The Interrelationships Between Animals and Humans in the Nature Writing - Research Paper Example

? Nature writing helps in making an emotional and ethical connection between people and creatures Contents Nature writing and its relation to human emotions and animals 3 Works Cited 9 Nature writing and its relation to human emotions and animals Nature is an inexplicable power that has been chosen as central theme by some of the eminent authors. Numerous writers are renowned for their works about nature like William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Charles Darwin, and numerous others. Land Ethics by Leopold moves around the idea that human beings survive within an amalgamated society that at the same time comprises of plant, animal, soil, water and rocks. Specifically during his later days the author referred to this integrity as “the biotic community” or simply put, “the land”. He states that every citizen of the “biotic community” has got some moral responsibility towards the environment. He states that the welfare of the environment is a concern to be considered by every human being. Leopold’s moral and ethical respectability extends the right values ahead of human societies (nation, global village, and tribe) to embrace assemblies and collections of living beings like the ecosystem and species. In his work, Leopold recapitulated the complicated aspects of nature in the means of the process through which the landscapes operate rather than describing nature in its biological or physical terms. The author invited others to take part in the ethical postures by the usage of normative works that defines the approaches by which the nature and its related facets work (Land Ethic n.d.). A small number of works can be considered to have had such a thoughtful effect on the nature writing of British literature, as J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine. A very modest amount of information seems to be acknowledged of the life of Baker however it is known much about his behavior towards the natural environment by the means of his works. Immediately after publishing The Peregrine went on to receive the Duff Cooper Prize and, from that time, it is regarded and admired by modern authors such as Richard Mabey, Ted Hughes and Robert Macfarlane as a classical piece of writing of the 20th century factual works. It has an implausible content which surround a topic that is even more relevant in today’s context. Its information, if it can be labeled in such a manner, is a thing that any individual who puts a claim of have love and concern for the nature around the world will be appreciated. For the previous 30 years, the ecological researchers and the environmental philosophers have focused their concentration on the potential of narratives that mostly comprise of the stories told by people in relation to their lives in combination with the non-human and human representatives they survive with. An attention in story of ecological ethics reveals a re-evaluation of typical eco philosophical content. Writings by nature writers like Paul W. Taylor’s Respect for Nature put forward an essentialist outlook of ecological ethics in which prearranged principles are forced on situations and places. On the other hand, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold unites first-person writing style with science-based elucidation of the “biotic pyramid” in the direction of the progress of a land ethic. In contrast to the predestined patterns, storyline ethics are regarded to offer relational, situational and local positions resulting from the background which produced—or used to produce—the catastrophe in the first place. For Scott Friskics’s ecological narratives involve individual commitment with ecological concerns and “speak of the sponsoring ground of my concern define the context of my ethical deliberations” (Ryan 2012). A descriptive ethics, thus, is supposed to reproduce more delicately the geographical and personal setting within which and due to which the reflections take place. The Ecosystem health investigators typify the ecological story as “oral environmental histories and other anecdotal sources of knowledge and perceptions that are bounded by the narrator’s experiences, observations, and attachment to place”(Ryan 2012). Furthermore, in the narrative psychoanalysis of the American environmentalist Aldo Leopold’s archetypal environmental text A Sand County Almanac, it was argued by James Liszka that “narratives do have an argumentative force, [one which is] more rhetorical than logical” (Ryan 2012). In the essay by James Engelhardt “The Language Habitat: An Ecopoetry Manifesto,” it was described that ecopoetry is fundamentally attracting few ethical questions: “The ecopoem is connected to the world, and this implies responsibility. Like other poetic models that assume a connection and engagement, ecopoetry is surrounded by questions of ethics” (Ryan 2012). In addition, poets Kinsella and Forrest Gander are engrossed in how the story composition of an ecopoem can assist to describe an environmental ethics: “Aside from issues of theme and reference, how might syntax, line