Serpents of Paradise

Paper details:

This first Digging Deeper is based on the excerpt “Serpents of Paradise” by Edward Abbey. Here are some questions to get you thinking about the text: – This passage contains one of Abbey’s most famous remarks; that he would rather “kill a man than a snake.” Why is this? What does he mean? Do you think he is being serious, why or why not? – Why does Abbey criticize our tendency to anthropomorphize? Do you think this applies to most people? – Abbey thinks it may be “painful and bitter” for some to hear that “all living things on earth are kindred.” Why might this be? – How do you think Abbey would understand our ethical relationship to the world? In other words, how should we act toward nature? What is the human’s role in nature? Write an essay (800-1000 words) that incorporates answers to the questions below. Make sure to mention the title of the work to which you are responding, the author, and the main thesis of the text. a. What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)? It is not acceptable to write that the text has NOTHING to do with you, since just about everything humans can write has to do in some way with every other human. b. How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong? Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human. Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong. c. How did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Use quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold. d. How well does it address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world? How does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass the “Who cares?” test? Use quotes to illustrate. e. To sum up, what is your overall reaction to the text? Would you read something else like this, or by this author, in the future or not? Why or why not? To whom would you recommend this text? (Questions above taken from http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310link/readerresponse.htm)