

A.      The greed that occurred throughout the planning of the Taylor homes

I.     The number of buildings added to the Taylor project kept growing. Eventually the alderman had to find 6,800 more units because without more cites the CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) would lose millions in federal dollars. (Belluck, Pam: End of Ghetto)

II.   U.S. Housing Authority’s first director, Nathan Straus (public house’s choice to head the agency) deliberately wrote agency rules to insure that costs stayed well below legally mandated. (Venkatesh, Sudhir: An Invisible Community)

B.      Many politicians gave into their supporter’s wishes and made sure the Taylor homes did not come close to their neighborhoods, putting their political careers before the well being of thousands. (Hunt, Bradford: What Went Wrong with Public Housing in Chicago? A History of the Robert Taylor Homes)

C.      The racism that occurred throughout planning the Robert Taylor homes.

I.     The Department of Housing and Urban Development created and act that required cities to target specific areas and neighborhoods for different racial groups and certain areas of cities were eligible to receive loans at all, therefor guaranteeing racial segregation. Blacks who had means to move into better neighborhoods weren’t allowed to and were forced to settle for the Taylor homes or other Black areas in hopes that they could create their own communities. (A Dream Deferred.)

II.   Practices such as relining and restrictive covenants were used legally to prevent African Americans from securing mortgages in certain neighborhoods. These practices began in 1934 with the signing of Housing Act of 1934 which created the Department of Housing Authority. ( A Dream Deferred)

III.  After welcoming the first tenants to Robert Taylor in 2962, Mayor Richard J. Daley created a barrier between the housing project and nearby resource rich Bridgeport in form of the Dan Ryan Expressway. Daley grew up there and didn’t want the African American population going over. (Farwell to the High-rise, Metropolis Magazine)

D.      Why The Taylor homes were so disastrous.

I.      In 1965, Daily News ran a six part series describing conditions in the Taylor homes such as broken down elevators, erratic heat, excessive vandalism, and unsettling violence. By 1975 CHA budget crisis, deepening maintenance woes, and escalating violence had driven out those with other housing options. That year the CHA reported 1 in 8 units were vacant and 93% of Taylor families relied upon government assistance. (McRoberts, Flynn)

II.      Over the course of a year a resident of the Taylor homes has a better than 1-in-10 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime – a murder, a sexual assault, a shooting or a robbery. Nationally the chance of being a violent crime victim is 1 in 135. In the Northwest side neighborhood Jefferson Park it is 1 in 207. ( Papajohn, George and Recktenwald Harold: Living In A War Zone)

III.    Progressive administrators before and after WWII motivated by an unassailably sincere desire to improve Chicago’s housing conditions planned to tear down large swaths of the city deemed “slums” and rebuild with large-scale, high-density, often high rise housing exclusively for low income families. By mid 1950s administrators in Chicago recognized some problems created by this approach, but bureaucratic squabbling and obsession with cost in the late 1950s blocked the CHA efforts to return its designs and build low-rise buildings. (Venkatesh, Sudhir)

E.       Through greed and racism the Robert Taylor homes have become one of the most infamous examples of public housing gone wrong in Chicago.