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The American Nightmare: The Story of Yank

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GSU: ENGL 3860

February 16, 2015

The American Dream conjures images of a hard working person being able to move up in the economic ladder. Starting from nothing and being able to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” in order to make something of oneself the common rhetoric that is bottle fed to Americans. Same can be said of the character Yank in Eugene O’Neill’s play The Hairy Ape. Through this character’s development the audience is able to watch what happens to a person once they are within the grip of naturalistic circumstance. Play goers bare witness to the downfall of an everyday man who is working hard to make his life better, and no amount of work he puts into trying to find his place in the world he will ultimately fail because the natural world is against him.

The story of Yank is like that of many people; he is proud of being who he is and the work that he does. Yank is a very proud, almost hubristic, man who has considered his work as a fireman is what allows him to belong to a group. He in fact has considered himself a very vital part of the group of firemen that work on the Transatlantic Liner as shown in the beginning of scene one:

“I’m steam and oil for de engines; I’m de ting in noise dat makes yuh hear it; I’m smoke and express trains and steamers and factory whistles; I’m de ting in gold dat makes it money! And I’m what makes iron into steel! Steel, dat stands for de whole ting! And I’m steel—steel—steel! I’m de muscles in steel, de punch behind it!”

Belonging to a group of people with a common goal is most likely due to the fact that he grew up in a rough environment. With an abusive father and a mother who suffered from “tremens,” Yank was raised within a poignant circumstance that he later ran away from once his mother passed away. When he did find a group to be with Yank made sure to give his all to it. Yank even sheds his true name, Bob Smith, and his religious upbring to live and work alongside these other firemen on a Transatlantic Liner. He has taken on a new persona of the strong, tough guy in charge of his life when, in reality, he is only the lowly worker who shovels coal with other men of uneducated status.

These fellow laborers of Yank even talk about their hellish life style. One such character is Long, “’E says this ‘ere stinkin’ ship is our ‘ome. And ‘e says as ‘ome is ‘ell.” Yank is working and living in hell-like conditions, but he doesn’t realize that anything is wrong even when the other workers complain. The death of the American Dream, or what I have likened to the American Nightmare, comes when Yank is hit in the gut with the shovel of class awareness in scene three.

His nightmare started when the character Mildred appears in the engine room and fainted at the sight of the laboring men. She, a woman of high class who is also stuck in her own cultural identity as is Yank, screams for the engineers to take her away from the filthy beast [i.e. Yank]. Do notice that, though Mildred could easily be seen as an antagonist to the ‘hero’ of Yank, the two of them share in the fact that they are both characters within a naturalistic play. In such they are unable to control their situation in life because they are both stuck in their cultural identity and both of them are unable or unwilling to shed their view of the world. Mildred is the rich girl who refuses to change out of her white dress even after being told several times that she should, and Yank is unwilling to wash the coal dust off his skin.

Instead of washing himself, as though he ever does, Yank has a “tink” over what Mildred screamed when she fainted. This ‘tink’ makes Yank more and more enraged that he was called a filthy beast, and the men also have likened him to an ape. Yank’s ape-ness is seen through his animalistic tendencies that are listed through the stage directions: He is fierce, he barks, he snarl[es], he roars. The list of his stage directions from scene one through scene four have painted the image of a grimy, ungainly, and grating sort of man. He yells at his men, makes fun of them for not being as strong, he is prideful, and he is happy. That is until his happiness is shaken by one small, white-dress-wearing girl.

When he realizes that there are people who look down on him, call him an animal, people who do not see him as an equal Yank becomes very angry. He lashes out saying that he will show that girl her place toward the end of scene four:

[Enraged.] Yuh tink I made her sick, too, do yuh? Just lookin’ at me, huh? Hairy ape, huh? [In a frenzy of rage.] I’ll fix her! I’ll tell her where to git off! She’ll git down on her knees and take it back or I’ll bust de face offen her!

He is so angry he rushes for the door so he can track her down and, in layman’s terms, beat her up. Yank doesn’t know how to handle someone looking down on him. This could be a steaming back to his abusive childhood where he was always looked down on by his father, whom from which he ran away from, and has never had to deal with that type of situation again until now. This small woman has made him infuriated, and if she wants to see him as an animal then he’ll act like one. Yank then had to be held down by his fellow workers to make sure he didn’t really go after Mildred for fear that he would rip her apart like an animal.

