The Man and Nature

XIV Региональный конкурс молодых исследователей «Ступень в науку»

Секция: Русская и зарубежная лингвистика, языкознание

Тема: «The Man and Nature»

                                                               Автор работы:

                                                                                                Пащенко Александр Антонович

                                                                                     Место выполнения работы:

                                                                                       МБОУ СОШ №11, 8 класс,

                                                                  г. Владикавказ

                                                                               Научный руководитель:

                                                                                            Гарбузова Ирина Валерьевна,

                                                                                      учитель английского языка

Владикавказ, 2016-2017

Contents:

I. Introduction.

II. Main Part.

III. Conclusion.

IV. List of Literature.

I. Introduction. 

We live in time of technological progress, which in many ways makes life easier thanks to new and useful inventions. But these achievements have a downside - the consequences of this progress are directly affected on the ecological conditions of the environment all over the world. Everything is connected with everything - says the first environmental law. So, we can’t make a step without touching, and sometimes without breaking anything in the environment.Each step of man on the ordinary lawn means tens of ruined microorganisms, insectsand perhaps reduce of their natural productivity. 

Actuality: environmental problem is one of the greatest global problems to whichthe humanity faces. The problems of water pollution and the air pollution are the most serious problems nowadays because any changes in the environment can be dangerous for nature and our planet on the whole. Many factories produce harmful substances which go into the atmosphere, pour waste into rivers, seas and oceans, as well as dispose their waste into the ground. It is dangerous for our fragile planet which needs protection. 

Of course, many writers do not stay indifferent to this problem. It was reflected in the works of both domestic and foreign authors. 

The purpose of our work: to see how the relationship between man and nature are reflected in the works of foreign authors. 

From this goal we can point out the following tasks:

• to explore the works of foreign writers who described the relationship between man and nature; 
• to make an analysis  how the author expresses his point of view and compare it with ours;
•  to make the conclusion from this analysis and comparison. 

In our work we used such methods of investigation, as the analysis of novels and stories, synthesis, monitoring, etc.

II. Main part. 

How many beautiful poems, paintings, songs were created about the nature ... The beauty of nature around us has always inspired poets, writers, composers, artists, and they  all in their own way described its beauty and mystery.Indeed, the man and nature have been integrated since ancient times, they are related very closely. But, unfortunately, man considers himself to be above all other living beings and proclaims himselfa king of nature. He forgot that he himself is a part of nature, and continues to behave aggressively towards it. Every year, forests are cut down, the water is dumped by tons of waste, and millions of cars poison the air... We forget that the reserves in the bowels of the planet are not endless, and we continue to use natural resources carelessly. 

The problem of the relationship between man and nature with each passing day becomes more and more acute. People want to provide themselves with all imaginable and unimaginable wealth; they destroy everything around, not thinking about the consequences at all. The man is the master of life, the owner of nature, the master of all around. For many years, mankind has intruded into the unknown world of nature, bringing death and destruction to all who was standing in his way. But this cannot last forever. The natural world can defense, and there are many examples of that. 

The relationships between man and nature have been described in the works of many writers. These problems are reflected in the works of Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, H. Wells, J. London and many others.  We would like to speak about these authors in more detail.

 Ernest Miller Hemingway is the greatest American writer of the XX-th century, the Nobel Prize winner. In the spring of 1936, Hemingway published an essay that described an episode of fishing in the Gulf Stream. 

Once  upon a time an old fisherman caught a big fish, which had been pulling a long boat for a long time. When the fisherman was found, the fish was eaten by sharks, and the fisherman in despair, was sobbing. This genuine case became the basis for a philosophical novel "The Old Man and the Sea", in which the author examines the important social and moral themes. 

One of them is the relationship between man and nature. Santiago, an old man is an experienced fisherman who has been working all his life, struggling with hardships and dangers. The scars on his hands are "as old as the cracks in the long waterless desert." His whole life is connected with the sea. The sea feeds fishermen. But it does not want to give anything voluntarily. People always fight with the environment; it is the struggle thatmade Santiago a strong-willed person.  Nature gives part of its wealthto such people only if a person learns to understand the language of nature, to feel its deep and complicated life. Spending many days in the ocean, the old man Santiago feels like a part of nature. 

