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The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is an extensive natural rift that is located in the Arizona desert. It hosts various communities including Euro Americans, different cultures of Native Americans and the millions of international tourists who visit the area every year. The Grand Canyon also hosts various wildlife including the endangered fish, humpback chub and the Californian wild vulture called the Condor. The Grand Canyon has positively and negatively impacted the lives of both the people and the animals living in its proximity. This has been due to the rapid changes in the structures of the soil, changes in temperature, increased tourism and the legislation that saw the Grand Canyon become a national park. The presence of the Grand Canyon has impacted the settling of the communities that live in the environs. In addition, the establishment of the Canyon as a tourist attraction has improved the quality of life for most residents by providing them with employment opportunities and better transport facilitating trade ventures within the community and to the outside world. The millions of tourists who visit the area every year have promoted these trade ventures and also earn the state the much needed revenue that is used for funding other development projects.
The Grand Canyon is not only a natural wonder of the world, but it also has a defining impact on the people and animal life living in its proximity. The Grand Canyon is a geographical feature that is speculated to have resulted from a number of processes. Of these processes, geologists attribute the most significant to have been water and wind erosion. Water is thought to have caused most of the erosion. In addition to the erosion, other forces like volcanism, the trend of the Colorado River and continental drift are thought to have played a significant role in the formation of the Grand Canyon (Garton, 2002).
The Grand Canyon is located in an arid area. The soil on the top is baked by the sun into a hard cracked crust and because it is very dry and hard, it does not absorb water as it should even when it rains. When it rains the rain is not moderate and is often torrential. The impact of the torrential rain is that it flows very fast and does not allow percolation into the ground (Pyne, 1998). The plants that flourish in the Grand Canyon are shallow rooted to allow them as much access to the surface run off as possible. This translates in to increased erosion by water and wind because shallow roots do not hold the soil layers in place. Flash floods are usually evident at the grand canyon due to these increased erosions and the torrential downpours. The Grand Canyon is a tourist attraction and many people travel from all over to see it and hike. The vehicles are usually left at the bottom for all the hikers. These flash floods are usually a risk not only for the vehicles but also for the hikers. As a result weather conditions are usually monitored keenly by all who visit the Grand Canyon to avoid these flash floods (Levy, 1995).
The stability of human life on the plant earth and the specific quality of life afforded to the human species is determined by the distribution of the different landforms in the environment. This is because landforms impact the regional climate, the food supply, and the resultant natural resources. The Grand Canyon is a tourist feature with many people flooding in to the region to see it. The formation of a game park and then a game reserve around it ensures that it is preserved from further damage. The federal government took up the Grand Canyon and established it as a game reserve. They have since faced many problems including the extinction and the reintroduction of the Californian Condor which is a wild vulture. There have also been issues that have arisen due to high noise levels form the aircrafts which tend to discourage the residents living near the Grand Canyon and the tourists who plan to tour the Canyon.
There was a great controversy between the Grand Canyon managers and a nearby power plant over the intensity of pollution in the region (Pyne, 1998). The power plant which is a coal burning power generating plant is located near the Grand Canyon and this led to fewer tourists visiting the area. In 1991 the two reached an agreement and the power plant implemented several measures to curb air pollution from their industry (Garton, 2002).
The federal government administrators induced a flood in the Grand Canyon in 2008 with the intention of allowing water absorption and permanently changing the ecosystem which was interfered with when the Glen canyon dam was constructed in 1963 to prevent flooding in the region (Levy, 1995).
The climate in the Grand Canyon is similar to that in the surrounding environment and the whole area is generally dry with high temperatures. Rain only occurs twice in a year in winter as moderate rain and there is deep snow. In the summer, the rain brings monsoon thunderstorms caused by the extreme high temperatures. The average rainfall for the south is les than 35cms while the snow reaches 132 cm. In the higher northern end, rainfall is less than 59cm and the snow averages 317 cm. The shallower northern rim however rarely snows and the rain is low averaging 17.6 cm. Temperatures seem to vary in the Grand Canyon extensively from -17°C during the winter seasons to highs of around 38°C during the summer. These extreme conditions make the area potentially unwelcoming to visitors who at times call off their hikes before time due to hypothermia during winter and dehydration and sunburns during the summer season. The weather is generally unpredictable and even in the vent of getting accurate predictions the weather forecast is still unreliable for this region (Price, 1999).The area has been economically uplifted due to the value of the Grand Canyon as a unique, natural tourist attraction. The Grand Canyon National Park is one of the premier natural attractions all over the world receiving more than five million tourists every year. Most of these tourists are domestic with more than 80% coming from the different states in the United States and more than 12% coming from the neighboring California. Some of the tourists come from other foreign nations like United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Japan and Netherlands. Most of the tourists visiting the area view it as a travel expedition because of the location of the Grand Canyon. Most of them come for sightseeing but there are also additional activities which they can engage in the area. Hiking along the Grand Canyon and running are also favorites among the tourists who visit the area. The tourists are however cautioned against running and hiking too much due to the steep rocks and the danger of heat exhaustion (Annerino, 2006).
