Water: Overcome the Paradox and Irony
Barbara Kingsolve. (2010), Fresh Water, National Geographic.
Name: Hyomin, Shin
Teacher: Mary Newbegin
Class: Reading & Discussion
In this article, “Fresh Water, Barbara Kingsolver(2010) describes water and all its connections to human life. At the same time, she explain how these connections have changed compared to the past and how they have affected human life. The most impressive point is that article used metaphorical expressions instead of describing directly how humans destroyed the environment. “Fresh Water” ironically explains by providing examples of how water, which has made the earth and has been an essential element of human development, is changing. The wonders of nature and the wonders of the environmetal systems of water that have kept the Earth safe for a long time.
Barbara Kingsolver was only talked about water, and all the natural cycles were connected to it. She raise awareness about the importance of water and the changing ecosystem for all the people in the earth who use water or live their lives using water. While analyzing the causes of the changing environment, this article share the social problems that effected by these cause, like disasters, water shortages and melting glaciers. So all of the article, Barbara lead a story with a calm and cautious tone. Especially when author explain and describe nature, “One astonishing morning, we had a visitation of frogs. Dozens of them hurtled up from the grass ahead of our feet, launching themselves, white-bellied, in bouncing arcs, as if we’d been caught in a downpour of amphibians. It seemed to mark the dawning of some new aqueous age.” even I feel some wonder in this description.
During the reading, there were many parables and symbols in the article. Such parts were difficult to understand, but the strategy that helped me was the taking notes by checking the main points or underlining each paragraph to identify unknown words was most helpful way for understanding. The biggest feature of this article is that used it rich vocabulary more than all the material I’ve been seen. So the process of finding unfamiliar words was especially interesting. The most interesting vocabulary word was ‘Irrigate’. The word is not only a new
Finally, I think the main theme of this article and each paragraphs come together into one point. The cycle of nature, which is a huge social issue, must be solved for humans living in modern society. Humans depend on nature and at the same time, destroy it. In Fresh Water (Kingsolver, 2010) said, “Our vital fluids are saline, like the ocean.” This strange paradox has been constantly questioned and ignored for the human comfort and development. If nature is finally destroyed beyond retrieval, how can mankind survive? There are many ways. To find new planets, build marine cities, and recycle resources, but no clear answer has been given yet. However, there needs to be constant discussion as it has not yet been resolved. In 「No Apparent Distress」 (Rachel Pearson, 2017), Rachel Pearson said “Matt cares about fish more than anyone I’ve ever known -he thinks they’re neat animals, and beautiful, and he loves them- so I trust him on this point.” Humans catch fish and protect them at the same time , just as fishermen Matt. As we were discussing the paradox and the irony of the strange coexistence of nature and man.
