Observing and Learning from Nature - Essay Example

Observing and Learning from NatureEdward Abbey and Annie Dillard are both renowned book authors in America. The two are vastly known for their works in poetry and criticism. They used these works to advocate for positive change and developments within the society mainly focusing on nature issues. The main concern of these issues is to advocate for environmental awareness and sustainability through conservation (Collins 23). In these two essays, they both try to describe the nature in a way to be appealing to the readers thus enticing them to appreciate its works and the importance.

Through this, they also bring out a picture of the difference of nature in its natural state and the altered state. They show us various benefits provided by nature to people when it is healthy and natural. These benefits are both necessary and enjoyable for people to acquire. These facts enable the readers to see what they will probably lose if they do not take care of their environs.In the essay Seeing by Annie Dillard, she places herself as part of nature. This is a way in which she has lived together with nature from her childhood times to the current age.

She remembers the abundance of the various aspects of nature such as animals and birds that are no longer available at the current time. A nature that she used to see and relate to is no longer there. It is missing, and so are the ways of people’s life in relation to their environs. She observes the changed attitude of people towards nature. When people were friendly and nondestructive towards the various aspects of nature, so was the nature towards people and vice versa. She also talks about the evolved relationship between nature and poverty, and the increasing need for people to satisfy their wants obtaining them from nature.

She wonders at leaving a quarter by the roadside and being able to find it later on in the earlier years, as opposed to the current time. In her essay, she marvels at a time where people had enough for their use to survive and had little interest to explore nature leading to its unsustainability. She brings out the fact that there used to be state of harmonious existence between people and nature hence both flourished. We see that the extinction of this fact leads to a weakness in the relationship between man and nature (Dillard 303).

The Last Oasis by Edward Abbey is a collective story of an oasis that was alive but is now dying. He places himself as an extractor of nature. Though he advocated as a nondestructive extractor, nature still is not sustainable as there is still no giving back to the environment. Like other parties, they take this trip on a river’s course and notice the difference in nature from the previous times that they were there. The once supremely lively environment now appears to be dull and without life (Abbey 204).

The animals in the water and trees are not visible, as the surrounding ranges have now become cleared fields. It is no longer as enjoyable and entertaining to go visiting what used to be an oasis. Everything is turning into a desert attributed to cause of destroying nature.In his essay, Abbey tries to advocate for the conservation of nature through highlighting the difference and nature of the environs from past times to current times. He then shows the way by which this is attributed to people’s activities and the consequences that they suffer in relation to it.

The enjoyment and mysterious aspect of nature are eroded making it not enjoyable or worth going through such courses.I think that Annie Dillard in her essay Seeing is more effective than Edward Abbey's essay on The Last Oasis in advocating for nature’s conservation. This is because Dillard describes a sense of a person’s life in observation of nature. This is throughout her life from when she was young to grown state on what she remembers about the environment and her experiences of relationship with it.

It is true evidence of observation of changes through nature in an ordinary lifespan and the various aspects affect this; poverty, hunger and security (the coin story) (Dillard 301).Though Abbey’s essay is similar in advocating for natures conservation to Dillard essay, it is a bit contentious in the way he goes by it. He places himself in a state where his relationship with nature is one of exploitation; he reaps enjoyment from nature (Abbey 205). He does not coexist as the same entity with nature hence bringing the question of how different he is from the likes of loggers and poachers.

They also reap nature without giving back. They all thus tend to seem as reapers that have all contributed to natures adversities and not to its sustainability and conservation.Works CitedAbbey, Edward. “Last Oasis: Exploring the Escalante Canyon in Utah.” The Byliner Journal (1977). Print.Abbey, E. Last Oasis: Exploring the Escalante Canyon in Utah. Salt Lake City: Dream Gardens Press, 1982. Print.Collins, S. “Nature Conservationists: Contemporary Reviews.” Journal of critical essay research 2003. Print.Dillard, A.

Seeing: From Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: HarperCollins Publications, 1974.Print.Dillard, A. “Seeing: From Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” New York Times book review (1945). Web.