Reading Journal Summative ReflectionDuring the semester, it was interesting to learn about the different ways in which American writers represented nature themes. And fortunately, perspectives on nature have not been constant; rather, there is a wide range of ways to represent the environment and the natural world. From Walt Whitman's impressive and positive "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" to Stephen Crane's completely indifferent and ambivalent "The Open Boat" to Robert Lowell's dreary and boring "Skunk Hour", Each author's perspectives and takes on nature were unique. And if they are for the most part part of the literary movement of their time, each writer does not fail to bring something new each time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Some trends emerged when reviewing my reading logs this semester; on the one hand, nature seems to have an important role to play in each of the seven pieces. In A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett, nature is a sacred and wonderful place that should not be destroyed, and in "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost, nature is a dangerous place and manipulative. The only one I've read in which nature plays an arguably minor role is Stephen Crane's The Open Boat: nature is important, but it is personified as an entity completely and utterly indifferent to the lives of the characters. In all the other plays, nature has a message or an intention to convey to the characters; in The Open Boat he misses the characters and doesn't care whether they live or die. Although each perspective is different, the shifts in tone are not consistent and do not follow any sort of pattern across time periods. Instead, writers' ideas about nature are pervasive and do not seem to follow any particular trend. And that seems logical; nature is something that always exists, and as such, people will always experience it in different ways. It therefore seems appropriate that each author has the right to express his views on nature as he sees fit...