Rupert Brooke and Mark Twain offer contrasting perspectives on the role of nature and humanity in their descriptions of Niagara Falls and tourist guides.
Brooke finds solace and transcendence in the grandeur of Niagara, describing it as a place where "both men and nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this dark flood."
He suggests that guides exploit human nature's desire to be impressed by feigning expertise and exaggerating the significance of the sights they show.
So, While Brooke's awestruck reverence for nature is engaging and thought-provoking, Twain's sharp satire of human gullibility is also entertaining and insightful. Both perspectives offer valuable insights into the complexities of human interaction with the natural world and the dynamics between tourists and guides.
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Read the two sources, and then answer the question(s) or complete the task(s) given. Source 1: from “Niagara Falls,” Rupert Brooke British poet Rupert Brooke wrote this description of Niagara Falls while on a trip to the U.S. and Canada in 1913. (1) . . . It is very restful to give up all effort at observing human nature and drawing social and political deductions from trifles, and to let oneself relapse into wide-mouthed worship of the wonders of nature. And this is very easy at Niagara. Niagara means nothing. It is not leading anywhere. It does not result from anything. It throws no light on the effects of Protection,1. . . nor on Corruption in Public Life, nor on Canadian character, nor even on the Navy Bill.2It is merely a great deal of water falling over some cliffs. But it is very remarkably that. The human race, apt as a child to destroy what it admires, has done its best to surround the Falls with every distraction, incongruity, and vulgarity. Hotels, powerhouses, bridges, trams, picture post-cards, sham legends, stalls, booths, rifle-galleries, and side-shows frame them about.
Source 2: fromInnocents Abroad, Mark Twain American humorist Mark Twain recorded his travels to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East in the 1869 workInnocents Abroad, from which this passage is taken. (1) Guides know about enough English to tangle every thing up so that a man can make neither head or tail of it. They know their story by heart—the history of every statue, painting, cathedral or other wonder they show you. They know it and tell it as a parrot would—and if you interrupt, and throw them off the track, they have to go back and begin over again. All their lives long, they are employed in showing strange things to foreigners and listening to their bursts of admiration.
Write a brief paragraph in which you compare the writers’ viewpoints on or their attitudes toward their topics. Explain whether you found each viewpoint or attitude engaging or not. Support your responses with quotations from each passage.