The Back of the Turtle written by Thomas King is an entertaining whirlwind about a quirky and diverse set of people who live near a native reserve in the nearly deserted community of Samaritan Bay. The novel perfectly contains everything wrong with human nature and greedy corporations who don't care about the effects they have on the environment, wildlife, and communities they destroy in the process of getting rich. King switches the perspective of the novel to add depth and show both sides of the story. This novel is not intended to be the most suspenseful read but is instead used to educate readers and bring light to the problems that native people are faced with that non-native people simply ignore. Through alternating between character’s perspectives each chapter, King reveals the character’s present and past, unraveling their struggles, thoughts, and mistakes. Unfortunately, many novels that switch between different characters point of view get confusing and are hard to put together, and end up ruining the book for me. Thomas King has changed my mind about alternating perspective novels, because he has used it in a way that doesn't make it confusing for the reader, and the book truly benefits from it. If the book had been written from only Gabriel Quinn’s point of view, it would not have been able to explain the problem with huge companies who cause the deadly environmental disasters and do not take responsibility. The alternating chapters allow the reader to know the thoughts of the CEO of Domidion, Dorian Asher, a sleazy businessman whose best interest is making himself look good for PR, to get rich, and doesn't give a damn about the environment that his company destroys. If the book didn't have the alternating chapters, it would not have had quite the same impact on the reader, and I do not think it would have been as enjoyable for me because Dorian Asher is a pathetic person and his thoughts are so foolish, that they are hilarious to me. His character is essentially a comic relief. King has brought two perspectives to the story of what happened in Samaritan Bay, the people who have lived there and have been affected and killed by the ruin, and a businessman who pretends that his company is making efforts to fix what they have done, but in reality, he simply just wants good press.
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Thomas King’s novel The Back of the Turtle mirrors what happens in the real world events like the CBC’s story Native American tribe bracing for Keystone pipeline leak impact. Both address problems that affect Native American tribes health and livelihood. The Back of the Turtle focuses on a community that was ruined and an ecosystem that was devastated when a building company took a deadly shortcut. The Ruin killed everything in its path, including the turtles that attracted tourists. Many of these communities rely heavily on the income tourists bring. “Domidion had been building a pipeline across the interior of British Columbia. The work had been slow: trouble with environmental groups and First Nation communities, problems with the terrain and the thick underbrush. A manager on the job decided to take a shortcut and used a defoliant” (King 320). This shortcut involved dropping Gabriel Quinn’s bacterium from a plane without his permission. Quinn knew the dangers of the bacterium and believed it was not safe to use. “If used at the wrong concentration, it would kill everything in its path. And that's exactly the mistake Domidian made. The recommended dilution was 1000:1, Domidian only diluted it 10:1” (322). This “mistake” (320) was washed into surrounding waterways and carried into the ocean, with the kill zone twenty kilometres into the ocean. When the turtles were killed, there were no more tourists, and therefore no more income. On top of no more money, so many of these people got sick and died, the rest had to leave because there was nothing left. The CBC’s story Native American tribe bracing for Keystone pipeline leak impact focuses on the largest oil leak from the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota, which spilled 795,000 litres into the ground. “The leak was about 64 kilometres west from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation. Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal chairman David Flute said his community is concerned the leak, the largest by the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota to date, could pollute the area's aquifer and waterways. It puts at risk the drinking water of over 65,000 Indigenous peoples along the route and puts at risk the livelihood for so many people that depend on tourism, on the land itself for farming and livestock. It's a risk [they] can't take" (Barrera, 2017). If the oil were to leak into their water, it could devastate the community. To make matters worse, they were only alerted six and a half hours after the pipeline started leaking. “There was a drop in the Keystone pipeline's pressure at about 6 a.m. local time. Walsh said the state was alerted at 10:30 a.m. local time” (Barrera, 2017). In both The Back of the Turtle and the CBC’s news story Native American tribe bracing for Keystone pipeline leak impact, Native American communities are the most at risk and the suffer the most. They face losing tourism which they rely on for income and face becoming ill due to contaminated water. In The Back of the Turtle, Domidion was careless and used a deadly bacterium that caused the disaster. In the CBC’s news story, there was neglect when there was a huge time delay to when the leak happened and when the community was notified. In both cases, these problems are caused when big companies don't take care when they are dealing with these situations, and it's not them who have to deal with the impact, it's the Native communities that face the effects of the environmental hazard.
