The Woods Behind My House Essay

Improved Essays
The Woods Behind My House Childhood is a time of both restriction and freedom. Whether crossing the street or going to the park, children must always be accompanied by someone older. School is usually the first time in a child's life where the child is able to experience a measure of freedom and independence. Though at first the feeling may be overwhelming, the child eventually enjoys the freedom that comes from being on their own. The woods behind my log-sided house on 210th Street was a place where I could go to be truly alone. I could freely play and be who I am without any prying eyes. No longer did I have to meet others’ expectations. I could be anyone I wanted because in the woods behind my house I was free. The woods behind my house …show more content…
The woods changed along with the seasons. The winter snow melted, revealing green grass while buds littered the trees. The buds gave way to brilliant leaves, creating a canopy over the top of the woods. Fall brought forth beautiful colors; the woods were vibrant like a painter’s canvas. As winter neared once again, the leaves formed a thick carpet covering the forest floor. The bare trees looked menacing, and the wind turned crisp and cool. Whenever I felt sad I would tramp through the narrow, spindly path and make my way to the center of the woods where I would sit, think, play or just be alone. In the woods nothing bothered me. I felt at peace. Whatever was tough in my life could not get to me when I was in the woods. I could be whomever I wanted: one day I was a hunter who rode a giant grasshopper as I searched for my prey. Another time I was an explorer stumbling across a magical kingdom in the woods. I knew that I did not need to be sad or angry when I was in the woods because I was truly free of my worries and problems. I was able to step out of reality and allow my imagination to run wild. The changing seasons and scenery provided me with opportunities to create new fantasies and characters in my mind. No matter how anxious or upset I was, when I stepped into the woods behind my house, my spirit was

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Following The Organic Self Slavery during the 1800’s kept America’s agricultural boom moving. During this time period, however, a small number of individuals begun to have suspicions about whether or not slavery was humane. The idea about to abolishment of slavery had began to arise and threaten all that America had known. Frederick Douglass’s story The Heroic Slave tells a story about a slave named Madison Washington and how he could no longer withstand the conditions of slavery. Madison went against all odds and ideas about slavery and did not want to accept the social mask society wanted to give his as a slave.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are times when life’s situations make us do drastic choices, to help us escape, find ourselves or even to heal the soul within. In the novels “Into the Wild,” and “Wild” both of the characters take an unimaginable trip out into the wilderness to escape everyone and everything that at one point in their life’s was important to them. Both “Into the Wild” and “Wild” are distinctly different from each other, despite wilderness being both of the stories it’s symbol. The distinctions between Chris and Cheryl journeys were their motives, geographic locations, the use of money and food, and being alive at the end of their journey.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly,”( line1), introducing the earth as a female in the beginning of the poem“Sleeping In The Forest” was a bold move made by Mary Oliver. The poet uses metonymy, personification, and symbolism to move the direction of the audiences thought of a forest into a whole new idea of peace and softness. Her main idea is to show how men view women in their full integrity through the correspondence of a dark forest and a woman. The speaker is portrayed as a male figure and uses multiple literary devices to reach the point of clarity that women are assumed to be scary and mysterious but overall very gentle and comforting. With the use of metonymy throughout the poem, Oliver gives multiple metaphors of the speaker, comparing the forest to women.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book Exeter, written by, unknown authors, there are three main parts that are displayed there are many themes and messages displayed. Seafarer, The Wanderer and Wife’s Lament. Each of these three parts have their own message inside of them. The first, Seafarer says, it’s okay to be away from society, the second, The Wanderer, says that, it’s okay to be alone, ands lastly Wife’s Lament says, it’s okay to move on. First of all…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Symbolism is when concrete things are used to represent, substitute, or parallel abstract ideas or themes. Authors can use symbolism to solidify the characters’ lives and background. Symbolism is often open to interpretation, as it is what the reader believes an object represents. Symbols are commonly used to show larger themes that run throughout the story. Objects for symbolism can be people, places, or things.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If the name Headwaters Forest Preserve does not ring a bell, you might recall Julia Butterfly Hill, who spent 738 days between 12/10/1997 and 12/18/1999 in the tree affectionately known as "Luna," to prevent Pacific Lumber Company loggers from cutting it down. Pacific Lumber had been bought by Maxxam Corp., and they were clear cutting everything in sight to pay off the bonds they sold to buy this forest. Pacific Lumber, which had been doing sustainable logging for generations, suddenly became an environmental villain due to the hostile takeover. Senator Dianne Feinstein helped put together $380 million in state and federal money to purchase Headwaters, a pristine old growth redwood forest, within the Pacific Lumber lands, east of Eureka.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Taste of Domesticity in Stokes State Forest Throughout my four years of high school, I had never had a friend come back from a post-prom weekend in Wildwood and describe to me what sounded like a “good time.” The stories they told always had the same synopsis that centered around drunken fun and even drunker stupidity. Hordes of juniors and seniors slept in small dirty motel rooms. They spent way too much money on alcohol, and they often got swindled into paying hundreds of dollars to stay in an otherwise dirt cheap motel because no decent place would allow teenagers to party like they did. They sat in their hotel rooms and drank the beautiful New Jersey beach days away, waiting for the sun to set so they could continue their drunken…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Forest Winter Short Story