They are advised to spend the night in the specially established camping grounds and take up the hikes or run the following day so as to allow the body to recover from the physical exertion. Due to the varying weather conditions, not all these camping grounds are accessible throughout the year. The camping grounds that have been established along the higher northern end are generally inaccessible due to road closures as a result of poor weather conditions.
Tourists who can afford it also have the option of viewing the Grand Canyon through privately chartered planes and helicopters. They can only view the Grand Canyon from far due to the plane accidents in 1990.Some helicopters may however choose to land on the less restricted India reservations that fall within the Canyon (Annerino, 2006).
More than six hundred people have died since the Grand Canyon became a tourist attraction. Many hikers have overestimated their physical capabilities and ended up being involved in fatal accidents, health complications including hypothermia, heart attacks, and dehydration. Other deaths result from plain collisions within the canyon and over zealous photographers. There are other fatalities that have resulted from lighting, flash floods, drowning and rock falls (Bauer & Wallace, 2008).
There are many communities living within the canyon. They are under the constant threats of flash flooding and temperature extremities. In August, 2008 the government had to evacuate tourists and residents of Supai which is a residential town at the foot of the Grand Canyon, as a result of heavy rainfall. Residents had to be evacuated due to a break in the Redland dam which is constructed upstream of the town (Price, 1999).
Native Americans communities have been living in the Grand Canyon and in the environs that are now part of the Grand Canyon Reserve, for more than four thousand years. The Anasazi, the Cohonina and the Puebleoans cultures in the Native American communities were shaped as basket makers in the desert cultures that constituted a group of Native Americans. It was only after migrating and adapting less nomadic trends that they became dependent on agriculture as their main socio economic activity. Other cultures also settled in the Grand Canyon but archaeologists predict that climatic changes and the 13th century drought triggered their migration to other places and triggered a change in their cultures. Later the Paiutes, the Cerbat and the Navajo or Dine cultures settled extensively in the Grand Canyon but were forced in to reservations in 1882 due to the Indian wars. They were restricted in reservations within the Canyon by the US government after the declaration of Independence and are still in the region. The Havasupai and Hualapai, who are Native Americans that still occupy the region, are descendants of the Cerbat cultures (Bauer & Wallace, 2008).
In the late 19th century a geologist team discovered the potential of the region in terms of the unexploited mineral resources that constituted copper and asbestos. Many of the current settlers are descendants of the pioneers who came in along the rim for the purpose of mining. This enthusiasm was however short-lived, as the residents discovered that there was a better economic alternative to the poorly rewarding mining. Tourism overtook the mining efforts and by the twentieth century, the Grand Canyon was a well established tourist destination.
As a tourist destination, the Grand Canyon has facilitated various aspects of development in the surrounding area for the communities that continue to occupy these regions. Initially the first tourists used stage coaches to access the area abut within a short period of time railway lines had been established allowing a larger influx of people and also facilitating trade for the residents. There was a rapid interest for key players to invest in this region and they established formal tourist facilities. A lot of these facilities were centered at the Grand Canyon village. The federal government gave the Grand Canyon the national park status in 1919(Annerino, 2006).
Officials have constantly flooded the Grand Canyon as a strategy to preserve the local ecosystems in the Grand Canyon and preserve endangered species like humpback chub.