Three weeks later, or scene five, Yank has cooled down enough that he agreed to go with Long off the Transatlantic Liner and to go adventuring around the clean cut area of Fifth Avenue. This is where the audience is given more back story on Yank. We’re told that he was forced to go to church on Sunday, even though his parents never went, and he was beaten by his parents every Saturday if they were not beating each other up. He says that this is where he learned to “take punishment,” and O’Neill adds in stage notes beside this line “[With a grin and a swagger].” At this point in the play the audience has identified that Yank is not only a hard working man who has a problem with aggression, but now we see him as someone trying to live for something more than what his parents provided for him. He is trying to live his life to the American Dream motif that if you work hard and keep on going there will be a reward for all your hard work. O’Neill, if the stage directions are followed correctly, has made more than a big, mean guy. Instead he has created the model of the all American Man who wants to do more for himself, and in Yank’s case he has done better for himself. He has a job and a group of men who look after him. Yank has made a life for himself, but once he realizes that there are other people out there that look down on his style of living Yank becomes angry and demanding to see how they live.

Leading back to the scene on Yank and Long walking along Fifth Avenue. Yank, who has not changed out of his working clothes and still has soot on his skin, looks very different in comparison to his friend Long, who has changed his clothes in order to blend in more. Yank started to feel a pain within him as he looked around the “too clean” street, and he wanted to leave to find a more suitable place for himself. Too a reader or playgoer it is strange that Yank is so in the dark about his own social class, but it is interesting to see that he still feels this invisible boundary. These feelings are made evident through his anger at Mildred for calling him a beast, and now he feels very uneasy being in a place that is so clean and to him unnatural.

As they walk Long explains that he wants to show Yank that Mildred is ‘on’y a representative of ‘er clarss.’ She is behaving how the other half live. This appears to unfazed Yank who is more amazed than angered, as Long is, that there are people buying jewelry that could feed a starving family for a year.  Yank acts like a kid in a toy store and is hoping from one shiny thing to another, and then he lands on a monkey skin coat that costs $2,000. Yank is like many people who look around at all the things that our society can provide. That is as long as you have the wealth to pay for it. Right then, in this moment of wonder for Yank, that Long makes his case with, “They wouldn’t bloody well pay that for a ‘airy ape’s skin—no, nor for the ‘ole livin’ ape with all ‘is ‘ead, and body, and soul thrown in!”

Long wants Yank to understand that they are being taken advantaged of and that Yank should be angry for that reason. He is trying to get Yank to understand the frustration that he, Yank, and the other workers feel are the same feelings. However this seems to have a stronger effect on Yank than Long realizes and Yank, as the stage direction indicate, takes the skin in the window as a personal insult. This insult is strengthened when the stage is then crowned with rich people coming out of church and they never make eye contact with Yank or acknowledge his existence. Not being seen makes Yank act out and he confronts a man walking by and he demands to know if this man believes that he owns the place. The man responds with a, “I beg your pardon.” Yank’s anger builds the more people surround him and women moon over the monkey fur in the window.

Yank tries to follow Long and keep a cap on his anger , but it is when Yank sees a man running for a bus that he lets out his anger and punches the man in the face. From the context of the stage directions it appears that Yank thought the man was getting into a fight and in delight to join in he throws a punch. These actions are very similar to how an animal in an uncomfortable situation will strikeout without apparent warning. The stage directions also lead the reader or actor to believe that this character is a spring under a lot of pressure and is about to jump at any point. Yank is a man with impulsive urges that makes readers and playgoers sit on the edge of their seats to see what he will do next. He is literally a caged animal wandering around a hierarchical world of the American Nightmare that is not going to forgive him for being himself. After this incident, which left the man unshaken but angry, landed Yank in prison for the next scene.

