The Mesa Trail by Mary Austin is a
very descriptive story that talks about a part of the desert called "The
Mesa Trail". She describes the vast plane or what seems to be nothing but
flat ground. But as she continues to talk I found out that there are flowers
and plants that survive there. Then she starts talking about the wildlife that
inhabit the trail, like the coyote for example who serve as the "Lord of
the mesa"(Austin 96) patrolling in the night looking for its next victim.
Or the Badger who digs in holes searching for its food, or the Hawk that wait
for the little creatures to scurry out of their hole. She also talks about some
people who live in the Mesa and the annual rodeo in April that brings people to
a part of the mesa that usually is barren. In the beginning she talks about the
barren land then progressively as she keeps going more things appear to occupy
the area, so maybe it really isn’t as baron as she made it seem originally made
it to be.
Polk Street by Frank Norris is a
story about just one day on his street from morning to night. He starts by
talking about the morning and the Laborers and the newsboys walking around
getting to their jobs. Then a little later the streets would crowd with people
getting breakfast and walking to work also the kids going to school. Then a
little later the ladies from the great avenue made their appearance beautifully
dressed. Later on towards dinner the street would grow quiet since everyone was
enjoying supper, but as soon as supper time passed the stressed filled with
nicely dressed people that were ready to have a good time, even a group of singers
by the saloon singing music into the air. A little later the street would drop
into silence since everyone had gone home, a little after the trolley stopped
coming and the lights went dark, the only sound you might hear is the footsteps
of a patrolling police officer of the quacks of a duck signaling that the
street was finally asleep.
Frank Vanclay's Making Sense of
Place is a paper about what exactly a place means. He describes a place as a
"space imbued with memories"(Vanclay, 9). Anything from a landmark to
a special spot to just home every special place is special because of the
memories you have or the feeling the space gives you. From that spot where you
had your first kiss to the place you grew up you will always have a connection
with that place for forever. It’s that place you go to think, it’s that place
that brings you back home. We strive to remodel our homes not so it looks
better but so we can increase our connection to the house as not just being
your house but being your home. Places can also have negative feelings maybe it
was your grandmas favorite restaurant, or the chair your dad use to sit in
places and things hold connections which we relate to not because we need to
but because we want to.
Chapter 14 was the part of the book
that dealt with plagiarism. Plagiarism is anything from copying someone entire
body of work to forgetting to cite a source from which you received your information,
it can also be taking words your friends told you to use and writing it down as
if it was your own. When you write something it must be 100 percent your work
unless your citing a source you use as back up information. Plagiarism can
carry serious consequences so even if it’s for a stupid or pointless class,
make sure you do your own work.
The
benefits of looking at something through another lens or a different perspective
are that you can step into someone else’s shoes and try to understand why people
think what they think. If everyone tried to do this in the world, there would
be less fighting if people just took the time to understand different people’s
lenses because there is a reason why someone thinks what they do. Some
drawbacks to looking at things from another perspective are that you are not
incorporating your opinion in what you are writing so it can be mostly what you
read or have seen which could all be incorrect or exaggerated information. I am
still having trouble constructing a new lens the idea of thinking like someone
else is easy but going into a new environment and thinking how someone else
would think is hard to work around without incorporating some of my own opinion
in there. Not using my opinion is what is most confusing in this section.
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