26. Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp

In her essay "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp," Joy Williams addresses a very serious issue. She writes about the decreasing nature. The people are losing their respect and love for Nature, replacing it with self-interest. People will only do something about nature if it is convenient for them, which is most often not the case. They will ignore machinery and technology that could save wildlife for more money. Shrimpers could save many turtles and marine mammals by using technology that could help avoid them but they choose not to. They would rather have a larger haul of shrimp than save the lives of other living beings. People will look at marshlands and swamps as their personal filters for the chemicals they dump onto their lawns. When they see an untouched piece of land, instead of admiring its beauty people will admire its potential to build more buildings. Nature has become a source of materials, not something to be admired and preserved. She finishes her essay by saying that this issue can not be solved through politics but by changing the culture and character of society today.
Williams writes about a very interesting topic but it would have been more effective if she had written it differently. The issues she writes about do not seem as bad as they are because of the way she writes. She writes with a detached tone with a cynical undertone. If she had emphasized her dislike for this issue, it would have made it more striking. It was good to include the many different examples that she did to show the various areas humans are destroying nature for personal gain. She could have, however written the examples in a different manner instead of just stating them one after the other. However, her examples are very good in the actual example itself and what it was about. The examples are common everyday things that help the audience relate to what she is writing and realize the damage their behavior is causing. However, she basically writes only examples throughout her whole essay and condenses the main ideas into the last two paragraphs. She writes how it can be solved but the change is very abrupt. It would have been better if she had developed the last paragraphs more and had incorporated them into her writing. Instead of just stating her examples, she should have organized her essay in a more coherent and structured form. Overall, she had good points but was not able to bring them together into a very effective essay.