In the opening lines of “The Land Ethic,” Aldo Leopold describes how “god-like Odysseus returned from the wars in Troy” and “hanged all on one rope a dozen slave girls” (Leopold, 201). These slave girls “were property” and “the disposal of property was then, as now, a matter of expediency, not of right and wrong” (Leopold, 201). Leopold draws upon this example to show the ethical sequence: just as “slave girls” were once merely considered “property,” the land has not yet been included within ethics. Although Leopold’s work largely ignores issues of gender, class, and race, in these words, he begins to explore the notion of a gendered environmental ethic. Ecofeminism continues this exploration and espouses that there exist integral “connections …show more content…
For Leopold, skill is an integral part of developing a land ethic. He believes having a skill-based relationship with the land leads to the formation of “an ethic, ecologically” because relating to the land in such a way produces a “limitation on freedom of action” (Leopold, 121, 202). Leopold also interprets buffers that prevent humanity from having a direct and skill-based relationship to the environment as “spiritual dangers” because they prevent people from fostering direct connections to their ecological realities (Leopold, 6). Materialist ecofeminism also ascribes to the view that an understanding of ethics only arrives from an understanding of the materials in which people exist. For materialist ecofeminists, ethics arise from materialist relationships through which the development of a spiritual connection with the natural world is possible because of the skills, knowledge, and agency utilized when interacting with nature. However, materialist ecofeminists expand upon Leopold’s positon as they describe how many women, in particular, have “a special relationship with nature” as “a result of the situation and the specific context women find themselves in, vis-à-vis nature” (Pandey, 347). This context cultivates such a relationship because “much of women’s work…involves considerable skill and knowledge” to manage “their daily household chores and work outside, in conjunction with nature” (Pandey, 350, 347). Thus, materialist ecofeminists built upon Leopold’s position on the role of skill in connecting to the land as they specifically look to women’s relationships with
Chapter 6 of the Echohawk article is called “Toward an American Land Ethic”. In the beginning of the article the author mentions that the Declaration not only serves to protect and preserve the indigenous habitat but also the related land and use of rights of the indigenous peoples and their cultural survival. Chapter 6 examines all the ways that the human family has originally/traditionally looked at the land. This chapter explores the forces that stymie a land ethic in our own country the United States and explains the congruency between protecting the rights of indigenous people and developing a land ethic for a American setting. What is a land ethic?
Both Thoreau and King rely heavily on ethos to get their points across. The intended audience of both is similar; a group of people with similar morals as the writers, but who have neglected action for various reasons. King also appeals to pathos, describing the plight of the colored man vividly. King’s audience is largely aware of this situation already, but he uses it to drive them to action rather than simple awareness. On the other hand, Thoreau appeals little to pathos, focusing instead on logic and ethics.
The Baker Farm was an interesting harmonious chapter of smooth like chocolate of an imagery along with bipolar emotions throughout. The rhetorical strategies Henry David Thoreau uses to achieve his purpose in Baker Farm, which was to convince John Field to live a piece-of-cake life, by using similes, personification, pathos, ethos, and logos throughout this chapter. Thoreau uses similes such as “the red alderberry glows like eyes of imp” to tote on to the imagery of his little journey when he “set out one afternoon to go a-fishing to Fair Haven, through the woods” which paints a picture in the mind of the audience. Additionally, Thoreau's usage of similes also extends to the use of humor.
Additionally, from an environmentalist view, wilderness should not be seen as a separate entity but rather one with humanity. Consequently, where one does not just go to a nature preserve to feel reconnected momentarily,
(Frazier, 137) Ruby is extremely learned on the subject of the natural world. This knowledge was extremely uncommon of women in their society, yet it is essential for Ada and Ruby’s survival. Ruby highlights historical qualities that are seen as
In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.
The harsh reality surrounds the fact that as time and technology advances, the separation between people and nature increases as well. Louv, in his rhetoric from Last Child in the Woods (2008), argues why the separation between society and nature is distressing.
As the world went into Anthropocene, the disscussion of the relationship between human and natural became more frequnt than in before. Human being and the inviroment are not isolation based on the theory of Anthropocene, ont he opposite, they art related and effect each other. Mmany authors write literature article based on this new-coming topic, and showed their special undestanding towards it.
Nature is not only the trees, leaves, and, soil but, it encompasses a wide variety of things that cover both physical, mental, and even spiritual elements. Most important to Feige is that “Nature is infinitely large and varied”, omnipresent throughout the world (9). Nature can not be confined to a single presence but underlies in everything in the world. By Feige’s definition of nature “A body’s flesh blood and bone” also fall into the natural order of the world which expands nature’s reach to all of mankind. The main idea Feige stresses to the reader about nature, is that everything from a wooden farm to the American Republic is rooted in the natural order of things.
Christopher McCandless, whose life and journey are the main ideas of the novel “Into the Wild”, was about an adolescent who, upon graduating from Emory College, decided to journey off into the Alaskan wilderness. He had given away his savings of $25,000 and changed his name to Alex Supertramp. His voyage to Alaska took him two years during which he traveled all across the country doing anomalous jobs and making friends. He inevitably made it to Alaska were he entered the wilderness with little more than a few books, a sleeping bag and a ten pound bag of rice. A couple months after his first day in the wild, his body was found in an abandoned bus.
Individuals lay the foundation of America. The Founding Fathers of this unique nation broke their allegiance with Great Britain to create an improved governing body. They desired an individual-centered authority as opposed to Britain’s monarchy, which ruled with tyranny. These Founding Fathers experienced a neglectful democratic monarchy that cared little about the ethical treatment of its people. The domineering actions of Britain challenged these historic individuals to form a new cultural identity.
He argues that we should treat our land with care and respect as we now treat one another, for we will be ushering a new era of change the is all for the better. The second half of the essay begins with "The Ecological Conscience". Starting off by stating “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” and going on to describe how our fight for land is improving it is moving far too slow. This transforms into the
Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.
We should value nature and its animals much more (Becker, 1971). In today’s world we have what Becker calls a “power-saw mentality” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). Instead we’re greedy with what nature has to offer us. “Man takes what nature offers us, but usually only what he needs” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). There is a psychological difference in today’s world of what we enjoy out of nature (Becker, 1971).
Therefore, we need to think about tomorrow with respect to every action that we take in the environment and in this case we can say that sustainable development requires slower population growth. With this in mind, we need to be educated through our cultures about the impact we caused to the environment as we continue to reproduce. The challenge of environmental ethics has led to the attempt to apply traditional ethical theories, including consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, to support contemporary environmental concerns; the preservation of biodiversity as an ethical goal; the broader concerns of some thinkers with wilderness, the built environment and the politics of poverty; the ethics of sustainability and climate change, and some directions for possible future developments of the discipline [ CITATION And15 \l 1033 ]. With this multi-dimensional approach one can see that it is more of a cultural issue to think of it from its origin.