Entry 54: Nature's Nature

In Dickinson’s poetry she uses deceptively innocent observations about birds, flies, and flowers to reveal deep and sometimes disturbing ideas about life and death. Think about nature: do you think nature is nurturing and helpful, or is it threatening and hostile? What examples can you provide to illustrate your opinion?

• Nature can be nurturing and helpful under the following circumstances. First, nature provides us, as well as other organisms, a habitat and the environment live. Secondly, nature provides us materials that we need to live; it provides materials such as construction materials, raw resources, and other resources that we need to use to create daily use. One of the most important things that nature does for us is that it provides for us food and water that we need to consume in order to survive. The last thing that makes nature nurturing and helpful is that it provides us a place for solitude, as well as a cleaner environment, in contrast with the polluted civilization.
• However, nature can also be threatening and hostile. One of the most common examples is natural disaster. These are devastating because they destroy homes and take away lives. Some examples of natural disasters include floods, storms, and earthquakes. Also, there may be many dangerous organisms that can be found in nature. Nature may sometimes not only provide environments for habitat; it might also create environments that are very hostile and dangerous. This includes the different climates created by the environment, such as raining and storms.