When Yank wakes up in his cell he believes that he is in the zoo and he looks around hearing several different voices of prisoners. The other men start asking questions about what landed Yank with them, and he tells them about Mildred and how she didn’t belong in their world but in a window display. The prisoners believe that Yank is a nutter, but like to hear him anyway. Yank explained that he was in a fight and the judge told him to have a ‘think’ in the prison for a few days. Through talking Yank realizes that it is he that he isn’t understood anywhere ,and when one prisoner told him about the I.W.W. (the Industrial Workers of the World or “Wobblies”) Yank asks for the newspaper that explains that those people are all about. Yank sits and, though he cannot read very well, he manages to realize that the man that he has been working for is the man who made the steel bars that he is now en-caged in.  Yank begins to piece together class structure and that he is working for the man who has en-caged him both physically and metaphorically. He has been worked to death by a man who is trying to keep him in his place, and he is literally behind the steel bars that he makes too. Yank again flights into a rage and bends the bars as the guards yell at him. The next event is unclear because the curtain drops and all the audience can tell is that someone screams.

In scene seven Yank is out of prison and wants to join the I.W.W. to help stand up to his boss. At first it appeared that Yank had finally found his place, had finally found a group that will accept him, and treat him right. Unfortunately Yank, because of his nervous behavior, is thought to be an informant for the government and he is thrown out of the office. A police officer comes up on the scene in time to see the scuffle and Yank defeated on the ground. Yank realizes that he doesn’t belong anywhere, and that it is not his fault. It is the fault of cultural identity that has forced him into a small cage and that his only crime is being born. All Yank wants is to be apart of something, anything; however when he asks the police officer where to go from here man tells him, “Go to hell.”

The final scene we follow Yank to the zoo where he makes his way to the money house. At this point Yank is in a very low and bitter state. All he wants is for someone to talk to, so he goes to the animal that he keeps being referred to: A Hairy Ape. Yank contemplates how he and the gorilla are alike in many ways. They don’t belong and are stuffed into cages for people to point, stare, and be scared of them. That is what separates them from the world. The only problem is that Yank does belong to this world. He belongs with the people and yet they treat him as though he doesn’t belong. Whereas the gorilla knows he doesn’t belong and he has a past to look back on. In this moment Yank decides to help out his ‘Brother’ and let’s the gorilla out of his cage so that the two of them can be together and form their own group.  Yank wants to show the gorilla human ways so they can be outcasts together. When Yank goes to shake the gorilla’s hand the gorilla grabs Yank and crushes him in a ‘murderous’ hug.

To conclude on the character development of Yank is that Yank is more like the everyday man than even he realizes. This is to be concluded only because in the last scene, even though Yank has finally found someone that he can identify with, he mocks the gorilla. He mocks the gorilla just as the people in Yank’s life mock him. He really is the everyday man who starts as a prideful man, who moves to anger, who moves to trying, who ends in bitterness. Since Yank is trying to live in accordance to the American Dream he is really living out the American Nightmare. His personality starts out large and prideful, and through the course of the play it becomes smaller and smaller; it is as thought his personality is crushed down and he keeps going until his body is literally crushed like his hopes. The purpose of these dashed hopes is that people do not have control over their lives and we cannot break out of our cultural identity no matter how hard we try because it is just part of the naturalistic order of our society. Crush or be crushed.

Works Cited:

O’Neill, Eugene. “The Hairy Ape.” Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg-tm EBooks, 4 June 2009. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4015/4015-h/4015-h.htm>

A Letter through Poetry: A Close Reading of “To Wordsworth”

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GSU: ENGL 3605

February 19, 2015

Percy Bysshe Shelley

In a close reading of Percy B. Shelley’s poem “To Wordsworth” a reader can learn that Wordsworth was more than just a poet of nature. Wordsworth was a voice of truth when his followers needed him within the expansion of the Republican Party within France. When Wordsworth, then, abandons his work later in exchange for a nicer lifestyle Shelley writes this poem in response. The diction of the poem “To Wordsworth” conveys both sadness and bitterness. However, through his playing with the Shakespearian Sonnet form and use of both common and high language Shelley denotes the greatness of Wordsworth. By denoting him Shelley then proves that he and other former followers can move on without Wordsworth.

The poem, in effect, reads like a eulogy at first. There are many moments where the reader believes that the Wordsworth that Shelley is writing about is gone with the ending line, “thou leavest me to grieve… that thou shoudst cease to be” (Shelley lines 13-14). In an initial reading there is a feeling of Shelley reminiscing about what use to be. Wordsworth use to have the same feelings as Shelley did about youthfulness of “childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow” (Shelley line 3). These were common emotions felt by Shelley and the Wordsworth of his memory. This Wordsworth was described by Shelley as a “star” who would shine on those who were failing about in the darkness. The past Wordsworth was a “refuge” for those who were struggling even while he himself was within “poverty.” The past Wordsworth was about “truth and liberty,” but he has “cease to be.” The old Wordsworth was something to behold in accordance to an initial reading of Shelley’s poem, however this isn’t really the case.