The humpback chub is a fish of an extremely rare species that is only found in the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. It was declared endangered in 1967. The ecosystem on this particular species was altered when the government authorized the construction of the Glen Canyon dam in 1963. This diluted the Colorado waters and converted them from the muddy waters to the clear and efficient systems that they became (NRC etal, 2000). By flooding the dam, researchers speculated that this will alter the already established banks of the Colorado to form a similar version to the one that existed before the dam was constructed. This in turn facilitated preservation of these endangered species by regulating the ecosystem. This measure has worked relatively well in the past at increasing the numbers of the humpback chub. The government has also facilitated the removal of the populous rainbow trout from the Colorado River in an effort to reduce competition of food between the two species. These efforts have regulated the numbers of rainbow trout and reduced the food competition for the humpback chub. Due to the changing global patterns the weather in the Colorado has been too cold for the optimal reproduction of the humpback chub. Their reproduction was restricted to a little region at the Little Colorado River. There has been recorded increase in temperature in the Colorado River favoring the reproduction of the humpback chub. Experimental releases of the dam waters have led to increased temperatures as well as the past droughts in the last few years leading to an increase in the number of humpback chubs being spawned and surviving in the Colorado waters.
The Grand Canyon is a beautiful natural wonder of the world and demonstrates how a landform and its geologic history can impact the quality of life for neighboring humans and animals through direct and indirect contribution to other factors such as soils and tourism. It has influenced the lifestyle of people in the region as well as the climate and the type of plants that can be grown there.
REFERENCES
John Annerino. (2006). Hiking the Grand Canyon. New York: Sierra Club Books
Stephen J Pyne. (1998). How the Canyon Became Grand. Boston: Viking publishers.
Marion D. Bauer & John Wallace. (2006). The Grand Canyon. New York: Aladdin publishers.
Jeff Garton. (2002). Grand Canyon: The Great Abyss. Los Angeles: Advantage Pub Group.
Daniel S. Levy. (1995). Conceptual and Statistical Issues in Contingent Valuation: Estimating the Value of Altered Visibility in the Grand Canyon: Rand Corporation
L. Greer Price. (1999). An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Grand Canyon: Grand Canyon Association.
National Research Council (NRC), Committee on Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research, National Research Council, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, Commission on Geosciences, Environment $ Resources. (2000). Downstream: Adaptive Management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River Ecosystem. Washington: National Academies Press.
The Graduate (Mike Nichols 1968) Screening Assignment
The Graduate (Mike Nichols 1968) Screening Assignment
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186185” Introduction PAGEREF _Toc379186185 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186186” 1. Zoom in PAGEREF _Toc379186186 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186187” 2. Selective focus PAGEREF _Toc379186187 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186188” 3. Camera and dolly shot: PAGEREF _Toc379186188 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186189” 4. Zoom out PAGEREF _Toc379186189 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186190” 5. Helicopter shot PAGEREF _Toc379186190 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186191” 6. Telephoto lens PAGEREF _Toc379186191 h 4
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186192” 7. Racking focus PAGEREF _Toc379186192 h 4
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186193” 8. Hand held camera shots PAGEREF _Toc379186193 h 5
IntroductionThe graduate is a film about Benjamin Braddock who is a recent graduate with no better career objective or goals in life moves from his parent’s posh home. He finds himself in love with the wife of his father’s business associate and just before, he knows it, he fall in love with the daughter called Elaine too. Things get out of hand for him as he finds himself unable to choose between the two. Therefore, he sees the daughter in public and the mother in private. The affair stats on the homecoming party of Benjamin Braddock, his father celebrates his graduation and Catherine Ross invites him to her house and seduces him, this affair end abruptly and he manages to forget about this, until he fall in love with the daughter and the affair starts haunting him.
1. Zoom in
This is mainly useful in microphotography to provide the best close-up shot of a scene; this makes the scene appear prominently in the picture. The lens is varied to increase the clarity of the picture or make it blurred.
2. Selective focus
Selective focus ensures that only the object of interest is focused on and the other images are blurred. This includes selecting the aperture to control the actual depth of the total field of focus or the amount of sharp focus and the effects on the total exposure.
3. Camera and dolly shot:
A dolly shot is taken when the object is in motions; it is like mounting a camera onto a trolley and shooting a moving object or in a car taking shots of a moving object in another car. For example, the camera above is of Braddock and his bride, Elaine. The camera was taken when they were in motion and the camera had to move too. This is done to get a steady shot.
