Environment

Throughout the semester, we have talked about nature and how your surroundings affect your behavior. Over the course of this semester we have read many texts about nature but one text that we read that had challenged my view on environment was John Berger's article, "Why Look at Animals?". Before reading this article I use to think that zoos were benefiting the animals and that they were content where they were. After reading Berger's article, it opened a new outlook for me on zoos. Also, throughout the article Berger describes how there is marginalization of the animals. I learned that marginalization is to exclude or ignore, by relegating to the outer edge of a group or by diverting the public's attention to something else. According to John Berger, the space that the zoo has made for the animals to live in is artificial, and that in most cases the environment is just an illusion. Most of the environment does not necessarily meet the standards that the animal needs to live in to survive. Berger later on goes to say that the environment of the animals is made only for those who come visit the zoo. Reading all these different works from different authors, made me realize that there is no right or wrong definition of nature and that everyone has their own opinions. Berger helped to show me that sometimes things aren't as they seem and you must go deeper in order to figure it out.