Trevor Brown
Humanities 1100
Nature Theme Writing Assignment
Different aspects of nature have various connotations to different people because they associate the aspects with things that have happened in their lives. Everybody has had different things happen to them and they could choose any feeling or mood to associate with that particular part of nature. This is the reason that connotations that one person has can vary dramatically from somebody else looking at the same thing.
The first person looks at the landscape of the Zmutt Valley and feels an intense sensation of fear. This person has lived their whole life in New York City and rarely wandered and explored the wilderness. The main reason of fear comes from an experience in this person’s childhood when they were taken on a four day adventure to the Rocky Mountains with their family. While hiking the steep slopes this person lost their footing and fell 50 feet and broke their neck. They had to be flown to the nearest emergency room for treatment.
Every since that horrific day many years ago, this person has had an intense fear and loathing for anything that is remote and secluded in nature. Zmutt Valley brings back those memories that this person would rather not chance living again. This person understands that
Zmutt Valley could vary drastically in many ways from the Rocky Mountains but they would just rather stick to the man-made buildings and restaurants of New York City. It is not the lack of technology or motorized vehicles that instill fear in this person. It is the lack of feeling of safety and the unknown wild that seems scary.
The second person is quite the opposite of the first. This person lives in a cabin in the rugged terrain of Alaska, with nobody seen for miles. The second person enjoys hunting and gathering their own food and staying as far away from technology and things of the younger
generation as possible. This person prides themself in being in close contact with nature and living their life without much assistance of anybody else.
When this person sees Zmutt Valley they see home sweet home. This person sees a place much like the one they are living in now, only filled with new adventures. Different animals, plants, climate, hiking, hunting, fishing, etc. The possibilities seem endless. The terrain seems brutal with the different seasons and that instills a sense of euphoria in this person.
This person sees Zmutt Valley as something new to conquer. This person has a longing for going to places that nobody has been and living in places that very few people could. This person gets a kick out of doing new things in nature that are very rarely done by anybody else.
This person finds it almost impossible to live in a city in such close proximity with the other people that inhabit and destroy this beautiful planet. They are a disgrace to the human race by not providing food and necessities for themselves.
This person feels so strongly about nature because that is how they were raised. These instincts have been engrained in this person since birth and are seen by themself as their best qualities. They grew up in a small, remote cabin in the woods of Alaska. They were taught to fish and hunt by their father and all that they know how to do is provide for themselves and family close to them.
This person has always felt that the earth is too crowded and nothing good comes from people manipulating the environment the way that big cities do. This person fears for the future generations as the earth becomes more and more overpopulated. There will soon be no remote and secluded places left to live. Places like the Zmutt Valley will eventually be changed for worse by things like pollution and human inhabitation.
The third person differs from the first two because they just do not care about nature very much. This person has grown up with electronics and things that have been made to benefit and keep humans from dying of boredom. This person was born and raised in Salt Lake City. They overlook the mountains and lakes on a daily basis and would not look twice if they ever were to disappear. They do not mind traveling to southern Utah to visit family as much as they used to because 4G data for their iPhone is becoming more available.
This person sees Zmutt Valley as something distant and something that will always be there. There are countless pictures of the valley on Google and can always be seen by people around the world. There is no need for anybody to travel there when they have all this wonderful technology to show them what the terrain is like. This person does not see any point in going out of their way to travel to somewhere so remote and away from everything.
Zmutt Valley is neither scary nor beautiful to them. It is just another place on the earth that people will live one day. Environmental concerns of the valley do not bother them because it does not affect them directly. Global warming can be looked at as a good thing because it shows that humankind can impact the earth and we are not all controlled by nature. The future generations will be able to invent technology to stabilize the pollution and negative things that current generations are doing to the environment. People need to stop worrying about the environment so much and just focus on the time at hand.
Each of these three people have views that have shaped around the way that they live and were raised. They all live in the same generation but have different aspects of their lives contributing to their views. Each person has a different connotation of Zmutt Valley and they each believe that their connotation is the correct one. They will never be able to see eye-to-eye because they are firmly set in their beliefs and are not willing to change.