Nature or Material Goods:Descriptive Writing
Are you one of Cather’s “third generation” who turns back to the values of the land, or
are you one who has given up on the land in pursuit of material gains? Do you revere
nature or are you a lover of material goods found outside of nature? For the purpose of
today’s assignment, choose one or the other, even though you may feel like you’re
somewhere in between.
Your assignment is to write a short piece describing something—either something in
nature (for the nature-lovers) or some kind of material good (for those materialists). The
purpose of this assignment is for you to experience, through your writing, the purity of
either one point of view or the other and to use relevant details in your writing to enhance
your main idea. You should have a definite attitude about what you’re writing about and
that attitude will be conveyed through your word choice and detailed descriptions.
Minimum length: 250 words (preferably typed).
Up to 15 points extra credit
Due:
Example:
A FEBRUARY GARDEN
This time of year, gardens are always pretty sad-looking. Mine is nothing but a
rectangular plot wedged between a sagging chain-link fence that keeps the dog in and the potholed alley that various vans and pick-up trucks speed down. In the summer it’s a lush oasis, but
this time of year it is practically indistinguishable from the mud in the yard and the gravel in the
alley. Its predominant color is brown. The raised beds are littered with the remains of last years’
lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, onions, tomatoes, and tomatillos. Loose dogs have tracked deep
paw-prints through it all, to sniff at the compost pile and leave brown piles by the fence. Oak
leaves have drifted up against the fence, along with abandoned Hardee’s cups and McDonald’s
napkins that people have thrown out their car windows. Skeletons of pepper plants are still
standing, with limp, faded peppers still hanging from their branches. With the warm weather, a
layer of creeping charlie has spread from the compost pile to the spikes of leafless raspberry
plants. I pass it every day going between my car and the back door, and I don’t ever look at it at
all. Instead, all my garden attention is spent poring over seed catalogues, and tending the tiny
seedlings already sprouting beneath grow lights in the attic.
It’s a February garden, but soon it’ll be March. Soon it will be time to rake up the refuse,
dig up and turn over the soil, sweep it smooth and plant lettuce and spinach and beets. Soon it’ll
be time for the rhubard and asparagus to start poking their way out of the ground. Soon the
gooseberries and raspberries will be putting out new canes and new leaves. Soon, with the straw
cleared off and added to the compost heap, the strawberries will be blooming. All the tiny indoor
plants will have grown large and green, and they’ll be put out, and everything will grow lush and
green, and we’ll have fresh salads every night, and later beans and tomatoes and peppers and
zuchinni. We’ll make salsa and pesto, and be living in abundance.
Soon. Now it’s still just a plot of mud that we walk by on our way to the supermarket.
(377 words)