Let’s begin an analysis with Shelley’s use of high and low language between the addressing of Wordsworth and himself. There are nine moments, aside from the poem’s title itself, where Shelley speaks to Wordsworth directly. The poem begins with the address of “Poet of Nature,” which is literally setting this poem up as a letter. It is also establishing Wordsworth as a product of his work and not as a person; we only see Wordsworth as a poet. Also, throughout this poem, Shelley uses words such as “thou,” “thy,” and “thee” in referring to Wordsworth whereas he uses “I,” “mine,” and “me” in reference to himself. This accent establishes a formality between himself and the nature poet who is now a man of ‘high-art.’ This formality is one of class hierarchy because of tone of voice shifting between the reserved term of ‘thou’ and the relaxed term of ‘I.’ Placing formality onto the character of Wordsworth makes him out to be more of someone readers have to look up to instead of someone whom we are inspired by. In contrast, Shelley places himself with the common man by referring to himself within the common diction. Shelley even calls himself a ‘frail bark in winter’s midnight roar,’ which gives an image of someone just floating around in the darkness trying to find light, whereas Wordsworth was the “rock-built refuge” (Shelley lines 8-9).

This changing of the diction between common friends who welt common woes to one of them being called by formal terms is twisting from friend to deserter (Shelley line 13). This can be later seen in the counter-sublime moment of taking the uniqueness of Wordsworth’s sublime poetry and making it into common ideas. Shelley takes Wordsworth’s ideas of “nature,” “childhood,” “youth,” “friendship,” and “love’s first glow” (Shelley lines 1-2). These are images used by Wordsworth’s poetry in order to convey the sublime. By stripping away its unique qualities Shelley has rendered Wordsworth’s concepts on the intangible as nothing more than simplicity.

This action is a poetic theory that has been called daemonization by Harold Bloom; where Shelley addresses earlier work of Wordsworth within this poem in order to show the reader how ordinary the previous work really is (Harold Bloom). This aesthetic change from the sublime to the counter-sublime is a shift from the intangible to the tangible within the natural world. Within Shelley’s poem the aesthetic is more toward the real world and helping the people that have been left by Wordsworth than being in awe of the star that Wordsworth once was.

This shift in aesthesis has been made even more propionate because of Shelley’s shifting of the Shakespearian Sonnet. From one reading there was no indication that this poem is anything more than just a sonnet, but from further reading, and more understanding of the daemonization between these two characters within the poem, there can be more understood for the poem’s styling. During this time there were many poets who would use imitation in order to write their poetry. Through this poem Shelley has established that Wordsworth has gone away from shining light onto art and liberty, and has now deserted these pursuits. Through the high and low language that is used by Shelley, it can only be gathered that Wordsworth has given up art for the imitating of being something higher. Shelley mocks this imitation by imitating a Shakespearian Sonnet. Instead of the common, though considered high-brow, rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg Shelley inserts the couplet between the second and third quatrain making the rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, ee, fgfg. This shift from traditional to contemporary style show a change within the author; a change that he will no longer blindly follow his once northern star into imitation.

This slide away from the imitation can be shown through the great use of punctuation that Shelley displays throughout the poem. In reference back to the opening line of the poem: “Poet of Nature,” the comma indicates that this poem is meant to be seen as a letter to the entitled Wordsworth. At the ends of the poem lines there is a continuation of the initial thought. I say it’s a continuation because I once read that colons should be considered as gateways inviting readers to go on. It is these lack of stopping points are the most interesting within the poem; namely between lines seven and twelve. This is during Shelley’s lament on what Wordsworth was to so many that he, Shelley, got swept up in his recount. There are only colons that invite the reader to keep reading on that reside between these lines. Along with these colors there are also three enjambments that keep the reader going on and on, until a caesura appears at the end of line twelve in the form of a hyphen. Contrarily, the other punctuations where more indications to take a breath and move on it isn’t until this hyphen that the reader gets a break to pause and reflect on what has been stated.