Ah, William Shakespeare. Regarded as the best writer in the English language, the best selling fiction writer of all time, and his works are known throughout the world. He was relevant in the late 16th century, is still relevant in the early 21st century and will probably be for many more years to come. His work became famous in the form of plays, watched by an audience. His abstract language is intriguing because it is unlike any other piece of literature (at least the ones I have read). His work was meant for the stage, but I do not think that is a good enough reason to get rid of it in high school.
Even though his plays were not intended to be read and the fact that they cause stress for many students, I may be one of a small group of people that actually really enjoy reading his plays and it is probably my favorite part in the English curriculum. And yes, I do not completely understand every single detail that is going on in his stories (I swear there are dick jokes in so many of his plays, or maybe I’m just completely lost), but they were meant to be interpreted differently by each observer/reader. But when it is read, I am able to analyse it, also with a group of people, and there becomes this discussion that really gets me thinking, Is this what this means, or did it mean something completely different hundreds of years ago? are you dumb, why take advice from a witch? The best I can describe it as is a high-intensity workout (ie. Tabata) for your brain, a bunch of small things but they mean so much more than what they seem to. I love math, and working through Shakespeare is similar to working out a puzzle, and I think that is as close as English will ever come to math. Clearly, he did not write in our English, but that's what makes the reading so much more interesting. He specifically wrote it like that so there would be rhythm and flow, and rhyming at significant parts in his play to grab the attention of an audience. For example: Helena's lament in A Midsummer Night's Dream: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste: And therefore is Love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.” (I.i.234-9). Yeah, yeah, yeah Heather, but I’m not going to be writing like Shakespeare. Completely understandable, but if we go back to his use of rhyming, it was used to highlight a key area. That same skill could be used to prove a point in a conversation or in a piece of writing. Maybe it's just me, but I have unintentionally rhymed my sentences, and every single time I have, the person I had been talking to points it out. That rhyme caught their attention and peaked their interest in what was going on in the conversation. I see the significance Shakespeare can have in the 21st century and it should stay in high school. If I were to critique it at all, I think more class’ should watch it in the theater after they have finished reading it so they can experience it on stage too, the way it was intended. *(works cited for A Midsummer Night's Dream needed) What happened to the bees? A normal person is typically afraid of bees, possibly because they are allergic to its sting or they have watched some creepy horror film with evil bees (I don't actually know if there is a horror film with evil bees, but there seem to be WAY too many horror films in existence, I have my bets that there are killer bees in at least one). I really love everything to do with bees; beeswax candles, honey, flowers, honeycomb cereal, dogs dressed as bumble bees. I love it all! (I actually don't like The Bee Movie tbqh). I own plenty of necklaces, but the only one I ever wear (every single day of the year) is a silver honeycomb because they are just so darn cute, and I wear it as a reminder of a bee’s important role in our world. But, whether or not you obsessively like bees, they keep you alive. So, why are so many of them disappearing every year? Are they on vacation? Just takin’ a break on a nice warm beach and relaxing. That's probably as far from the truth it could be. The honey bee and wild bee populations have been declining rapidly since 2006, which may be devastating to our food industry considering they pollinate ⅓ of the crops. Before 2006, in the US beekeepers were reporting losses of only 5-10% a year, but that drastically jumped to 30%. 5 years ago in 2013, beekeepers were reporting 40-50%. This mystery disappearance has been named colony collapse disorder (CCD). A beekeeper will go out to their colony and find that almost all of the adult bees are gone, but there are no dead bee bodies. Possible culprits are Varroa mites and Nosema ceranae, parasites that spread viruses and cause diseases, which scientist think may be only one factor to CCD, along with habitat loss and synthetic chemicals. CCD has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion (2013). Many crops are sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, and more than 150 chemical residues have been found in beehives. A bee exposed to neonicotinoids is 2-3 times more like to die while away from their hive because it corrupts their homing abilities and cannot find their way back to its hive. The rise of Neonics correlates with the rise of the death of honey bees, but more research is needed for this area. Yeah, bees are cool and give us honey, but why should you care? Honey bees pollinate more than $30 billion worth of crops (US), that's a huge chunk of the economy. Many crops like apples, oranges, cranberries, watermelons, olives, and almonds are dependent on a honeybee’s pollination. In fact, almonds are almost completely reliant on the bee's pollination. California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion. What are we doing today to help them?
