Thesis: There is no beautiful place just like California and no better place to study the climate changes and how it has created California's landscapes.
Go where you may within the bounds of California, mountains are ever in sight, charming and glorifying every landscape.
The author is describing California as being very beautiful and I agree. According to him, mountains are everywhere, in California. We are fortunate to have mountains here. I can see why there was a Mexican- American war to fight for this state.
Yet so simple and massive is the topography (the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features on an area) of the State in general views that the main central portion displays only one valley, and two chains of mountains which seem almost perfectly regular in trend and height: the Coast Range on the west side, the Sierra Nevada on the east (Muir, 298).
Reading this made me feel relaxed, I just pictured being in the scene that he was describing. it was easy for me to imagine since I do live in California. I like how the author said that the mountains make the landscape beautiful, I agree. When he mentioned the Coast Range on the west side, I think of Highway 101 since this highway extends from Northern to Southern California and has a coastal view.
But in no country, as far as I know, may these majestic changes be studied to a better advantage than in the plains and mountains of California (Muir, 305). The author is referring to the climate changes in California from the volcanoes erupting to the glaciers melting. From the climate change causing death to climate change bringing life. I think this may be the climax of this story because he explains that there is no better place to study nature than in California. This leads to the explanations of nature creating the beautiful mountains, valley and lakes that we have in California.
And the development of the nature chose for a tool not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent or eroding rain, but the tender snow-flowers noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries, the offspring of the sun and sea (Muir, 306). This text explains that the glaciers created the mountains.
Muir, John. The Mountains of California, pgs. 298-307.
Hi Laura!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your analysis. You had a strong thesis and the selections from the story support it well. California is such a unique state, it truly has beautiful views. I am alway amazed when I drive to Oregon, how in less than one hour, I go from driving through the Shasta Mountains, pass the lake and then drive through valley before I get to the boarder. Great job on your analysis.
Hey, Laura!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this story (again lol), but I liked reading your analysis because the way you wrote it was colorful and vivid, and it made me picture things in my mind. I haven't visited many places in California, but from what I have seen so far makes me agree with you that the Californian landscape is amazing. I also like that you said, "I can see why there was a Mexican- American war to fight for this state."
Hello Laura,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your close reading. I can tell you really connected with the reading. Without having read the chapter myself, I got a very clear image of the author's (and your) purpose in stating "There is no beautiful place just like California". I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (Southern CA), moved to Livermore (another valley), and now live in Oakley... I have always been surrounded by mountains, but never realized ALL of California was!