This pause allows the reader to reflect on the twelfth line of the poem: “Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,-” (Shelley line 12). It is reading over this line that left a mark on me as a reader. The song that is being sung to us now is to inspire the reader to look for the, to quote Dr. Matthew Roudané, “capital T truth.” We are to look deep into what we are being sung, to pay attention to the star that is leading our bark, before we believe that we are following truth and liberty. Shelley is telling readers that everything isn’t what it seems, and that we must delve deeper before we start explications of truth.

This use of wit in changing the sonnet format coupled with the wit of language Shelley has shown that his not just an imitation of what he followed. This poem is more than just a writer lamenting the loss of someone he holds dear. This poem is about letting Wordsworth, and other readers, know that just because one of their political group has defected to the higher class doesn’t mean that he or the others would do the same. This poem is about one-upping Wordsworth in his strongest area of work; and proving that Shelley is more than the man that he once followed. Shelley may be in morning for the friend that he once had, but he will move on and be better than he once was.

References

“Presidential Lectures: Harold Bloom: Excerpts.” Presidential Lectures: Harold Bloom: Excerpts. Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. <https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bloom/excerpts/anxiety.html>.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “To Wordsworth.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Stephen Greenblatt: 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 752.

Between Us and the Night Sky

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KSU: WRIT 3170

April 30, 2012

I finally saw Saturn’s rings on a crisp, clear night on the overlook of Turtle Rock at the observatory for Young Harris College. Seeing the rings took the power of a Schmidt Cassegrain telescope that is housed in a metal dome at the top of Turtle Rock. The dome could comfortably hold fifteen people.  Unlike in the books that I used to read as a child, the rings didn’t have color to them. They were just wispy strands of white that encircled the large orb. Yet, even without the color it was still amazing to see the planets in real life.

James Madison University Light Pollution Map

On that mountaintop, the sky seemed to go on forever; anyone could just look up and be engulfed with the darkness of the sky. It felt like I could shake hands with both Sirius and Mars that glitter in the sky. Once I moved away from the mountains, and into the suburbs of Atlanta, I have found myself longing to see the stars that have become my close friends.  The sky has a permanent glow that has created a wall between people and the night sky that cannot be broken.

Light pollution has become a problem to many because it is an endangerment to wildlife, it adds more pollution to our environment, it has become a health hazard to us, and this hazard is expensive to maintain to begin with. There are many reasons to get rid of light pollution, yet we are not as aware of it as other forms of pollution. That is, we are not aware of it until the light is shining in our face.

Dark Sky Association president Robert Wagner said that he started his dark night campaign because, “[He] finally had enough of the streetlights shining into my house and bedroom to approach the city of Kansas City about shielding the lights. During this meeting, they [the city hall of Kansas City ] said that these lights were the best and lowest polluting, nothing could be done. So [he] decided to work toward educating the city and pushing for better design and engineering standards for light trespass.”

It is not just the sleepers or stargazers that are taking up issue with all of the light pollution that our developed areas are producing. Along with losing their living space due to the deforestation that comes with development, animals are getting hurt or even killed because of light pollution. Light pollution, according to Wildlands CPR writer Tiffany Saleh, harms all animals because of, “disorientation from and attraction to artificial light, structural-related mortality due to disorientation, and effects on the light-sensitive cycles of many species.”

In his article, that was published in The Times West Virginian, Jake Stump wrote about hundreds of birds that were found dead outside of Tucker County High School in 2008. Stump’s wrote that the school administers shut down the school that day because they believed that the flock had a disease and that is why birds kept flying into the window glass. Then West Virginia Division of Natural Resources spokesperson Hoy Murphy told him that the birds were actually attracted to the lights that the school was emitting that dark, foggy morning: ‘“Migratory songbirds migrate at night and use stars to navigate,” said Hoy, “If stars are obscured by clouds or fog, they will orient to almost any elevated light source to attempt to navigate.”’ These birds died because they got lost in a fog as they were trying to migrate, so when they found a source of light they followed it like they have been conditioned to do for generations. Sadly they got the light pollution mixed up with the stars and died, like many other birds do, because of this mistake.

