Earth Without People

Daniel Fatemi

Ms.Morrell

Honors English IV

10-03-12

Earth Without People

            Throughout the story Alan Weisman uses imagery to invoke the five senses and make it easier on the reader to visualize what he is talking about. In the story he uses adjectives to actively describe multiple environments and how they would change if the human element were taken out of the equation. Weisman vividly describes how New York would change if people disappeared. He states, “If New Yorkers disappeared, sewers would clog, some natural water courses would reappear, and others would form. Within 20 years, the water-soaked steel columns that support the street above the East Side’s subway tunnels would corrode and buckle, turning Lexington Avenue into a river.” Reading these two sentences I could clearly form a picture of New York. I could see the streets flooding and rivers and waterways forming. I could easily see Lexington Avenue turn into a river. Weisman’s adjectives paint a clear picture in my head. He also later states, “ Virginia creeper and poison ivy would claw at walls covered with lichens.” After reading this I could picture all the buildings of New York completely green with plants growing all around them and on them. Weisman uses all this imagery to literally show you how much we the people affect the Earth. Weisman paints picture in our heads of the world without humans. He not only tells us but also finds a way using imagery to get his point across and to get through to us ignorant humans, whom think nature is there to supply us and all of it is ours for the taking.  Weisman states on page 176 that if all humans were taken out of Korea many creatures would flourish, otters, Asiatic black bears and etc. would spread into slopes reforested with young daimyo oak and bird cherry. You cannot help but to imagine an area like the mountains of New Zealand where signs of human life are very minimal and the animals thrive and flourish. Weisman uses the imagery not only as a literary tool but also as a weapon in the fight for saving the environment. He paints pictures in your head where you cannot help to imagine and wish or world was less dominated by humans and more dominated by Mother Nature.