Leopold Review

Leopold Review

  • Submitted By: jdaswat
  • Date Submitted: 09/22/2013 11:35 AM
  • Category: Book Reports
  • Words: 3122
  • Page: 13
  • Views: 4

1) Aldo Leopold’s book, The Sand County Almanac is a very engaging and remarkable composition of essays and short stories on “a series of astonishing portraits of the natural world.” Part I, A Sand County Almanac, details Leopold’s personal viewings around his farm in Madison Wisconsin and the Sand County. What Leopold was trying to get everyone to understand, think about, and “see” was the relationships between plants and animals in the Sand County, in conjunction with the different seasons that they’re in. This theme can be seen in each and every month chapter. For example, in the February chapter Leopold uses an analogy with an Oak tree that he and his friend are cutting down. With every stroke of the saw through the age rings, he tells a story of each regressed year. He notes in 1905, “goshawks came out of the North and ate up the local grouse (they no doubt perched in this tree to eat some of mine).” Then to 1893, “’The Bluebird Storm,’ when a March blizzard reduced the migrating bluebirds to near-zero. (The first bluebirds always alighted in this oak, but in the middle ‘nineties it must have gone without.)” This analogy (which has many more stories like the ones stated) directly justifies the theme because through the years this Oak saw many different things happen in its lifetime. Things from species going extinct, all the way to floods that spoiled the lands of Sand County. But regardless, that single Oak saw and helped animal species throughout its entire lifespan. Another example can be seen in the November chapter. Leopold still talking about oaks says, “The cured oak leaves not only serve as cover, but, for some curious reason, are relished as food by the grouse.” All of Part I is littered with little inserts such as the two previously stated.
As for Part II, it took a little bit of time to try and come up with the theme for this section. This part of the book contains memories and stories that Leopold feels had a significant impact on him; and...

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