The main character of Hemingway is connected with the sea by some internal ties. Even in old age his eyes were like the colour of the sea. "They were funny human eyes, which do not give up"[1] - wrote Hemingway.  Santiago "won" the three-day duel with a caught fish. "Man is not created in order to be defeated. A man can be destroyed but not defeated ", - says the old fisherman. Santiago understands humans’ responsibility to nature, feels guilty towards her. He says to the caught fish: "Fish, I love and respect you very much. But I will kill you before evening comes ... Do you feel badly, fish? God knows, I do not feel well either. "[1] The old man suffers because people take  foodfrom the sea, killing living beings - fish, birds, animals."It was good that we did not have to kill the sun, moon, stars ..."[1]

Reading the story "The Old Man and the Sea" we are not only proud of a man who cannot be defeated. It makes us think about the principles of his existence, the attitude to life and nature.The man has a lot,he may be stronger than the nature itself. But he has to understand his eternal relationship with it and eternal guilt. As long as man is guided by conscience and the reason in the relationship with nature, it lets our existence and shares its wealth. 

Another author, dealing in his works with the problem of relationship between man and nature is Rudyard Kipling. From our childhood, we are familiar with the stories about the boy Mowgli.  "Mowgli" is not a novel itself; stories about him are parts of the "Jungle Book". These fragments are independent, but they are connected by the one idea.  Kipling shows us the Jungle as the world struggling for existence, a confrontation between two instincts - creation and destruction, life and death. Jungle world consists of a number ofcommunities which subordinate to each other: family, pack, and people. A flock always has their leader, who keeps order, and the order is a condition of life. A society without the leader (as banderlog) is moving toward self-destruction. Jungle law allows hunting as murder for the sake of life, but prohibits the killing for fun. 

Unfortunately, people today do not obey to the principles of the laws of the jungle. Animals are killed for profit, beautiful skins, ivory, etc.  The number of African elephants, tigers and many other animals has been reduced recently. Sometimes, human actions demonstrate that their level is below than the Society of animals. Man is the "king" of nature, but in fact the animals are fairer, more human and kinder. So who, then, is a man? Who allowed him to destroy mindlessly what had been created once without his participation and support?

"The Jungle Book" is something like a fable, fairy tale and myth. But it is built on the laws of nature rather than a fairy tale. In hisbook Kipling shows the real laws of nature from an unusual angle. The whole book is subordinate to the right rhythm: violation of the law - the resumption of the laws. If the tiger Sher Khan doesn’t obey to one of the most important laws of the jungle - not to hunt the man, he should be punished, and soon the man’s cub Mowgli wins him. If grey monkeys violate the ban (they cannot interfere with the affairs of the jungle), then as a punishment a huge python Kaa appears in front of them. In the "Jungle Book" this episode is revealed in the story "Kaa Hunting," in which banderlogs kidnap Mowgli, noticed his similarity to monkeys.[3] 

If people cross the border in the relationship with the jungle, the jungle attacks them. If the wild dogs burst into the jungle, destroying everything in their path, then they must be destroyed.

 Now it’s time to think about possible results of the men’s actions. When we cut down forests, turn the rivers back, kill the animals, we are not afraid that nature will punish us by dangerous climatic changes, disasters and catastrophes! We can have more frequent floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, maybe it is retribution! The ecological balance, set on the ground, cannot be violated, we must remember this! 

Another tale by R. Kipling "The cat that walked by itself" also describes the relationship between man and nature. Here the author shows that a person cannot always take priority over animals. He is stronger than they are, but in matters of the mind all the points above the "i" has not yet been arranged. 

Cat is the smartest person. Dog lost its freedom, it became a slave. The horse, the cow are slaves also. But the cats are not. On the one hand it is necessary to serve the people; on the other hand, you are not to lose your own pride, your dignity. The cat will leave if it doesn’t like anything. The nature does not always obeyto the man silently. Horse does the hard work, and a cat - no! She is smart, proud, loves freedom. This story shows that not everything in this world obeys to the man, so people should not destroy the unknown. 