break, or the shape of the poem on the page express an ecological ethics” (Ryan 2012). A significant strength of description for promoting environmental ethics exists in its appearance of a combined personality. Starting with MacIntyre’s context oriented personality as a manner of consulting the epistemological issue, it can be seen how narrative can create comprehensible human actions within a context (a place, a bioregion, a rock face). However, a disaster ensues when the advances fall short to communicate to the pragmatic views. The ability of story for the re-assessment of such disaster presents the option of an intelligible and adaptable ecological ethics. Furthermore, a first-person description brings together the opinion of the ethical mediator. As such, an expressive feeling suffuses the hard, cold neutrality of an ethical arrangement, as revealed by Warren’s rock-climbing tale. So far, as suggested by Payne, serious dimensions of context and self can be reduced in narrative. This reduces the moral reliability of the story in tackling wider socio-environmental backgrounds such as the bourgeoisie and masculinity custom of rock-climbing and the unexpected responsibility of the environmental science of the rock features in the story in which individual activities take place. Wordsworth's grave ideas have been apparent in his works. He applies the words and topics of the common people to put into words his proposal. As he puts forth in "The Tables Turned," "One impulse from a vernal wood / May teach you more of man, / of moral evil and of good, / than all the sages can" (Shawn rider n.d.). These expressions suggest that Wordsworth puts modest stock in the advantage of teaching or institutionalized understanding. He presents that any human being with introduction to Nature can study the clandestine of the earth, regardless of economic or social deliberations. In "I wandered lonely as a cloud," Wordsworth applies the verse form to articulate his perceptions about poems being the unprompted pour out of emotional recollection within stillness. Along with Wordsworth, Coleridge too combined his imaginary inspiration in his poems. He discards Wordsworth's idea of verse for the common person, and uses supercilious poetic diction, subject matter and language that are dedicated. Whilst he still possesses a respect for Nature intrinsic to romantic prose, his works are not completely grounded in the region of the natural phenomenon. He exploits the role of key imagination in his writings, since it is the type of thoughts he considers the most, and keep away from minor fancy or imagination as much as feasible. Nature writing has got some relevance with the animals as well. Nature writing brings for the interrelationships between animals and humans. In this context the book by Yann Martel titled The Life of Pi can be discussed where it is found that the principle of “survival of the fittest” and “struggle for existence” exists equally between human beings and animals. These principles teaches them to adjust and survive in extremely adverse situations of life and teaches both the animals and human beings how to continue staying safe even during difficult circumstances. In other similar books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, The Call of the Wild by Jack London etc. discusses the association of human beings with animals in their daily lives and their experiences. “The ethics of eating animals” by Michael Pollan points out the main arguments presented by the people practicing animal rights. Here the author looks at the facets of vegetarianism and the issues that people face while consuming flesh. Pollan puts focus on various standards of vegetarianism but finally concludes that showing respect to the animals significantly plays an effective role in a person’s eating habit. Pollan states that if we look into the eyes of the dying animals we would find a “Being without a soul” which is a mere “subject of life” (Pollan 2007). The author further states that when the animals get raised up by industrial food producing units, they undergo severe sufferings by getting treated like objects, within the boundaries of a compressed cage. The hog’s tail is slashed at the time of their birth and the chicken does not get adequate space to expand its wings. Pollan believes that these creatures experience pain even more while they are alive than during the time of their death. Apart from the supports from the arguments stated by the animal rights practitioners, the writer also discovers defying instances that can be drawn from the approaches of the real organic farms like the” Polyface Farm”. Works Cited Ryan, John Charles. Narrative Environmental Ethics, Nature Writing, and Ecological Science as Tradition: Towards a Sponsoring Ground of Concern. Philosophy Study, ISSN 2159-5313, Vol. 2, No. 11, 822-834. November 2012. Pdf. Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World. London : Bloomsbury Publishing. 2007. Print. Shawn rider. Wordsworth and Coleridge: Emotion, Imagination and Complexity. n.d. Web. Land Ethic. Encyclopedia of Environmental ethics and philosophy. N.d. Pdf. Read More