Engineering Of The Prairie example essay topic

ILLINOIS BUS RIDE A number of ideas, suggestions, and points can be extracted from "Illinois Bus Ride", a passage from Aldo Leopold's collection of essays entitled A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. However, there must be one main thesis that the author is attempting to get through to his audience. Leopold argues that we Americans have manipulated the landscape and ecosystem of the prairie so that it seems to be nothing more that a tool at our disposal. All aspects of what was once a beautiful, untamed frontier have been driven back further and further, until they were trapped in the ditches. In my generation, I am able to catch what is relatively the tail end of this slow extinction. And to be quite honest, I had not devoted a moment of thought to this phenomenon until I read Leopold's passages.

In fact, I am always the first one to compliment a new highway project that saves me five minutes of driving or even a tidy farmstead as I pass. Now, more than ever, my thoughts are in limbo. It was just last week when my dad pointed out an area off the highway that displayed miles of slowly rolling cornfields. His reaction was to the beauty of the countryside.

Mine was to question his. I found myself thinking about all of the hard work that created that beauty, and then how much more beautiful it was fifty, a hundred, or even two centuries ago. Only the mind's eye can create this beauty now, and that is exactly why Leopold's concerns are validated. However, Leopold does not state his point in a traditional manner.

He uses subtle, connotative language in his supporting evidence to bring the audience to its own thesis. Early in the ride, he notices that "the field fences threaten to topple into the road cuts" (117). Later, he describes the pigs as "solvent" (119). His recurring references to the sea are also very important. They create a metaphor that allows Leopold to illustrate his views without preaching. Leopold's mind's eye is displayed from the start when he imagines the giant cottonwood as it once may have served as a buoy to roaming buffalo or to pigeons.

As a father and his son labor to topple the landmark, he question the motive behind their work. The tree was a crucial part of the prairie life then, now its cotton is nothing more than a burden. He uses this as a vehicle to take a shot at modern values. Rather than value its beauty, we ask, 'What is it doing for me?' The State College does not recognize the intangible importance of this natural monument. Moving along in his ride, he notices the ditches, the last remnants of the once endless prairie.

The subtleties that everyone else either looks past or sees as a menace are relics to be treasured. Even the farmer is ignorant of the significance these "weeds" had in creating his fertile soil. A crucial point in his voyage across the prairie is at the cemetery. He notices an isolated strip of puccoons that embodies what the prairie was. He makes an unforgettable connection when he says, "Puccoons converse only with the dead" (118). The symbolism of death with the prairie gives this essay a more sincere quality that he will add to at his next point of interest.

The sign posted, acknowledging efforts for conservation, serves as a source of irony. It is posted along a creek bed that has been engineered to hurry the water run-off. Even more ironic is the nearby strip-crops, designed to slow the water run-off. Leopold personifies the prairie by suggesting, "The water must be confused by so much advice" (119).

This gives the prairie life and, in turn, gives it death. He strategically goes back to the death metaphor to reiterate that while we are creating a more productive and convenient lifestyle, we are killing the prairie. Coming to a farm, Leopold highlights its unnatural condition. The paint is fresh along with the concrete. The pigs are peculiarly clean. The sod along the fence rows is cut so that it resembles the attitude that formed the new prairie: "Waste not, Want not" (119).

He makes this prized American value seem as though it is the exact opposite, which is a critical point in his essay. Leopold looks at the big picture in a final recollection. The passengers of the bus are concerned with anything but the prairie. He seems amazed, but realizes what this prairies has become to them. It is a sea that separates A from B. They are only interested in what is on the other side. Amazing word choice and vivid imagery give this passage strong emotion.

He reels in the audience slyly with irony and sarcasm. It is with these shifty tactics that the audience is convinced. Leopold does this as well as anyone. The author battles the engineering of the prairie to create more functional land.

The underlying assumption is that people believe engineering mechanisms is preferable to a natural one. For all the benefits that come along with the engineering, problems tag along. In another essay entitled "Engineering and Conservation", Leopold stresses that engineers have no awareness of the environmental effects of the biological effects. Meanwhile, the chemists who determine the biological effects have no knowledge of engineers' work (Engineering & Conservation). However, the assumption that Leopold is fighting for complete elimination of engineering is incorrect. In fact, doing away with it at this point in time would do more harm than good.

There is a happy medium that can be easily reached. President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation insists, "Our actions... derive from sound environmental education, must be based on scientific understanding and should harness economic incentives" (Van Put ten). Leopold's essay is simply underscoring some of the consequences when economic incentives are placed above all else. In an ideal world, these problems would not exist. In the real world, the prairie has long since been replaced by Leopold's "sea". It is on this sea that we must take a look below the surface to find its true significance..