Analysis Of ' The Jellyfish ' By Daniel Quinn

Leavers and takers do what is suggested by their name, leave things the way they are, and only take a limited amount of things from the Earth. Takers, on the other hand, take from the earth without ever replacing what they have taken (41). Leavers are characterized by their preservation of the earth, and how they do not kill or take excessive amounts of things from the earth, like takers do (42). Leavers were the first civilizations on the earth, the hunter-gatherers, and first farmers. The leavers are thought of by the Takers as “living in the past, those who don’t realize that their chapter of history is over” (42). Takers are those that take from the earth with no reserves, takers even take from the leavers. Takers are characterized by their ruthless taking of all the resources available to them, Ishmael illustrates this by telling the narrator that takers believe they are entitled to everything in

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in the documentary, Blackfish (2013), argues that captivity triggers aggression in killer whales. Cowperthwaite supports her argument by demonstrating shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these animals in captivity and for human entertainment. The author’s purpose is to show the problems that are caused by captivity in order to aware the audience that keeping killer whales in captivity affects their behavior mentally and physically. The author writes in resentful tone to Sea World, the people who visited Sea World, and those who were present during the killer whale incident. Gabriela Cowperthwaite argues that keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld affects their mentality due to how they are being treated. She makes this argument by applying pathos, ethos, and logos.

Ishmael Beah is described as a pre-teen, with a love of rap and hip-hop music. He finishes as a drug-addicted killing machine, out avenging the death of his entire family. Before being rescued by a United Nations Program, and eventually fleeing to New York for rehabilitation, it is a tragic and harrowing tale that gives substance to the term ‘Boy Soldier’, that isn’t really understood in most cases. Ishmael gives a gentle portrayal of his life, before the war reached his small village and forever changed his life. Abruptly he becomes fugitive fleeing for his life and eventually into a corrupted teen.

A big part of Ishmael’s problem with humans is that we’re selfish with our planet. We’d rather destroy our planet to benefit our needs than try to tame our requirements. “You’ve been doing what you damn well please with the world. And of course you mean to go right on doing what you damn well please with it, because the whole damn thing belongs to you.” (Page 61) Throughout the book, Ishmael brings up humans using the world to their own advantage and not caring what or who gets hurt in the process. I feel like this is one of Quinn’s greatest examples of what we’re blind to. We don’t realize that our oceans, our forests and wildlife and our environment aren’t actually ours. This is another example of humans thinking they’re the top of the ecosystem and using the world because it “belongs to us.” We realize that we’re ruining habitats and using an excessive amount of resources, but we do nothing to stop it. We ruin our world but don’t get that we need our world. We’ve created a cycle that’s holding us captive but we don’t know how to reverse it.

Richard Van Camp shares the story of Torchy and his series of events that takes the reader along to see and feel the tragedies of Torchy with his past and current experiences. In the short story “Mermaid” by Richard Van Camp, the author explores the realm of a true tragedy in this story through the use of the Aristotle style of the elements of tragedy displayed by the means of Torchy’s series of unfortunate events through willing blindness, dramatized actions and pity developed for the character throughout the novel. With a closer look one can identify Peripeteia among many elements of tragedy found within this novel.

To the Takers point of view, the world before them seemed to be chaotic, messy, and in need of some straightening out. The basic premise of the Takers philosophy is that man is in conflict with nature, and this position at the apex of evolution can only be maintained by completely and totally conquering the world. An example of this is when Ishmael explains, “We’re destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it” (Quinn 130). The Takers that the natural law does not apply to man and his science and technology offer protection from the hunger, sickness, and certain death, in which all other species in the wild suffer from. Therefore man is free to act with malice toward the world without any consequences from these actions in which he does.

In his article “Consider the Lobster”, David Foster Wallace uses the Maine Lobster Festival as a medium for his argument regarding the ethics of eating lobster. Wallace frames his article as a conversation just to get people thinking, but a deeper look at his rhetoric shows that he is arguing against the inhumanities of eating lobster, while doing everything he can to avoid sounding like he is taking a stance.