4. Zoom out
This is very useful while trying to embed still photographs in the actual motion pictures; the pictures above were displayed with very slow zooming, which also involved panning effects. However, this is also possible with fading transition in between the frames.
5. Helicopter shot
A helicopter shot is taken when viewing the object from the top, just like a bird’s eye view, it also covers a large surface areas and provides good view of the shooting area as the one shown bellow. It is also important for providing a shot in places that are not accessible.
6. Telephoto lens
The perspectives of the images were determined by the focal length. For example, in the picture of Benjamin Braddock and Ross above, there is a wide distance in between them, this is easy to achieve by use of telephoto lens as this is shown according to the location of the photographer. The photographer tried to fill the whole frame with three objects by use of wide angled telephoto as the focus (Ross) has moved closer to the less
7. Racking focus
In racking focus the attention of the audience is shifted from one scene to another by varying the focus of the lens used
8. Hand held camera shots
The pictures above appear as they were taken when the camera was held in the hands. In addition, the shots were actually limited to the area the cinematographer was interested in
The Grace That Keeps This World
The Grace That Keeps This World
Introduction
In his novel, Bailey centers on a family, which heavily depends on hunting as a means of survival and faces financial constraints in most occasions. In the same context, there are two sons Gary Kevin and David who keep on struggling to ensure that they get the much-needed independence and a trip, which turn up to be fateful. Various family members narrate the entire story and, in some chapters, the community plays a significant role in helping the family in the narration of the story. Generally, the story focuses on the family, and community’s shared values which are important in underlying and sustaining human relationships. Additionally, the story entails aspects of profound loss, romance, and human fallibility, love, familial and neighborly, which in some cases blurs people’s vision.
The plot of the story takes place in Lost Lake, which is a sparsely populated area in upstate New York City and a quintessential small town. Living in a small town, everybody knows each other, drink, pray, and eat at same locations. Most people in the town hunt for survival. Generally, the story reflects on Gary Hazen, Susan, Kevin, and Gary David who were the family’s two sons. The family lived in a small town Lost Lake that is in Adirondacks. In the novel, Gary was a former Vietnam veteran and respected hunter and a forester. Susan who is his high school sweetheart is currently his wife and together the couple has managed to live off the land in their entire marriage. Gary is proud about the fact that they have successfully managed to raise their two sons instilling them common values and aspects of the society. The novel reveals how the two sons respect what is termed as a difficult life and their parents’ righteousness and pride. Here, Bailey uses Gary Hazen and his family to display some of the most essential aspects of the family in the community. Gary Hazen’s sons seem to have the detestable sins of slovenliness and laziness. From here, Gary Hazen quickly points out some of the flaws that the two sons have for the purpose of correcting the vices. He physically violates them so that they would change their behaviors. Also in the novel, Susan Hazen who is Gary Hazen’s wife and the mother of the two sons warns about the prologue of a tragedy in which her husband and the two sons are likely to face during their hunting sessions in the forest. In this case, Susan raises an early alarm to the hunting team even before they start their hunting mission.
Tom Bailey who is a short story writer skillfully describes routine activities and everyday activities in a small family. Whether it is the chaotic scenes at the pub or the dinner table, carrying out the household chores, appreciating the small town, sailing across the lake, or even attending mass, Bailey skillfully uses his characters to develop the plot of the story through most of their actions.
Ideas behind the Novel
From the novel, Bailey portrays different secrets, reticence, pride, fissures, stubbornness, faith, and love, which generally revolve between most of the characters in the novel. In developing the plot of the story, Bailey considers the twenty-first century readers, in such a way reminding them that most folks still live a life of ruggedness off their land. Bailey tries to portray the kind of life, which counts on the type of meat coming from antlered bucks. In the novel, the Hazen family does not hunt for any wall trophies or never waste carcass sinew. In this case, the two sons Kevin and Gary David are supposed to make a decision whether they will have to cleave to their father’s strong-willed frontiersman-like expectations, according to which the two sons are supposed to work with him, or whether the two will live modernly. In response to this aspect, Bailey creates suspense, especially considering the way the two sons might declare their independence.
