Essay - Environmental Themes in Grapes of Wrath This Essay Reviews Environmental...

Environmental Themes in Grapes of Wrath

This essay reviews environmental themes from the following five books: Dust Bowl by Donald Worster, The ***** of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Everglades: River of Grass ***** Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Matthiessen, and River of Lakes by Bill Belleville. This paper discusses the role that culture has played in environmental issues during the past century. Five sources used. MLA format.

Environmental **********

Humans from the very beginning of their existence have had an impact, for better or worse, on the environment. Man has for ***** most part tried to control the environment to suit his needs or tastes of the era. Over-grazing, over hunting, ignoring ***** importance crop rotations, dam building, and toxic dumping, are but a few of the ways man tries to *****. Few societies have ever considered any of the above when it comes ***** the *****. There are a few pockets of them in history ***** even today, ***** they ***** indeed few and far between. Organic farming or sustainable agri***** is the closest that most have come to being simpatico w*****h the environment, to truly underst*****ing the cause and effect ***** *****ir actions. Money seems to be the root of th***** disregard, not ignorance. The fur and pelt traders of *****e 1800's knew that there was not some infinite supply of buffalo, that there wasn't some machine producing these animals for eternity. When the buffalo were killed to near extinction, the ***** simply moved on to something else, feeling no regard or remorse. Developers are much the same when it comes to the l*****. Squeezing as much real estate as possible on as ***** land as possible, and again with no ***** ***** the upset ***** ecological balance ***** might be causing. Man's attitude, for the last century in particular, has *****en one of entitlement to do whatever he chooses. Laws ***** amended, property and l***** rez*****d, and restrictions overturned. ***** ***** works give an import*****t and compre*****nsive view of *****'s relationship with the environment ***** the roles society and culture play ***** ***** issues.

Killing Mr. Watson by Peter ***** describes through character narratives, life in ***** Florida Everglades during the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. During those ***** years, the Everglades were home to desperadoes, misfits, renegades, moonshiners, and a few lost souls looking ***** retreat from the world (Matthiessen, 1990). There was also a scattering of a few survivors of sever*****l Native American Indian tribes, mostly ***** Mikasuke tribe, who ***** escaped from being rounded-up and moved west to Oklahoma ***** the government. Fort Myers was the largest city in ***** area, filled ***** cattlemen and bankers. Seldom did law authorities or anyone else for that matter ever venture in***** the Everglades. It was an inhospitable place to live. Cut off from civilization, it was a world of its own (*****, 1990).

As one naturalist recounts in Matthiessen's **********, "The Ten Thous*****d Islands is a region of mystery and loneliness: gloomy,