Intro/Peach Blossom

At the beginning of the article, the author just tries to ask what exactly nature is by asking a lot of questions to get us to think of what we think nature is. Then it goes on to talk about how nature is perceived in different cultures. For example, the English looks at nature as something that we can change and control to our liking; something that we are apart of but the Native Americans saw themselves as part of the nature that surrounded them. “Europeans talked of ‘landscapes’ which they stood outside of and could manipulate and in this sense were very unlike Native Americans who saw themselves, as Leslie Marmon Silko tells us, as part of what they surveyed and thus who did not presume to tamper with what had been created.” (pg. 342) When I read the part of the article about the cave drawings relating people to animals I thought of the movie Ice Age when Manny sees the cave drawings and pictures how his family died because of the hunters.

            The Peach Blossom story is about a fisherman who is floating down a river and then sees beautiful peach trees and floats farther down coming to a cave with light coming through it. He goes in the cave and discovers a whole colony of people who moved away from the dynasties that ruled the land. They tell him not to mention them when he goes back to his city but he does. People try to find the cave again but they never do. I think this means that if you are one with nature, or if you understand it and respect it, you are kind of more powerful I guess you could say, than other people. The best way I can explain that is using Pocahontas as an example. When she sings about all of the colors in the wind, you can see the colors and it almost seems like the wind is responding to Pocahontas. Another example is the tree that comes to life to talk to her. I think that is metaphorical saying that if you “listen” to the signs of nature, you can understand it. One more example from Pocahontas that is great is the fact that she can approach wild animals and they are not scared of her. What I’m trying to say is the colony in the cave probably just knew how to hide themselves by using nature and nature was willing to help them out. I think a very long time ago, with the Native Americans, we appreciated nature but these days we take it for granted by using up all of its resources and polluting it.