Personal Narrative: My Life In Madagascar

I’m running from the terror behind me. Five bulls have found me and are trying to kill me. There was nowhere for me to go, I was done for it. The bulls are a hundred yards behind me and are closing in. I brace myself for the excruciating pain to come.

It is a warm summer night and shades of orange, red, and gold appear in the sky over the pine-covered hills. The sun soon disappears beneath the dark hills and darkness settles over the land. The buffalo, antelope, and elk find places to rest for the night and all is quiet except for the creeks and birds. In several hours, the sky will again be lit with a multitude of colors and the animals will begin to rise. A new day will begin in the Black Hills, just like it did hundreds of years ago.

PBS’s, Nova What Are Dreams, is a forty-five-minute documentary about how different stages of sleep effect our dreams. Throughout the documentary, we also witness how dreaming is essential for making sense of the world around us. For nearly a century, many thought when one is asleep the brain is asleep as well. Yet not until technology advanced, did scientists begin examining sleeping patients to notice every ninety minutes their patients brain showed activity as if they were awake but were still unconscious.

Each person has been taught to hope, to have a dream. I always shot for the stars; I wanted to be a princess, obviously that didn’t work out though. As every individual ages his or her aspirations become more realistic; I aspire to have a stable job and a loving family. Having dreams is an important part of everyone’s lives.

Born into a family of eight, John D. Rockefeller grew up poor and struggled to meet demands before finding success through the oil industry. Beginning his tough journey through small jobs such as bookkeeping to eventually starting his own oil company, Rockefeller became one of the richest and most successful men in history. His story follows the concept of the so-called American Dream, defined by many as the idea that all people are given the chance to find success and wealth through their own efforts and through perseverance. However, there are different interpretations of the American Dream, as some people view it as personal achievement and happiness. The stories Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald strongly

The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.

More than 40 years ago elie wiesel,Holocaust survivor courageously wrote his memories of surviving the holocaust,survival was mentally emotionally and physically challenging. (“Then i was aware of nothing but the strokes of the whip. one ...two…,he counted,...twenty four... twenty five!”wiesel 42)

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.

Many people who go into nature always see it as something beautiful and aesthetic, but they never see the other side to nature. Humankind’s connection with nature isn’t a real one. They always look at the bright side of nature but are blind to the true dark side of nature. JB MacKinnon’s article “False Idyll” (2012), reveals that nature is not just flowers in a field but can also be the survival of the fittest. He backs up his claim by talking about nature through anecdotes and expert’s research.

There are days when the world feels like it 's falling down in fiery bits and pieces on top of one’s head, and then there are the days when the world is actually falling to pieces. Humans have often constructed their own protective barriers, and carried on amidst what would be deemed apocalyptic circumstances. These circumstances are viewed as having no other purpose other than making life extraordinarily hard and discouraging humanity to continue their existence. Instead, tragedy and suffering through it serves to unite all of the human race by tugging on the heartstrings. Compassion and empathy makes suffering a continually melding experience of humanity.

We are all brothers and share the same fate. The same smoke hovers over all our heads. Help each other. That is the only way to survive.” (Pg. 41) a character in the book directly addresses the devastation surrounding them and instructs fellow prisoners of religious and racial persecution, to keep their head high and to steer away from things that will eliminate their chances of hope.

Evelyn White continues, “certain if I ventured outside to admire a meadow or to feel cool ripples in a stream, I’d be taunted, attacked, raped, maybe even murdered because of the color of my skin” (White 1063). This perspective, illustrates what she believes would happen, if she were to go “outside”. The consequences would be ugly, and she makes the reader even feel threatened by this. She describes the nature itself as more relaxing and beautiful to look at, but then contradicts it with her feelings of fear and vulnerability to the wilderness. In the text “Nature”, by Raymond Williams, he explains the complexity of nature as a “tension: nature was at once innocent, unprovided, sure, unsure, fruitful, destructive, a pure force and tainted and cursed” (Williams 222).

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).

The cool, upland air, flooding through the everlasting branches of the lively tree, as it casts a vague shadow onto the grasses ' fine green. Fresh sunlight penetrates through the branches of the tree, illuminating perfect spheres of water upon its green wands. My numb and almost transparent feet are blanketed by the sweetness of the scene, as the sunlight paints my lips red, my hair ebony, and my eyes honey-like. The noon sunlight acts as a HD camera, telling no lies, in the world in which shadows of truth are the harshest, revealing every flaw in the sight, like a toddler carrying his very first camera, taking pictures of whatever he sees. My head looks down at the sight of my cold and lifeless feet, before making its way up to the reaching arms of an infatuating tree, glowing brightly virescent at the edges of the trunk, inviting a soothing, tingling sensation to my soul.

What was I supposed to do? What did he want me to do? Stay? Run? Maybe I would’ve stayed, but something in my mind sensed the danger and shouted me to flee as quick as possible.