But sometimes people consider themselves to be gods;theyeven interfere with the process of "creation." The novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H. Wells can leave no one indifferent to it.  The young biologist Edward Prezhdikwaspicked up after the shipwreck by a boat going to an unknown uninhabited island. The boat was filled with the animals that would soon be at the disposal of Dr. Moreau. The great scientist was not able to realize his capabilities in London, and for animal cruelty and brutal experiments on them, was banished to the island. He turns the animals into a kind of people, preserving, however, many animals’ habits.  Moreau’sexperiments are incrediblycruel. Each of hisoperations is torture and suffering: Moreau believes in civilizing role of suffering. Wild cries of animals, which had been operated for hours just as cries of men do not produce on Moreaua slightest impression. He is completely unemotional and insensitive to other people's suffering. "The study of nature makes the man, after all, the same ruthless, as nature itself,"[5] - says the doctor. The operating room of Moreau is called "House of Pain". 

The philosophical basis of the "Island of Dr. Moreau" is the doctrine of the two processes taking place in the world - the "space" (conditioned by the blind nature) and "ethical", dictated by the human will. 

After all, one of the creatures kills the creator, and animals are gradually returning to the animal state. "The ethical process," when people interfere with the nature and tries to change it was crashed. 

I think that writer S. Zalygin is right. He writes that "everything that happens in the world today - is nothing but a change of civilizations. The civilization that was based on the principle of "people are the kings of nature" is finished, now another civilization comes. It understands what brought this principle, but still does not understand how to rebuild it. The time of change of civilizations is responsible and dangerous. A new civilization does not want probably global experiments - social, economic, religious, its purpose is economic prosperity. It means it will have to subdue both the economy and politics, and education. "

Welfareis not just a roof over your head, car, and nice clothes.Well-being is impossible without healthy food, without clean air, clean water, without picturesque scenery, without flowers and birds’ singing. Wisdom lies in the fact that today we must remember this. Then tomorrow comes. Earth's future is in the hands of people. The poet A. Plotnikov in the poem "Black Spot" proves that:

Океан седой гремит набатно,

Он таит обиду в глубине,

Чёрные раскачивая пятна

На крутой разгневанной волне.

Стали люди сильными, как боги,

И судьба Земли у них в руках.

Но темнеют страшные ожоги

У земного шара на боках.

Широко шагает новый век,

На Земле уж белых пятен нету.

Чёрные

Сотрёшьли, человек?

Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem in his "Star Diary" describes the story of cosmic vagabonds who destroyed their planet, dug up all the minerals and sold minerals to the inhabitants to other galaxies. The consequences of such blindness were terrible, but fair.  The fateful day came when they were on the edge of the bottomless hole, and the earth beneath their feet began to crumble. This story is a terrible warning to all mankind, which ruthlessly ruins nature.

Another foreign writer who described the relationship between man and nature was Jack London.In his stories he makes a comparison of man and nature. He shows that there is a constant struggle between people and nature, and its outcome often turns out not in favor of the people. 

D. London shows what awaits us if we do not stop a ruthless persecution of all living things. What would we do if we stay with the nature alone, without all sorts of tools and implements? He writes about it on the pages of the story "White Silence": Nature has many ways to convince a man in his death: a continuous alternation of tide, the fury of the storm, earthquake horrors, and thunderstorms. But the most horrible is just a crushing White Silence in his detachment. Nothing can stir, the sky is bright as polished brass. The slightest whisper seems sacrilege. 

And the man frightens the sound of his own voice. He is the only one alive, moving around the desert and realizing keenly that he is only a worm.[7]

 In many of his stories London inhidden subtext calls a man to stop destroying nature. He does not say many words, not write beautiful sentences, he says that there is now, and that can be in a few years. Of course, we cannot say that this is the red thread of all his works, but it is not too small to leave aside the theme of ecology in his stories. 

