Final Blog

How do humans interact with nature?  This has been, as I perceive, the main question the class has revolved around.  While our main presentation for the final revolved around the three texts we have read this semester (Ishmael, Into the Wild, and the works of Hemingway) and so many other questions, they all boiled down to this.  Each family, while all agreed nature is something valued and we humans should be in touch with, debated their own philosophies.  I believe, in my own opinion, that yes we should be in touch with nature more.  I remember when the lunar eclipse happened this April, it was late at night and my family asked me if I wanted to see it with them.  I told them no, because why would I need to see it in person if I could just see it on the computer?  I realized the next day what a ridiculous response that was.  I could've seen something so rare and beautiful in person but I chose not too because I was too tired and I could see it another time or on the screen. The text I chose to annotate was the wolf video called Feral which we viewed in class.  It's about a boy in nature, born and raised in the wild, who then had to become civilized but the attempt to assimilate him into their society was ultimately fruitless as he returned to his natural state.  This fit in wight he group project because it shows how humans interact with nature.  The boy is the outcast, the one who is in touch with nature, while everyone else, the students, teachers, and the man who tried to civilize him, are the "normal" ones, the people out of touch with nature and secluding themselves in their own artificial conclave.  Regarding the project, I made annotations about the video, an outside source (Grievous by Todd Davis), and Mary and I created the script and compiled all the answers to make a cohesive and coherent script since we weren't part of the contesting groups.  I think I would've changed some of the actions and wording of the script to make it sound more realistic, while some people made remarks about other teams and cheered for themselves, it lacked a certain element of humor or drama.  However, I did like that everyone made contributions and worked together; none of this would've been possible without everyone's help.  If I could do this project again, I would but as I've stated before I would add more human qualities to the show, such as humor, drama, romance, etc.  As well, I would've wanted it to go more in depth about the philosophies.  Most of the answers just scratched the surfaces of the inner meanings of the different texts we read in class.  I personally wish I had put more time into it but studying for the other exams got in the way of that so it wasn't as detailed as I would've hoped.