In the short story, “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, symbolism is used to represent an abstract idea. The boat, being a major symbol of the story was the way of life for the family. As the story goes on, the boat starts to make the family feel confined giving them a choice to leave or stay with the boat. There were symbols that impacted the story that had connection towards the boat. Chain bracelets, the father’s clothes, the books that the father read are all symbols that tied to the boat. The father's chain bracelets and clothes represent the father feeling trapped as a fisherman since he never changes out of them. We find out more about the characters and their personal connection with the boat and the other symbols and what it means to them. The family starts to fall apart due to the kids learning about the father’s books leading to them moving away from home. Symbolism is used when one thing is meant to represent something else adding meaning and emotion to the story which is well represented throughout the story.

The fact that the author used a gorilla as the teacher made the message so much more empowering, than if it were a human, because it symbolizes an outside source looking in. A gorilla is not a part of the taker culture, so that is why Ishmael was able to create an insight that was so in depth, that a human, a part of the taker culture, would not be able to recognize on their own. Because Ishmael is a

Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp is an essay written by Joy Williams, about the overwhelming complacency that todays culture shows towards nature.Williams argues in a very satirical way, that todays culture has all but completely lost touch with what nature really is, and that unless we as a nation change our morals regarding the role that nature plays in human existence, we may very well be witnessing the dawn of our own destruction.

Ishmael explains how the gods tricked the takers in three ways. One, is that they made the takers think the Earth revolves around them. Two, is that the humans think that they are above evolution and advanced. Three, is the humans aren’t excused from the laws of life. Ishmael explains to the narrator that the takers are eventually going to “crash and burn.”

The human behavior is one that will haunt humanity forever. A Long Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, is an original non-fiction story based on Ishmael’s personal experiences in warfare. But, shockingly, he witnessed warfare from the small eyes of his teenage years. Having to experience one of the worst things in history, at such a young age, is terrible. War, in this case or in any case, relates to both human condition and human nature. Human conditions, in short, are things that that defines the human existence (birth, death, etc.) Human nature, close to human conditions, are how humans act naturally to their environment and others. The theme of A Long Way Gone ties strongly with both of these with a passion. It describes war as an art, with human condition as a canvas and human nature to paint in the fine details. The question asked is what Ishmael Beah’s experience tells us about the meaning of the human being, and to answer we have to poke at some topics that we’ve covered. The answers to the sole question include the hypothetical existence of pure evil, the important keys of human social life, and how war affects one’s own mind.

Have you ever experienced the death of a beloved pet? If you have, I’m sure it was hard to get through, being so attached. For David Barry, his view is different - experiencing this can be an important lesson for kids. In many other disappointing circumstances, there’s always that one person who attempts - and sometimes succeeds - at being cheery through it. Similar to this type of person, Barry’s writing sheds light on the loss of a pet being an important lesson through humor that may improve the reader’s attitude towards their own loss. David Barry’s short story “I’ve Got A Few Peeves About Sea Creatures” is a high-level comedy that uses sarcasm and various types of comic language to convey the idea that the occurrence of losing a pet can be a teachable experience for a young owner if taken light-heartedly, with an open mind.

When people think about of America society they thought are prosperity, equality and freedom. However, today in American society many people who are less privileged in different areas of their lives face discrimination by others. The segregation that people experience involves violence, inequality in their jobs and even in the neighborhoods. George Saunders in his article, “Exhortation”, argues the sadness that many people face in their jobs because they feel like slaves because the salary and condition of job makes them to realize that in order to get their check; they need to give their lives on the job; in his article, “Sea Oak”, he argues how Bernie sees that her lives is nothing because in order to be a part of the American system the people need to be happy being exploited. Finally in “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz”, he argues how the happy zone helps makes people face their emotions in front of the stress they experience’s every day in their jobs and how people are manipulate by their emotions in order to kept their values away in order to protect their jobs. George Sanders effectively argues the idea of exploitation in people lives. He states that the America ideals that people believe are not true because in order to succeed in the society they give their lives to the system.

‘Children of the Sea’ is a harrowing story written by Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-American woman who expresses her personal trauma and horrors through her literature. ‘Children of the Sea’ opens with an undisclosed man writing a letter to his beloved as he travels across the sea from his home, where is lover is also writing letters directed to him. The letters they write to one another dictates the plot and reveals the two unnamed narrators lives.