Our Only World Analysis

683 Words3 Pages
Our Only World, written by Wendell Berry, addresses environmental issues, in addition to homosexuality, abortion, and violence. Wendell Berry wrote Our Only World not only to acknowledge these issues, but to also provide possible solutions to these issues and to show that human begins are the ones truly responsible for fixing these issues. Berry shows this by constantly focusing on how individuals view the world (and how that directly impacts the environment) and by teaching us that the first steps of saving the environment is by keeping everything local, rather than attempting to fix our problems on a global scale. With this book, Berry hopes that people will acknowledge what he says and will begin the steps necessary to slow the process…show more content…
Throughout Our Only World, he explains and uses examples to show us that people view the world and its elements in parts, rather than its entirety, which separate us from the environment, along with the creatures that thrive in it and any sympathy that individuals may otherwise have for it (Berry, 6). He explains that “Once they [landscapes] have been industrialized, these enterprises no longer recognize landscapes as wholes, let alone as the homes of people and other creatures. They regard landscapes as sources of extractable products. They have ‘efficiently’ shed any other interest or concern” (Berry, 6). Those “extractable products” Berry is referring to are the “parts”. Whether it is lumber, coal, or gain, enterprises only focus on these “parts”, rather than the “whole”, which would be the forest, mountains, and farmland. This due to their belief that the “parts” are the only objects that the market deems valuable. Berry states that “the scientific- industrial culture, founded nominally upon materialism, arrives at a sort of fundamentalist disdain for material reality. The living world is then treated as dead matter, the worth of which is determined exclusively by the market” (Berry, 7). This disdain that was created by this culture hinders anyone that is a part of it from feeling remorse for the destruction of our planet. He shows this by educating us on the steps of logging (which he later rightful calls culling (Berry, 26).) and

More about Our Only World Analysis

Open Document