QUESTION
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Friction Response
- Read:
"In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts by Henry Fountain (nonfiction article)
2. Also, choose one of the two following fiction readings (short story/ chapter):
Excerpt from The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (fiction)
Or"The Tamarisk Hunter" by Paolo Bacigalupi (fiction)
B. Answer the following questions. Make sure you include support for your ideas and opinions: you are required to use direct quotations and in-text citations for most of your responses. Usually, we don't include artificially-generated page numbers in electronic source citations, but for the sake of practice, use the page numbers that appear in each reading. You cannot create a Works Cited page for this assignment because you do not have all of the citation information.Do not use any secondary (research) sources for your work, with exception to questions that ask you to do so. Responses should express your own opinion and analysis. You will see when you read the questions that the kind of summaries and overviews you can find online in sites such as GradeSaver are not going to work out here.
1. Which character(s) do you like and/ or relate to in "The Tamarisk Hunter" or the excerpt from The Water Knife? Which ones do you not? Describe how the story you have selected ("The Tamarisk Hunter" or The Water Knife) begins. What is confusing to you? What is intriguing? Compare the way the story opens to the development of the story itself. What clues do you get along the way about what is important in the story?
2. Either answer A or B, depending on which short story you chose to read.
A. Although "The Tamarisk Hunter" is classified as dystopian fiction/fantasy, it contains a number of elements and references to the real world. It also contains elements that, while fiction, are possible; these elements/things/ways of living might actually happen in our near future. Discuss what you think is real, possible, and impossible in the story: find at least one example of each. Explain why you chose each example.
B. Why does Angel Velasquez think that Charles Braxton is reliable? Edible? Explain. How do these details tell you what kind of a book this is going to be? (excerpt from The Water Knife)
3. Either answer A or B, depending on which short story you chose to read.
A. Catherine Case is referred to as "Queen of the Colorado" in the excerpt from The Water Knife. Why?
B. What do you think you might do if you were in Lolo's position ("The Tamarisk Hunter"), and why?
4. The excerpt from The Water Knife and "The Tamarisk Hunter" are both fiction, but "In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts,” the other reading (an article from The New York Times), more recently published, is not. Compare/contrast both the role of and portrayal of water and water use rights/access in the West in both of your reading selections. Why is this issue important in the real world? What are some of the implications?
5. What other readings like these have you read before? What appears to be each author's perspective on the issues being written about in each of your two readings, and how can you tell/how do you know? What surprised you, if anything? What did not?
6. Apply all the parts of the rhetorical situation to an analysis of "In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts."
You did this kind of analysis for a different reading in your first short writing assignment for this module
- Read:
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| Subject | Literature | Pages | 4 | Style | APA |
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Answer
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Questions From the Tamarisk Hunter
#1
The character I like in "The Tamarisk Hunter" is Travis because he is aware of the worsening condition of his area as a result of water shortage, and he enlightens Lolo about it. I'm not too fond of Lolo because his desperation to have water drives him to commit a crime. The most confusing is the events about Lake Havasu city because they are not clear what they were. What is intriguing in the story is that it portrays a world run by a government made of wealthy and lower-class people. The story opening describes the determination of the tamarisk harvesters to boost their water bounty hence permitting them to farm. The story develops into describing the inefficient water use structure and irrigation laws in California. The clues that I get along the way on what is crucial in the story is Bacigalupi's message that we are not far from having a world like the one he portrays.
#2A
What I think is real and possible in the near future is how irrational use of natural resources can destroy the environment leading to climate change as portrayed in Lolo’s encounters of a town deserted and buried by sands and overrun by tumbleweeds. What is impossible is the dystopian edict that the water in Colorado River belongs to California, implying that states and residents upriver have no water.
#3B
If I were in Lolo’s position, I would accept the US Bureau of Reclamation buyout because of the environmental injustice and racism that compel characters like Lolo to struggle to lie and break the law to survive. In addition, California created what Lolo and other Tamarisk hunters called the “Straw” to provide water directly to California via the usage of concrete and carbon fibre to halt ground penetration and the river's evaporation. Hence this implies that there will no more be a river for Lolo to remove tamarisk plants from.
#4
In “The Tamarisk Hunter," the water use is controlled by California state while in “In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts,” the water preserved in Lake Mead and Lake Powell is allocated through legal pact amongst the seven Colorado River basin states, Mexico, the federal government and others. This issue is important in the real world to prevent water shortage that instigates water supply cuts that will affect the residents and farmers. The implications are water cuts which affects the city and industrial water users.
#5
I have not had any other readings like these before. Henry Fountain's article outlines what is incorrect with how individuals today perceive the environment. The representations of land and how people view nature apply to the Tamarisk Hunter. In the Tamarisk, Hunter Bacigalupi cautions against people not wanting to change how they treat the environment unless it is beneficial to themselves. What surprised me is that both readings highlights are the concept of economics in nature. The water rights trigger water cuts causing farmers to shift to water-efficient crops and other method to utilize water less. What did not surprise me is that water agreements determine how much water each gets when cuts are initiated and the order in which the parties have to forfeit some of their supply.
#6
The writer uses pathos to portray how forty million people in the West who depend on the river for the water supply will be affected by the water cuts. Likewise, the authors use logos to cite facts and statistics to portray the extent of the water shortage by highlighting how the Bureau of Reclamation forecast indicates that Lake Mead would be a level of 1,066 feet above sea level by the end of the year. The author uses logos to outline the problems the government faces in the Colorado river basin in terms of water shortage.
References