Richard Khan Analysis

            In his paper Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature, and the Oppressed People of the Earth, Richard Khan, a professor at the University of North Dakota, writes that people must be taught in such a way that their current mindsets and views. The main way people need to switch their thinking is that they have to change from a capitalist, dominating mindset, to a more socialist mindset in which animals, nature, and people are not dominated and oppressed by a rich few that happen to be at the top of the pecking order. Khan writes about how today’s social system is based on class, but he also compares how people destroy and oppress the environment to social classes: “the exploitation of species, of the environment, and of the poor by the rich, have a single underlying cause… the globalization of technocapitalsm.” Not only are rich people putting down the poor to get ahead in today’s “globalized technocapitalist” system, but also people are putting down the environment to get ahead and outcompete it. If the lower class and the environment are to be saved, this system must end, and a new, more cooperative system must be adopted. If a socialist system such as the one Khan writes about is implemented, the rich, the poor, and the environment can live together harmoniously, without the need to violently outcompete each other.

Visual Rhetoric

http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/

This is an image created by the environmental action organization Greenpeace. It depicts a silhouetted group of people hoisting up a windmill generator with the rising sun shining through the clouds in the background. This is a very good example of visual rhetoric that employs pathos and is quite affective, since people respond the strongest to emotional appeals. The image is reminiscent of a similar, highly recognized image of American soldiers raising a flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, after winning the Battle of Iwo Jima:

http://www.iwojima.com/raising/lflaga2.gif

The goal of the famous Iwo Jima flag raising picture was to raise the spirits of the people of America and give them a reason to believe in a cause that many were losing faith in. In the same way that the Iwo Jima picture lifted people's spirits and inspired them to fight on, the Greenpeace picture gives people hope that the battle to save the environment is not lost, and small victories, even something as small as raising a windmill, symbolize that the fight is heading in the right direction. The fact that a large group of people is working together to lift the windmill also suggests the need for everyone to play their part in helping the environment, and the rising sun symbolizes a new era in the way we handle ourselves as far as responsibility with the environment is concerned.

The Greenpeace images and images like it can be used to cause an emotional reaction in people, and inspire them to act in a certain way.

Turtle Island Poem Analysis

In these poems from the collection Turtle Island by Gary Snyder, the themes of nature being a delicate balance, and humans needing to live in harmony with it, are evident.

“By Frazier Creek Falls” (page 41)

In this poem, Snyder talks about a beautiful natural landscape, describing it in a touching and loving way, and conveys the notion that everything together in the bioregion is alive. The way he describes it also suggests that it is delicate, and “trembling”, in other words it all exists in a delicate balance that Snyder says we can live with peacefully, “without tools or clothes”. If people can change their ways, and learn to live without destroying the environment, we can live with it, and become a part of it.

“O Waters” (page 73)

This poem is describing a mountainous area at night. It is presumable about the Nanao region in China. The poem talks about a peaceful natural mountain landscape, with water that washes over and renews everything. There is also mention of the snow on the mountains melting away, bringing the area back to life. Each line of the poems is spaced differently with some short and some long. However they are connected, sometimes at bigger points that others. This symbolizes how everything in this bioregion shares the same space and is connected in some way in a peaceful balance. The last three lines “great/earth/sangha” are centered under the rest of the poem. This style shows how the bioregion is a part that balances and is supported by the rest of the world. Sangha, an element of Buddhism, symbolizes how the bioregion and the world peacefully cooperate.

“Dusty Braces” (page 75)

“Dusty Braces” is a message from Synder to all the people that came before him, the “lumber schooners”, “punchers”, “miners”, “dirt farmers”, and “railroad-men”, who have been destroying the environment. Snyder uses harsh language, calling them “bastards” for the dirty work that they have done. He wishes that they had never done what they did, and that humans could live in harmony with the environment, being “sea roving/tree hearted” people. If people could do this, the world would be a better place.

More Gary Snyder Analysis

In three poems by Gary Snyder, “Source”, “Straight-Creek—Great Burn”, and “What Happened Here Before”, the themes of disconnection of humans from nature, the fragility of nature, and the ability of man to conquer nature, are apparent.

“Source” (page 26)

In “Source”, Snyder writes of an untouched environment, where all the natural processes remain intact. In this environment, animals roam free, vegetation grows uninterrupted, and the night sky is actually dark. This is what nature would be like if, in Snyder’s words, “no Spaniards ever came”. Snyder is trying to emphasize in his poem that people are detrimental to nature, and that nature is much better off when it is left alone.

