Jennifer Vanderbes’ (2004) Easter Island novel tells a story of two women who visited the island 60 years apart. In 1912, Elsa Pendleton was arranged to marry her father’s colleague, Edward Beazley after her father’s death. In hopes of caring for Elsa and her mentally impaired sister Alice, Elsa accepts the marriage proposal. Archaeologist, Edward Beazley, accepted the offer to take an expedition to Easter Island to study the moai statues and the culture on the mysterious island. As a honeymoon trip for Elsa and of course Alice, she agrees to move to the island for a new life. During the yearlong expedition, Elsa acts more of a companion to Alice than she does Edward; however, this changes as they settle on the island. As time passes, everyone
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Summer students collected data to reject the thought of settlers destroying Easter Island and causing destruction within their own environment. Based on previous research, the island was colonized by settlers around 1200 AD, which was 400 years later than previous assumptions (Guo 2007). However, this is ruled out because it would make it hard for humans to destroy vegetation so quickly. Ancient rat DNA suggests that their population increased dramatically after the first settlers disappeared. The hundreds of rat bones and rat-gnawed palm seeds found deep in the sands along the beach support the theory. The seedling was needed to replenish the mature stock but the rat population devoured the palm seeds causing the palm forest to decline. This helps determine that the rat population increased more than the human population (Guo …show more content…
In relation to the story, previous visitors suggested that early settlers deforested the island. Greer finds a fossilized nut, which she believes could have been used in transporting the moai and fuels her ideas of deforestation caused by humans on the island. She found two species of palm trees that would have been a major source of food, shelter, and transportation for islanders. She implies that the decrease in population was caused by deforestation. The decrease in palm trees led to starvation due to the decrease in boat supplies used for fishing. Based on the fossilized nut found in Vanderbes (2004) novel, she concludes that humans may have caused habitat destruction, while Guo (2007) provides evidence of rat fossils to disapprove this
Summer students collected data to reject the thought of settlers destroying Easter Island and causing destruction within their own environment. Based on previous research, the island was colonized by settlers around 1200 AD, which was 400 years later than previous assumptions (Guo 2007). However, this is ruled out because it would make it hard for humans to destroy vegetation so quickly. Ancient rat DNA suggests that their population increased dramatically after the first settlers disappeared. The hundreds of rat bones and rat-gnawed palm seeds found deep in the sands along the beach support the theory. The seedling was needed to replenish the mature stock but the rat population devoured the palm seeds causing the palm forest to decline. This helps determine that the rat population increased more than the human population (Guo …show more content…
In relation to the story, previous visitors suggested that early settlers deforested the island. Greer finds a fossilized nut, which she believes could have been used in transporting the moai and fuels her ideas of deforestation caused by humans on the island. She found two species of palm trees that would have been a major source of food, shelter, and transportation for islanders. She implies that the decrease in population was caused by deforestation. The decrease in palm trees led to starvation due to the decrease in boat supplies used for fishing. Based on the fossilized nut found in Vanderbes (2004) novel, she concludes that humans may have caused habitat destruction, while Guo (2007) provides evidence of rat fossils to disapprove this