Well… nothing too great… In 2016 when the Zika virus pandemic was going on, over 3 million honey bees were killed in Carolina by pesticides meant to kill Zika carrying mosquitoes. This devastated local beekeepers causing an economic impact, which could have been better prevented. Beekeeping is a $348 million-dollar industry. Due to careless planning, the pesticides were sprayed during the day. This is a huge problem because the majority of mosquitoes are out in the late evening not at midday when bees are flying about. Even before the spray took place, local beekeepers were not informed of the spraying so they were unable to prepare to keep their bees in the hive. The U.S. uses over one billion pounds of pesticides each year. “ Everywhere one looked [there] were clumps of [dead] honeybees,” says Juanita Stanley, a beekeeper in Summerville. She lost two million bees along with her business, “Honestly, I just fell to the ground. I was crying, and I couldn’t quit crying, and I was throwing up”. The death of her bees was unnecessary, and she cannot simply buy two million bees on Amazon. It is hard to create pesticides that only kill a specific insect species. But, is very possible. Scientists do not have the money, and truthfully do not have the drive to create such pesticides. And that is mainly to do with the fact that there isn't much public interest in the decrease of bee populations. But, what can you do to help our little friends? Simply by planting flowers that have a high pollen yield such as lilacs, lavender, mint, tomatoes, and flowering herbs in your garden. Avoid chemically treating your plants. Instead of breaking your back pulling weeds, consider letting them be because they provide pollen. Support local, organic farmers. And maybe if you're looking for a new hobby or job, why not become a beekeeper! If you're intimidated by bees, remember they are not out to get you. Honeybees die after they sting, but wasps carnivorous (#death2wasps) do not die and are looking for some lunch meat, but honey bees are vegetarians. So, while you're sitting down at the table with your family during the holidays, enjoying that delicious apple crumble, just remember how important that little guy's work is to make that divine dessert possible. Without them, we may be looking at a world where one apple will cost $10. We need the bees, but they need our help. Sometimes I wonder how some people could think that technology is making us dumber, that it's a distraction, that millennials can't look away from their phone, and that we can't do anything by ourselves. While I cannot say that is a complete lie, it is inaccurate when I have seen and experienced so many positive impacts of technology in classrooms.
Technology in a classroom has become the norm in high schools and elementary schools. In my experience, it has been extremely helpful. It is now significantly easier to stay organized and keep up with assignments. When working on a document on Google drive, I can work and access it from any device with an internet connection, share it digitally with anyone, and it is a lot harder to lose a digital document versus a piece of paper. Oak Hills Local School District in Ohio has stated they have saved $100 000 per year by switching to Google technology, because they no longer have a need for software licences and a support server. Now, Many schools will supply all students with Chromebooks, which allows them to have access to work at home if they did not previously have a computer at home or they had to share one computer with other siblings. Chromebooks are relatively inexpensive (starting at~$250+), and since more work is moving online, it decreases the use of paper which will have a positive effect on the environment. In the future I would like to see textbooks turn completely digital which would bring the cost down (no longer have to replace a lost textbook). There are a lot of useful free apps offered for both laptops and phones, such as the various Google apps, which are designed with students and teachers in mind. Google classroom sends me a notification every time a new assignment is posted, and reminds me 24 hours before one is due. My personal favourite is that it makes group projects much painless. I can sit in the comfort of my bedroom with all of my blankets, and simply video call and work on a slideshow or document simultaneously with my partner. I don't have to stress if I leave my binder at school by mistake and unable to access my work, because its only a few keyboard clicks away. I never have to worry about forgetting about an assignment, that then I’ll have to stay up until 4:00 AM to hand write, just to forget to put it in my bag in the morning. Many textbook now have an digital access code, so now I don't have to break my back carrying three textbooks home (for unscientific reasons, I blame the weight of my backpack compressing my spine for why I’m so short). It is a mistake to diss technology, when it has proven to be very positive in a classroom setting. It continues to help students learn, and could reduce the school's spending or place that money somewhere else it could be useful. |
AuthorIt told me to write something about myself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Even if it told me to be fancy, I'd probably disappoint. ArchivesCategories |