Tuesday, June 1, 2010

#3- IN THE JUNGLE

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5 comments:

  1. While reading “In the Jungle”, the main idea that I took out of it is that humans need to appreciate what the Earth came with, whether they are “monkeys, toucans, macaws, jaguars” (57) or a river that is “coiled up by the sandy bank and [has] tangled its foam in vines” (54). Things that are Earth’s gift to us should be further appreciated, rather than those that we impose on it such as luxurious apartments or other material goods. This idea can be further seen when the writer tells about a man who lived in “an apartment in Manhattan [and] a house in Paris” (55), yet it made him wonder why he was returning to those places instead of being at peace with nature near the Napo River. While reading this section, I thought that the man was going to complain about having to be “in a tent, under a tree in the village of Pompeya” (55), however, it surprised me when he valued his time there a lot more than the time he spent on luxurious places. This was the moment where I realized the importance of valuing the Earth for all the great things it has to offer, things that money certainly cannot buy; things such as the life of a jaguar or a moment where five different indigenous girls braid your hair.
    -Mariale

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  2. The story transports us to a natural and wild environment in the Ecuadorian jungle. The existent reality there, is totally different from a reality which the visitors used to have before. This fact helps the narrator not only to contrast these realities but also to appreciate the fascinating life of people in this place. Some of these people are foreigners who have spent a long time with natives, sharing cultural values. Most of them are natives, whose style of life is very different.

    The narrator transmits the natural worry of foreigners’ who visit places like the jungle “I had slumped on some shaded steps, wishing I knew some Spanish or some Quecha so I could speak with the ring of little girls who where alternately staring at me and smiling at their toes”(54). But once he is there, he realizes that the most important thing of being there, is to enjoy everything he can: “the Naple river itself is wide and brown, opaque and smeared with the floating foam and logs and branches from the jungle”(55) he then realizes this place is a place of “peace”(59). Felipe

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  3. Felipe, I think that the point you made about the foreigners trying to be better companions in a way is very interesting. I also loved how the affection was mutual between the indigenous people and the tourists. For example, when the woman “loosed [her] hair from tis brads and combed it smooth” (54) just so that the next day, the girls from the village would yearn to play with it and braid it. I think that this accentuates the idea that many times, it is believed that tourists are the ones who are most excited about visiting a place, but without a doubt, the indigenous people are definitely glad to welcome them to their home!
    On the other hand, I think that the style in which Dillard writes is very descriptive since it describes everything she sees or feels. For example, she describes the ants “with their leaves look like a wide fleet of sailing dinghies” (57). This type of description certainly allows the reader to know everything that is going on during her journey; it even gives you a tingle to think about all those ants, marching together, one next to another one. At the beginning, I thought that this style was too descriptive and a little slow. However, towards the end of the essay, it allowed Dillard’s ideas to get through more clearly. And that idea is that we should appreciate all the details on the Earth we have, just like she does.
    -Mariale

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  4. Moving on, I found a peculiar message at the ending. Dillard starts off saying “Like any out-of-the-way place”(53) meaning as “Out of the way of human life, tenderness, or the glance of heaven”(53). This means that the author is trying to look for a place in the world where she can get apart from society and find a place of peace. But the author concluding his essay says: “The Napo River: it is not out of the way. It is in the way…”(59) trying to portray that when he chose this part on the world to find this peace, he did not get out of the way of human life but he got into it and found a way of living that suited herself. She ends her essay by reflecting that her trip to escape from humanity found her own human life over there as if she was happy there. Felipe

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  5. Good comments. I agree, Filipe, that the end was very interesting. People often think of these small villages as "out of the way places" and her experience is that in reality the jungle is where "real life" is being lived. More real and more beautiful and wonderful than manhattan or paris. Perhaps her message is that we should stop trying ESCAPE from our lives by going to "out of the way places" and instead we should DISCOVER our lives by going to places like the jungle.

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