Southern environmental history has already added a significant amount of scholar to Southern history. It discusses topics that range from trees, soil, mountains, water, and chemicals. While it has already added so much to the field, there are still several things that need further research. In his book, The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and its Peoples from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina, Christopher Morris gives a total history of the Mississippi River area and its environment.…
How would you respond when faced with adversity, would you run from it or face it? In the book Fever 1793 Matilda Cook a fourteen year old girl was faced with many problems. For example, her mother got ill with yellow fever and she sent her away with her grandfather. As the wagon was heading out of the city, her grandfather had a coughing fit. Guards examine and prevent all of the ill people from coming into the countryside.…
For my student selected novel, I decided to read “Fever 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book was about the Yellow Fever epidemic that spreads just after the US won their independence during the American Revolution. With this time period comes many interesting and exciting events, themes, and technologies. One of the things that really stood out to me that is unique to this time period is their notification system. Throughout this book there are details about how where ever you were there were church bells ringing.…
I am reading Toxin by Robin Cook and I am on page 222. This portion of the novel is about a cardiac surgeon named Kim. Kim seems to be found in a mid life crisis, recently being divorced, and struggling to pay for his house and other prized belongings. He also has a young daughter named Becky, and since he is divorced he doesn’t get much time to spend with her. After finishing a operation on a patients heart, Kim headed over to his ex-wife’s house to pick up his daughter Becky, because it was his turn to look after her.…
The Everglades is a natural park where visitors can see alligators, and take a ride on a hovercraft, located southeast of Florida. It features a variety of fauna and flora in over 6,000 kms long and is approximately one hour from the city of Miami. In recent years it has been affected by the amount of pollutants in the water. A recent study by the University of Florida showed significantly higher levels of pollution in the sediment of the Everglades, an extension of surface water and reed 160 by 80 kilometers, known as the river rushes.…
Silent but deadly. It might be too late to save the aquatic animals in the Great Lakes from migrant species that have come to take over, and make a new home. Shipping vessels coming from other waters carry many unwanted guests, known as invasive species, to make home in our waters in the United States. Invasive species hiding in the ballast of ships entering the Great Lakes damage the Great Lakes’ ecosystem.…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed a total of seven justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Author and professor of Law at Harvard, writer Noah Feldman, focuses on the Supreme Court of FDR in his book Scorpions, particularly the stories of the four most influential and revolutionary justices: Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and Robert Jackson. Feldman seeks to analyze what influenced each justices’ decisions in the court, and follows their evolution on the bench. Overall, Feldman concludes that while these men differed in their opinions, and often clashed, they were some of the most significant justices to serve on the court. Their individual experiences and ideologies all affected how each justice attempted to bring forth…
A 148-year-old ruler of a country. Hovercrafts. Human clones. Computer chips that can control your mind. These are just a few of the many futuristic things you will find in this dystopian novel.…
Picture yourself walking up to a building; there are green trees decorating the walkway. You reach the metallic silver doors. While looking up at the sky, the snowy white clouds slowly caress the deep blue sky. You pull the metallic door open and enter the building. As the mundane walls around you start to collapse, your body goes cold and numb.…
The study of literature enables students to interpret complex themes that assist in forming an individual’s identity and their sense of community (Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards [BOSTES], 2012). The text “Riding the black cockatoo” (2009) by John Danalis explores an individual’s journey to discover his own identity, in an Australian context. This resonates between the feud between “White” Australians and the Indigenous people and is relevant to the syllabus as it is required for students to study an Australian text that provides “insight into Aboriginal experiences” (BOSTES, 2012, p.24-26). Furthermore, it introduces the intense theme of the issues regarding the Indigenous populace throughout the colonial period to the…
In the novel, The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer, a young boy by the name of Matt is clone of the well respected and shriveled man by the name of El Patron. These events take place in poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. As Matt grows into a young boy, he faces many struggles. Even though El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself, his power-hungry family and dangerous army of bodyguards do not. Matt needs to escape in order to survive.…
Throughout different generations, ideas and values begin to vary. What was once considered an uncommon way of living is now becoming more normal in today’s society. Older generations are less accepting of these differences because of the time period in which they grew up. In the story, “Snakes,” written by Danielle Evans, these changing concepts are seen through the actions, values, and moods of Tara, her mother, and her grandmother. The grandmother, Lydia, is a southern Caucasian who grew up in a generation in which the people were not as open-minded to differences having to do with race.…
Currently many animals are at risk of extinction due to pollution, overharvesting and habitat destruction. (Text 4) In text 3 it states “de -extinction tend to resurrect single charismatic species yet millions of species are at risk of extinction.” In other words there are many species at the brink of extinction yet scientists are concerned about the de-extinction of species. In addition it is believed that de-extinction will become a “moral hazard”.…
Even if Nora has a nurse taking care of her children, she still tries to have that special quality time and even plays games like Hide and Seek or just dance. Nora concludes, “Deprave my little children? Poison my home? It's not true. It can't possibly be true.”…
Exotic animals are not pets. Would you like to have a snake crawling through your house? Or a jaguar lying on your couch waiting to bother with you and then attack? Titi monkeys, lemurs, seahorses, great green macaws, white bengal tigers, scorpions, and crocodiles are only some of the large list of animals that live with people and share their day to day life. They are kept as regular pets, even if they are not happy, safe or obtained legally.…