Generally, the novel gives its readers an emotional page-turner that is infused with foreboding sense, which is deep. The Hazen’s generally narrate the tale, and it captures various enduring rhythms of rural town life. The novel represents a good piece of literature and has aspects of crisp writing. Bailey uses different characters in the novel to ring truth. However, the multiple points of view in the story tend to shift as a literary device. Tom Bailey develops his story around family drama and some of the ideologies and values they share in the society. The family in question is the Hazen family. In this case, Bailey tries to show the importance of keeping and maintaining family values in the society. His development of the story lies within family values; therefore, he effectively uses Hazens to bring out this aspect in the story.
Alternatively, the novel is affiliated to the Greek tragedy. Tom Bailey develops the storyline of the novel to be akin of the tragedy. Generally, a pervading sense of fate is felt across the entire novel. As much as there are various choruses of the story narrators to push the story towards this aspect, there seem to be an inevitable conclusion regarding the story. Tom Bailey creates Gary’s peculiar myopic life vision to cost him more than he had imagined. Additionally, Gary’s sons manage to stand successfully against some of their father’s characters they felt they were annoying and dominant; and they are, therefore, forced to grip their own desires. The novel describes Gary Hazen’s family as a loving one that at the same time tends to demand conformity and expectations. However, most of these aspects lead to tragic explosion.
Tom Bailey creates the entire novel to be narrated from different perspectives, which serves to give the tale a thematic relevance. In this case, the narration of the story fails to shift at times to readers who might only have tangential connections. Bailey creates a clear tension in the family, it is especially seen from the desires of the parents for legacy of values to be passed from father to their sons; and the son’s desires to have their own principles are poignantly portrayed in the novel. Through the tragic tale, Bailey creates the novel to revolve around themes such as sorrow, grief, pain, and loss. These aspects are all mirrored in the novel to create some sort of tension. Additionally, Bailey makes the story look more real and powerful by the use of various facts, which results in tragedy because of love.
Generally, Tom Bailey had an open mind in developing the story. He creates the ideas of the novel in such a way that they reflect on what happens in the society. The themes of the story give an overall reflection on various essential happenings in the society. Tom Bailey’s ideologies and values in the novel are important in every society. Bailey stresses on the theme of family conflict to stress how the aspect is common in most societies. Hazen family is a true description of a typical family in most societies in their day-to-day lives; and through them, Bailey manages to develop and pass his message to his audience. From these aspects, the audience can categorically learn and take important lessons from them.
Critic
Throughout the novel, Tom Bailey portrays an effective literature type, which is full of depth and beauty. As much as Bailey could have elaborated on the tragedy aspect and its aftermath in the story, there were other aspects in the novel in which the characters seemed to be too economic with their conversation, derailing the flow of the story. The work remains the type of novel where the reader is heavily involved; however, various aspects in it are not clearly elaborated or defined.
Most viewpoints in the novel give panoramic views of a family conflict. However, most characters have predictable traits, which are not stereotypical. The sheer number of the narrators in the novel makes the entire novel seem fragmented and disjointed. Additionally, some key characters and aspects in the novel like Josephine Roy and Gary David’s relationship seem underdeveloped. Other subplots in the novel including the local independent film regarding the Canadian geese, that Gary David and Gary used to work on, was essential in giving insights to the character traits of Hazen were overdeveloped. The writer generally focused on this aspect more than he majored on other important aspects in the novel.
If looking at the novel more positively, it is more involving with its unending dramatic chapters. Descriptions of Susan in the garden or in her kitchen, Gary Hazen involved in chain-sawing thick limbs, which he intends to use during winter heating, and Gary David walking slowly without creating unnecessary noise to avoid waking his mother during odd hours are important in creating suspense and engaging the readers. Additionally, Bailey shows how Kevin walks towards the area where shots were heard during their hunt also adds to the beauty and glamour of the novel. Tom Bailey tries to bring the aspects of humanity, grace, and fallibility in most parts of the novel. Bailey writes the entire novel in such a good style that most narrators in it sound unbelievable. As the tragic events unfold, key aspects unite the main characters of the story, and it becomes evident that things are not good for them. The final part of Tom Bailey’s novel is not very clear and some conclusions in the text seem a little convenient. Even so, the novel reflects a unique type of writing and an engrossing first novel.
Conclusion
Gary Hazen’s family truly defines how most families behave and operate in the modern society. Through the family, Bailey manages to come up with the general plot of the story and themes in such a way passing his message to his audience. Tom Bailey’s novel reflects on true aspects in the society where he skillfully describes routine activities in a small family in a modern society.