Synthesis Nature Themed - Term Paper Example

Moreover, as the analysis will indicate, the authors both use a level of subtle persuasion via exquisite description to engage the reader with the ultimate take-away that their respective pieces exhibit. Edward Abbey’s “The Serpents of Paradise”, describes a very rural and natural environment that is only punctuated by man’s presence within the story. As the author looks out over the rough and natural landscape, he is made aware of the fact that nature springs from all corners and would otherwise forget that he was even in the story should he not make his presence known.

Although a great deal of the story centers around the interplay that takes place between the author, the rattlesnake, and the gopher snakes, the ultimate point that is exhibited over and over again is the fact that the environment itself is practically oblivious to his presence. Although unstated, what this serves to impress upon the reader is the way in which mankind is merely like every other naturally occurring plant or species, limited, finite, and soon to pass out of existence. Such a realization is further impressed upon the reader by the fact that the nature in Abbey’s story is, unless disturbed or made aware of his presence, completely oblivious to the fact that he exists in the first place.

This serves to impress upon the reader a further level of appreciation for the processes and exposition of life within the natural world due to the fact that these representations are so unaware of humanity’s impact that it is and should remain up to the human guardians of such habitats to ensure that no harm or disruption comes to the creatures that dwell within it and call it home. Such a representation of live and let live is of course referenced with regards to the way in which Edward Abbey deals with the rattlesnake at his back door steps.

Says Abbey, “There’s a revolver inside the trailer, a huge British Webley .45, loaded, but it’s out of reach. Even if I had it in my hands I’d hesitate to blast a fellow creature at such close range…it would be like murder” (CITE). This representation of such a passive approach to the environment and its right to coexist peacefully in a habitat invaded by humans is a point that Abbey discusses throughout the course of his brief short story (Luke 173). In much a similar and comparable way, the needs of the environment and nature to continue on unabated in the processes that they have engaged in since the beginning biological life is illustrated by Linda Hogan in her piece entitled, “Walking”.

In much a comparable way to Abbey, Hogan spends the bulk of her analysis describing the natural landscape that greets her eyes as a result of the walk that she takes around the property she has come to call home. In this way, many of the same reverences for nature and the role that it plays, ignorant of the sheer existence of humanity, is brought to the reader’s attention. Says Hogan, “In this one plant, in one summer season, a drama of need and survival took place. Hungers were filled. Insects coupled.

There was escape, exhaustion, and death. Lives touched down a moment and were gone”