Desert Solitaire Summary

For instance, when Rose Mary left a piano outside, she expressed that “Most pianists never get the chance to play in the great out-of-doors” (33), or, when Jeannette told Rose Mary that she cannot live happily being vagrant, Rose Mary told her, “Why not? Being homeless is an adventure” (161). Therefore, the Joshua tree’s management to stay alive through turbulent climate compares and symbolizes Rose Mary’s optimistic character. When life threw lemons towards the Joshua tree in the form of wind and sand, the Joshua tree made lemonade by creating a mutualistic connection amongst itself and nature by growing sideways. The life of the Joshua tree points out how good always outshines bad which is what made it “one of the most beautiful trees [Rose Mary] had ever seen” (21) due to the way it continued to flourish in spite of the hindrances it has overcome, thus alluding to the hopeful and trusting personality Rose Mary

Transitioning from normal life in California to arid desert, the family experiences an environment where civil liberty is as scarce as water. Though the sun’s intense beams project glimmers of water and freedom upon the desert’s farthest edges, these impressions convey a cruel false sense of reality just out of reach. Water in the desert represents an imagined freedom able to quench the family’s thirst. When the family returns home, they anticipate the sea as well as welcoming neighbors and friends, but are isolated and excluded evocative of the desert. While a recognizable sea breeze wafts through the house bringing with it the reminiscent smell of simplicity and freedom, the family has changed, the neighborhood has changed, and America has changed. Water after the desert represents a fabricated freedom, which falls short of expectation. By considering the absence of water, Otsuka exposes the emptiness and lack of American freedom given to Japanese-Americans during and after World War

As deserting the boxcar behind, the arid and chilled setting defers Karl’s inspiration, “their lips were violet and their feet were so numb”(Erdrich line 9). In this instance, Louise Erdrich illustrates that Karl is hopeless. However, the shift in lines 41-49 where the narrator commences to describe the appealing of nature, “a scratch of light against the gray of everything else, tosses a film of blossoms,” the sudden shift from dark imagery to light imagery denotes the transformative experience for Karl. The author sketches the blossoming nature to convey that Karl is finding hope in the hopeless place. Furthermore, Louise Erdrich’s description on how Karl’s deep immersion in nature, “She shouted, but he did not seem to hear her and only stood, strange and stock-still among the branches”(Erdrich lines 52-54) seduces himself to lose his awareness of the dangers around him, “he did not move even when the dog in the yard lunged against its rope and bawled”(Erdrich 55-56).

In the first line, “My river was once unseparated. Was Colorado”, she shows the past. Next, she shows the current state of the river, “Now it is shattered by fifteen dams” (5). Then she shifts her vision from ground to the upper sky. She describes how the milky way was made, which is the title of this poem.

The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.

. . took on, over time, the nature of one more hillock in the dramatic rise and fall of the coastal landscape.” (141) Expressed in this statement is the idea that although the Larkins experienced a tragedy that held the town‘s interest for a period, adversity is a natural part of the unpredictability and ups and downs of life. In other words; tragedy and adversity are part of the landscape of life.

The speaker also chooses her diction precisely, so that there is clear contribution to the overall idea that the poem is indeed about the quest for change and longing from escape from the swamp. Two very different forms of description are used to represent this source of dread: once by the simple name, swamp, and

She became accustomed to the perception of a desert being portrayed as dull and lifeless (Being raised in Kentucky) until this trip. Throughout this scene, she expresses her fascination for nature, and uses a tone of awe and allurement while describing the attributes about the land with metaphors. This narration occurred following the first rainfall, when Mattie and Taylor decided to go to the desert. This passage which is distinctive of Kingsolver’s portrayal of the natural landscape shows her sudden awareness diverse atmospheres. By linking to the scenery to “the palm of a human hand”, the author uses the literary device of personification with the mountains and the town. Her phrase “resting in its cradle of mountains” associates the basin to a child, and the phrases “city like a palm”and“life lines and heart lines hints a grown-up. The terrain exemplifies a life from the beginning to end. Taylor describes the land my linking each attribute with lots of metaphors, which then confirms that the tone is “wonder and allurement” because it demonstrates that she is emotionally connected to the

The two rivers mentioned in ASP are symbolic of the experiences of the students at Devon. The Naguamsett is described as dirty, murky and forbidding, much like the war raging on in the world outside Devon. The strong currents and unpredictability of the river mirrors the war and its chaos. The Devon, on the other hand, is a river that the students are fond of. Fresh water, it is clear and uncomplicated, and is the scene of the golden summer days the boys spent in and around it. The fact that the Devon emptied into the Naguamsett is symbolic of the inevitable transition from the simplicity of childhood innocence to the complications and confusion of maturity. The cave in “DPS” represents freedom. Freedom from convention, freedom from the constrained ideology of the school, and the freedom to express themselves. In the cave the boys read prohibited poetry, drink, smoke cigarettes and discuss women, all things they cannot do within the rigid confines of Welton Academy behavior. As in the lore of old, this cave does indeed contain a treasure, the Dead Poets’ Society’s unrepressed intellectual exchange, combining both their coarser thoughts and their most elevated ambitions. The cave is not so much a barrier against the outside world, rather a cocoon for the ideas of the world within, where they are free and

Roderick Frazier Nash’s book, Wilderness and the American Mind, compiled contemporary debates about wilderness by outlining the changing positions concerning wilderness throughout history. In chapter 11, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet,” Nash discuses Aldo Leopold’s house metaphor. Here, Leopold refers to six vacant lots and what it would mean to build houses on all six lots. He describes how the first few houses might make sense; however once you build upon all six lots you no longer remember the meaning of the homes. He argues that they somehow the sixth house would become “stupidity.” Conversely, I disagree with this theory. I feel each house, so to speak, is built differently and suits different needs and wants. Just as in the wilderness,

The inception of “Covers The Ground,” begins with establishing the setting of the city of Sacramento. Understanding the natural beauty of the city is best conveyed by establish vivid imagery and Snyder accomplishes this by describing the “blossoming almond orchard acres.” As the image of nature sparks into the reader’s head, Gary Snyder is

Abbey attempts in his article to help the reader visualize Glen Canyon before it was dammed up. He uses a lot of pathos to help the reader "feel" the beauty of the previous Glen Canyon and the ugliness of the present. His article

The authors have two clearly different environments and describes them in diverse ways. Abbey writes about his surroundings as a bright, clear, calm April morning. He changed his description in the afternoon as “the wind begins to blow, raising dust and sand in funnel-shaped twisters that spin across that desert briefly, like dancers, and then collapse-elements under stress” (52). While Leopold writes about his experience with on a mountain as a “deep chesty ball echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night” (49).

The story of the Sevier-Fremont people’s evolution and existence in the Great Basin parallels Williams’ life in Utah during the 1980s. They Sevier-Fremont evolved from the Anasazi

Nature and wilderness were very important ideas to some extant for St. John de Crevecoeur and Ralph Waldo Emerson, each had their own opinions and ideas that contrasted against each other and were somewhat similar to each other. Emerson who valued it and looked at the nature as something to proud of had used it many times in his works as examples and that we are part of nature as well and make whatever choices from it as it can from us. While Crevecoeur believes that in every land it has its own form of culture as it does its own kind of nature, and describes how the land and nature was then and how it will be giving details of it in his pieces of work. How they use and see nature is described equally important in both their works “the American Scholar” and “What is an American” but shows how different their views really are in them.