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Settings Forest Winter is set near the surroundings of the quiet valley which the Nilsams live in. The winter has a big effect on the valley, as many people leave for winter and come back summertime. The surroundings of the valley consist of trees which are either cut down or still in the forest as the area used to be a logging town. The house which the Nilsam’s live in is made out of wood just like the other houses in the valley. Unlike Forest Winter, Gravity is set in the city during the summer.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Fernando Monologue

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I was over ecstatic when Fernando, (also known as Fernie) my best guy friend asked me to go on a walking adventure with him in our hometown of Kelseyville, California. We started off the day by walking in the forest alongside of Kelsey Creek. This forest has a really big meaning to Fernie and I, because we both love nature in every aspect and these walking adventures are not uncommon to us. Starting on the path we both got lost in our own thoughts, I got distracted by looking above me at the the canopy the tree branches created. My eyes followed the patterns the sunlight was creating as it broke through the leaves and cascaded onto the uneven forest floor.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Creative Writing: Gunfire

    • 2082 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The last vestiges of fall had passed and only brown, shriveled leaves remained on the sidewalk. Trees appeared naked, shivering without their blanket of color. Cold air blew through their skinny, lifeless branches, tossing the trees around as though they were mere sticks rather than giants. She shuddered as the chilly wind kissed her brow, leaving a wretched disease of ice and sorrow in its wake. Within this wintry prison there was no joy, there was no warmth, and, above all, there was no diversity.…

    • 2082 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stanley's Pines Monologue

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Stanley’s Pines The year my father’s mother passed away (1958) brought great change to my family. I was five years old when granny died. That was the year dad started constructing a new home in the country, on Cantelou Road, so he could be near his aging father. Our house under construction was on a corner lot next to the thickest grove of trees I’d ever seen.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is no secret that the idea of wilderness grips every American citizen. Some authors including, William Cronon, have gone to great lengths to explain American infatuation with the wild. Cronon in his article The Trouble with Wilderness, Or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature, presents the sublime nature of wilderness as one of the reasons Americans imagine nature. I believe both I, Krakauer and Chris McCandless disagree with William’s Cronon’s assessment of the American psyche. Rather than seeing the wilderness as, “rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of God” (Cronon), Krakauer, McCandless and most Americans believe wilderness is a place to find yourself.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Vacuum Poem Analysis

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Brandi Harbaugh Professor Boudreaux English 255 Section 00 19 February 2018 Seeing in an Unusual Light The wind howled through the house, sounding as if voices were calling to the man inside. He stood abruptly and ran out the door, its’ hinges screaming as they were pushed to their limit, into the chilled night air. He heard the voices of the wind; the bumping of the rain on the forest floor.…

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My world under the tree was like being in a snow globe, safe and protecting. Mountains surrounded the tree served as the walls. These walls provided beauty, silence, mystery and comfort. The sky was the glass of the globe; it’s joined with the mountains and the ground. Some days the glass was bright blue with puffy white clouds, other days it was cloudy with little blue.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I was so excited about new journey. It was the beginning of fall, so the leaves turned to gold with the light of dawn. The wind was smooth and fresh with slowly cloudy. I had seen the sadness and worries in my mother’s face. She did not say anything and just looked at me as much as she can like last time.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays