rough draft

Halie Cousineau English 308J

Writing About Reading 1/24/1

“Thinking Like a Mountain” and “Sifting through the Embers”

Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain” from his awarding book the A Sand County Almanac and Douglas Adams’ “Sifting through the Embers” from his book Last Chance to See may seem like stories about two different subjects when first read. Aldo Leopold uses his character’s memory, of shooting and watching a wolf die, to show how the character came to his epiphany: some human actions can change an ecosystem completely, such as hunting wolves in areas have made the deer population inflate dramatically which can also change the plant life. While Douglas Adams uses his story, a woman trying to sell important books for a high price that no one will buy, then burns them and increases the price until someone pays an extraordinary price just to save the last one, to show how humans do not care for objects, like the environment, as much until it is almost gone. When I read the stories again I found that although the books’ ‘second meanings’ are not the exact same message I do feel that they both express issues dealing with human’s reactions on ecosystems and the idea of true value.

“Thinking Like a Mountain” was one of the more impactful sections I have read about human influence on the environment. Aldo Leopold uses a personal account of watching “a fierce green fire dying in her eyes;” the story of watching the wolf die, to create a personal connection to nature dying. I also think the deeper message is the idea of humans purposely changing their surrounds can have unanticipated negative affect. “I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” He uses the mountain, as a symbol of the Earth saying the Earth only listens it does not act. However humans don’t think like the mountain because they don’t ‘listen’ humans just act: “We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness” and humans don’t think of what their actions will react into. I found this to be similar to Douglas Adams’ “Sifting through the Embers” because the people’s actions in the book have an unanticipated negative affect

In “Sifting through the Embers” the books that contained all the knowledge and wisdom of the world represent the environment. Due to ignorance the humans let the book be destroyed until there is only one left, this not only shows that humans tend to only value something until it is rare or gone but also that the true value of something is not calculated until it is gone. Aldo Leopold did not realize the value of a balanced ecosystem until it was ruined and Douglas Adams did not consider the value of the books until all but one was gone.

I do think that both stories have different messages but they can still be related. One story shows humans actions have a ripped effect and the other shows the high price of not paying attention to something until it is gone. But they both show the need to consider the true value of things and until something is gone or almost gone we humans don’t see its value. Our ignorance lets us not care that we are changing in the world and we will have to pay a price.