Journal Assignment #1 Gerardo Lemus Human/Nature Dr.

Becky Boesch October 20, 2013 First Entry: The quote that I chose was the one that had Lizard and Beetle singing the growing/blessing song that made Buffalo Gal feel connected to the earth. Through out the whole story there is this idea of there being two kinds of people, the first ones where there to start off and the second ones came after. The animals, in this case Lizard and Beetle, had been here since long before the other people and had a different relationship with the earth, so when they grew crops, they only grew wild tobacco, they sang so that the earth could give a nice crop. And it was this same song that Buffalo Gal heard and made her feel one with the land, the lines of her body and the earth where blurred together and she no longer knew where her body separated from the dirt. And in a sense thats what buffalo gal did all through out the story she erased the lines that separated her from the animals and nature, she went from being Myra to Buffalo Gal, and seeing the world with two views. And maybe that what LeGuin is trying to say that we are humans but that we are still animals and that sometimes we forget this and we start treating people lesser just because of differences, like in the story the animals where implied to be Native Americans and because of their differences with the new people they where regarded as primitive to the new people and as time went on in the U.S history we see the consequences this caused, we wiped out entire

cultures of Native Americans. So maybe what LeGuins view of human nature is that we tend to judge people because of their culture and beliefs and separate them and kill them, sometimes literally and sometimes by assimilating them with the other culture, but instead of doing this we should try and see the world through their eyes, just like buffalo gal did so that they could coexist with each other. Second Entry: The world through the eyes of grandmother is the one of a person who has lived many years and learned a lot of things, she carries the values of an older generation and is living in this era where the new people have arrived, all has changed since her youth days and now shes considered the wise elder of the group. And she sees everyone else as kids compared to her she is the teacher who is trying to teach them and guide them through life with the values she was raised with, and as for the new people she sees them as if they where of a different time, she to separates themselves, the first people, from the new people. She tells Buffalo gal to go back to her people that thats where she belongs but that she and the other animals will always be with her in her dreams because Buffalo Gal had learned to live like them, she even considered staying with the animals because her people had murdered Coyote. As for my view its basically the opposite of grandmother, you could say Im the grandchild learning from the elders and trying to figure out how to live, listening to their advice but always taking into consideration on what advice still holds true to me and my values. My view of human nature is in a way reflected in the scenario I described in the above paragraph because all of us, humans, seek advise from the people who came before us so that we can live to make them happy, because we hold them in the title of them being wise. But in todays times where we consider ourselves of a different generation, a different world, we tend to start to change what they teach us so that they fit with todays culture and ideas.