“Straight-Creek—Great Burn” (page 52-53)

This poem is about the Straight Creek and that natural area around it. It is described as one big living thing, the Creek represents the veins and the heart, and the plants and animals represent the body and wondering mind. The delicate balance this place has, the birds nearly flying apart, then finding each other, or the trembling, heart like stream, is a metaphor for the fragility of nature. The Straight Creek area has been around for thousands of years hanging on to this balance, and it has been able to do this without human interference. However as soon humans should step in, the area would be thrown out of balance, and the Straight Creek area would suffer terribly.

“What Happened Here Before” (page 78-81)

This poem is basically a history of life on Earth. It starts 300,000,000 years in the past, when everything was just getting started. The periods of time talked about at first are very long (millions of years) where nature is becoming everything that it ever was. What is striking is that, after all these hundreds of million years, humans have managed to claim, conquer, and nearly destroy nature in just 125 years. At the end of the poem, three short lines resonate: “WE SHALL SEE/ WHO KNOWS/ HOW TO BE”.  This is a statement saying that either humans or nature will figure out how to conquer the other and exist while the other dies. 

Themes in Five Turtle Island Poems

The works in Gary Snyder’s collection of poems, entitled Turtle Island, all share many similar themes. These themes deal with what man today is doing to nature, and, how people treated nature in the past, and what needs to be done to help nature heal and become what it once was. Five of his poems, “Dead by the Side of the Road”, “Steak”, “Front Lines”, “Control Burn”, and “Anasazi” all contain some or all of these themes.

“Dead by the Side of the Road”

This poem is the story of 5 different animals: a Red-tailed Hawk, a skunk, a Fawn, a Ringtail, and a Doe. Each animal lies dead on the side of the road, all having been killed at the hands of a human. Some were road killed, others shot. The road symbolizes the far reach that people have throughout nature, as roads, especially the interstates that are the setting of this poem, can go deep into wilderness. This means that nature has no escape from the negative impact inflicted by man, as symbolized by the animals, killed by people who are blazing their way through nature and destroying everything in their path. The animals decay, dry up, and even wither away on the polluted shoulder of the road. This demonstrates how, after humans have gone and done their dirty work to nature, they leave lasting negative effects that linger long after they have left.

“Steak”

“Steak” is about a trip to a steakhouse, and then out to the farm where the cows are raised. On the outside, the steakhouse is colorful and cheerful looking, reflecting the way that man masks the damage it does to nature as a good thing. By the farm, it is describe how the cows are fed grain from “the ripped-off land”.  The people eating in the steakhouse seen to be blissfully ignorant of where their food is coming from, especially the “Japanese-American animal nutrition experts/ from Kansas,/ with Buddhist beads”. Japan, America, and Buddhism generally have nothing to do with each other. This shows how ignorant most Americans are about where their food comes from. The fact that they are nutrition experts further proves that point.

“Front Lines”

This poem is essentially about a losing battle that nature is fighting with mankind. The process that is described is very similar to an invasion; at first the growl of the approaching bulldozers and log trucks is heard. They stop to make way for the realtors and land-grabbers, who survey the land and plan the attack. Then, once everything has been portioned out, the invasion force moves in, destroying everything in its path without mercy, all for the benefit of a few greedy people. This one event is happening all over the world, and Snyder says that it cannot go on any longer. The rest of the forest, which so far has been untouched, must be saved. Like how an invaded people would form a resistance to stop an invasion, we must create a resistance against this utter destruction of nature.

“Control Burn”

In “Control Burn”, Synder describes how Native Americans used to use fire in order to burn away the bush that was encroaching on the trees in the forest, so that the trees could grow tall and be healthy. The Indians respected nature and used it wisely, but fire can destroy when used improperly, and so too can people in America, who no longer respect nature. Instead they destroy everything with no regard for nature. If Americans treated nature like the Indians did before them, the world would be a better place.

“Anasazi”

“Anasazi” describes the lives of the Anasazi Indians, who were a tribe that lived in settlements inside the sides of cliffs. They lived a simple life, and existed alongside nature, and also with it all around them. Snyder says they are “Sinking deeper and deeper in earth”. They are becoming a part of nature, by quite literally digging into the earth and living there. In this way they coexist with nature and share it with the rest of the world.