In the days of the life of D. London the word “ecology” was not yet known, but the author has already described the consequences of human activities, it seems as if he could foresee for decades to come. In 1907, Jack London went on his yacht "Snark" on a long sea voyage, which lasted for almost 2 years. Having been to Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Hebrides, he collected extensive material which formed the basis of his Southern stories. He described the Pacific islands, as the kingdom of tropical greenery, flowers and bright colours, and then he describes how an invasion of progress turns out to be violent tragedies for the native population of the islands.  People of the islands paid too much for the gifts of civilization. 

The writer has gone a very difficult way, but he always loved truth and justice, which were his passion.

Literature has always reacted sensitively to all changes taking place in nature and the world around it. Poisoned air, river, earth - all begs for help, for protection. Our complex and contradictory time, has generated a lot of problems: economic, moral, and others, but many people consider that the most important place among them takes an environmental problem. Our future and our children's futuredepend on its solution. 

The catastrophe of the century - is the ecological situation of our environment. Many areas of our country have been destroyed: the destruction of the Aral Sea, which has not been able to save the Volga, poisoned by industrial waste, Chernobyl and many others. Who is guilty? The man, ruining,destroying its roots, a man who has forgotten where he came from, human who became even worse than a beast. 

"Man will destroy the world rather than he learns to live in it" - Wilhelm Schwebel wrote. Is he right?  Don’t peopleunderstand that they cut off the branch on which they sit? Destruction of nature threatens them to death. There are four environmental laws, they were formulated more than twenty years ago by American scientist Barry Commoner: "Everything is interconnected, everything has somewhere to go, everything is worth something, nature knows it better than we do." These rules reflect the essence of the economic approach to life fully, but unfortunately, they are not taken into account. 

But I think if all the people of the world think about their future, they could change this environmentally dangerous situation in the world. Otherwise, people do "... destroy the world rather than they learn to live in it." Everything is in our hands! 

I believe that people should stop. We must not have a pragmatic attitude towards nature, we must not only take giftsgiven to us, we should appreciate it, not to cut down woods mercilessly, but on the contrary, to plant more and more new species of plants, care for them, help birds in winter, give them seeds, leave the food in the woods for animals during the cold season. But this is only a little; of course, you need to stop the illegal killing of animals, to minimize emissions of harmful substances, deforestation. If not one, but many people will wonder about the fate of nature, and in particular about his fate, too, because the man does more damage to himself, a change in the situation for the better will be guaranteed. I believe in it, and appeal to all people, whose hearts are not yet completely hardened, and which still is not indifferent to the future of our children, the existence of man in the world: take care and appreciate nature, at least in your street, in your village. Only one conclusion can be made: man and nature – they are one and the whole thing, the man cannot exist without nature, and nature needs man. People need to live in harmony with nature, because we are "the result of its efforts and boundless imagination".

III. Conclusion.

So, we can see that the problems of ecology are the most serious problems nowadays. These problems found its reflection in the world of fiction. Reading these books we must understand how important it is to protect our nature, our environment. The greatest authors of XX-XXI century raised the questions of ecology in their books. And we must not just read and forget about it. We are the young generation and our future is in our hands.

We must build cleaning constructions on the plants and factories. We must put filters in cars and buses. We must think about destruction nuclear waste. We must introduce the system of recycling in our country. Everything depends on us.

And if we are not indifferent to this problem, it is the first sign that we will be able to solve it.  Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, H. Wells, J. London and many other famous people asked us about it. Let’s promise them that we’ll do that. Let’s save our fragile planet which needs protection.

IV. List of Literature.

1. Э. Хемингуэй «Старик и море». М. 2008

2.Примечание к повести «Старик и море» в издании «Э. Хемингуэй. Избранное. // Послесл. сост. и примеч. Б. Грибанова. — М.: Просвещение, 1984».

3. Р. Киплинг «Маугли» М. 1991

4. Р. Киплинг «Кошка, которая гуляла сама по себе».М. 1991

5. Г. Уэллс «Остров доктора Моро». М. 2009

6. С. Лем «Звездные дневники ИйонаТихого». М. 2000.

7. Д. Лондон «Белое безмолвие» М. 2012