Atchafalaya+BD

Brittany Douthwright- Analysis and Summary of ATCHAFALAYA by John McPhee

This article might have been a short read, but it was still complicated in some sense. For example, the lead had awkward sentencing, and complicated wording.

"This, to say the least, bespeak a rare relationship between a river and adjacent terrain- any river, anywhere, let alone the third-ranking river on earth. The adjacent terrain in Cajun country, in a geographical sense the apex of the French Acadian world, which forms a triangle in southern Lousiana, with its base the Gulf Coast from the mouth of the Mississippi almost to Texas, its two sides converging up here near the lock-and including neither New Orleans nor Baton Rouge."

It is not that I don't understand what these sentences are saying, but at the same time, could you say it a lot simpler? Or maybe I am not reading it correctly.

Besides the complicated sentencing which I see often when reading McPhee's work, including his peice about coal trains, this article overall, discussed a very interesting subject, the Mississippi River.

McPhee describes the relationship between humans and nature by describing the life living among and depending on the river. For example, when he talks about the power the river has over people, including the whole state of Lousiana. If it were not for this river, the state would not exist at all, does that not explain the power of mother nature? Also, when he includes the Cajun who explains how they are taught about this river in high-school, does that not explain its significance? When he talks about the corporations who move by the river, so they can depend on its resources, does this not also show some importance?

Although this river provides many resources for people, McPhee keeps reminding the readers, about its relationship with the state of Lousiana. It is almost as if he is saying this river has way more power over people, then the other way around.

One thing I am finding in McPhee's environmental work, is that in no way does he make the humans look like monsters. He always seems to find the best in humanity. For example, he always finds that one human, like the Cajun in this piece, to give readers a sense of the human aspect of the whole issue. For example, these Cajuns depend on this land, as do the corporations, but the river can decide to disagree with humans anytime it wants. Mother nature has the true power over humanity, but we are too ignorant to see it. I think this might be what McPhee is getting at, but I could be wrong.