Sojourners

Sojourners

Thesis

In this essay, we are told that the author alternates between thinking of the planet as home and as a hard land of exile. The thoughts of despair are introduced in this essay to contrast the beauty of the mangroves. However, ultimately the author has stated explicitly that she finds the possibilities for beauty our planet holds more interesting than the thoughts of despair, which clearly supports the thesis.

Therefore, Ð'ÐŽÐ'oThe planet is less like an enclosed spaceshipÐ'ÐŽÐ'Єspaceship earthÐ'ÐŽÐ'Єthan it is like an exposed mangrove island beautiful and loose.

Thesis: explicit

Tone

The tone of this text is encouraging, and it is created through the imagery described by the author. Some examples of the cheerful imagery include: the sounds of musicians singing and the image of dancing. In the introduction of the essay, the author refers mangroves as artists of the beautiful. The idea of the mangroves being artists of the beautiful is again revisited in the conclusion, when the author describes our planet Earth as an exposed mangrove island beautiful and loose. The authorÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs choice of diction also shows that the tone of this essay is encouraging.

Theme

DillardÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs theme of the entire human society is like the mangroves. We the people started with nothing and have accumulated a great muck of culture. In addition, the idea that humans are like mangroves, even though our lives seem to be so random, we can still Ð'ÐŽÐ'oturn drift to danceÐ'ÐŽÐ'±. Even if things are as bad as they could possibly be and meaningless, we can still please ourselves.