Momaday Reading

The audience for this piece is people who are interested in Native American culture and history. Momaday's describes the ways in which they hunt and how they learned to use the environment to their advantage without greatly disrupting the natural world as a whole. Therein lies the purpose of this piece. He is making the point that natives were capable of sustaining themselves while living in harmony with the environment and it should be possible to do that with the modern generation as well. He does not come out and say the second part, but it is evident in his writing that this is what he is hinting at.

The major, and evident, theme in this piece is how in tune the Native American were with the environment. A minor theme he presents is the difficulty in which the natives have had in understanding what the concept of "land ownership" means. I believe the subtext of the essay was mentioned above, that modern Americans have not been able to live in harmony with the environment when it is quite capable to do so.

Roosevelt and Abbey

These two pieces are strikingly similar in context but there are some distinct differences. The audience of these excerpts is rather general. I believe the first is a speech addressing the residents of Arizona, but it seems like Roosevelt is portraying a general message which is directed at the country as a whole. The second piece is unique, as it specifically mentions different groups of people who are probably reading. Like the first piece, it is directed toward the general population. Roosevelt's message leans toward preservation, while Abbey's message is more to the tune of isolation. By preservation I believe Roosevelt is referring to the protection of nature by some outside source. Abbey's message of isolation is simply that. The natural wonders of the United States should be left isolated from outside sources, including "help" from the federal government. He believes that only those who reach these places by foot, much like a character in a previous class activity, should be allowed to enjoy them.

Patrica Smith Poetry Reading

Patricia Smith started off her poetry reading with a poem that she says she reads before every reading. It was a poem about a class of students she had in a southern school (Florida I believe but I'm not sure) and more specifically about a little girl whose mother had recently died. This little girl asked Smith to help her write a poem so she could remember her mother. The message of this poem, Smith said, was that her and other poets had the power of creating memory and closure with words. After this poem she started reading from Blood Dazzler. She began with poems personifying Tropical Depression 12, Tropical Storm Katrina, and Hurricane Katrina.
She then went on to explain how she got her inspiration for many of the Poems in Blood Dazzler. Her husband, who is affiliated with the Associated Press, brought home pictures which could not be posted in newspapers for graphic or other reasons. One of those pictures contained a dog which was suspended on a power line. This picture, Smith said, was the basis for the series of poems contained in Blood Dazzler about the dog Luther B. Smith read all of these poems before continuing on to the piece with 34 stanzas about the men and women who drowned in the nursing home. Patrica then went on to read about Ethel, the woman who died in her wheelchair outside of the Superdome and was left there for three days. Her final poem was about the other storms of 2005, ending with the title of the book, Blood Dazzler.