Not only is light pollution harmful to animals, it is also harmful to people.  For smog sufferers, there has been a new study released, conducted by the Harald Stark of the NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, that shows that night time lights are making the smog in the air worse.  In her 2010 posting for Sky and Telescope magazine, Kelly Beatty wrote about the phenomenon that is changing our atmospheric chemistry:

“People who live in cities know plenty about the harmful effects of smog. They also know that the best time to get fresh air is in the early morning because there are far fewer exhaust-spewing vehicles on the road at night. Atmospheric chemists add to this by noting the cleansing cycle that the air goes through every night. Each night the nitrate radical (NO3), a compound destroyed by sunlight, builds up in the dark sky and neutralizes the nitrogen oxides (NOx). NOx build up is what leads to the ozone (O3) that created the smog. New research shows that this cleansing isn’t as effective as it could be, because the NO3 is being destroyed by the light pollution in the city. Less NO3 means dirty air.”

Basically this article is giving us the simple science behind why night time light pollution is bad for people. Sadly that is only the starter. Damn M. Smith, a writer for General Medicine, posted an article in 2009 about how “Constant Artificial Light Linked to Cancer and Other Health Issues.”  Smith writes about how constant lights messes with our melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical that a human body processes naturally when it is time to go to sleep. The body’s natural clock goes by the light of the day; for we are beings that should be up during the day and sleep at night. Smith adds that the lowering of the melatonin chemical leads to the chance of more estrogen hormones rising. Excessive estrogen could potentially lead to a heightened risk for breast cancer. Also without a proper night’s sleep the white blood count drops, and this can open us up to illnesses.

All that talk about health leads us to the last topic of money because we have to spend money on the medicine to combat our illnesses and because we are also the ones paying for the lighting that cause these problems. The Utah Skies organization has posted some information about how much the average person spends for the light pollution that is harming us.

“While the cost to the typical homeowner might be in the $150-250 range per year, the cost to the nation is approaching $10 billion annually.  This is an absurdly large amount of money to waste. Diseases could be studied, the hungry could be fed, our nations children could be better educated,” Utah Skies.

The odd thing about all our lighting problems is that we can change it and make our lighting better: “All of that bad lighting could be redone by replacing the up-pointing 300W halogen bulbs with more efficient LED lights and by pointing the LEDs down, thus cost far less for the taxpayers without causing a single change in the quality of information delivered to the traveler or to compromise their safety. Though with white light LED lights, here too, caution must be used. These lights emit high levels of bluish light that interferes with our night vision,” states a report by the Department of Physics Florida Atlantic University.

Just because there is a need to shut off our lights, there is no need to go into a full blackout every night. There are safety reasons as to why we have road and sidewalk lighting. In the final report of Safety Benefits and Other Effects of Roadway Lighting by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program have reports of car crashes that happen in the day time verses the night time: “In these studies, if the night/day crash ratio is lower in the lighted condition than in the unlighted condition, then a reduction in nighttime crash risk is presumed.” (Rea pg 3)

With all of the statics out there it is reasonable to want to feel safe when driving or traveling at night. To feel make their people feel safe cities will install high power lamps so that we can see at all times of day or night. Yet with these lamps we are still putting ourselves at risk. In our interview Professor Steve Morgan, Instructor of Astronomy and Director of the O. Wayne Rollins Planetarium, noted, “For 40% of those living in the United States their sky is so light polluted that it never gets dark enough, at night, for their eyes to go into ‘night vision’.” Basically he is saying that our eyes are so used to the light population that our natural “night vision” has been skewed and we can no longer see well at night. Granted if we were to leave the areas of light pollution we could trigger our natural night vision.

There are plenty of ways to get these lights dimmed or better directed. For starters we can examine car headlights. Headlight glare can cause other drivers to be temporarily blinded while driving, which puts them and other drivers at risk. To prevent this, there should be a rating system that helps show drivers what are the best head lights to use when out at night. In their study of the equipment that can increase traffic safety, Christopher Flanigan and Michael Flannagan wrote: “The overall effect of a rating system is expected to be an increased emphasis on the importance of seeing distance with low beams. This should result in improvements in safety, primarily in the form of fewer pedestrian collisions.” (Flannagan pg 277)

Even when out on Turtle Rock in Young Harris I could look down and see the cars on the highway and the glow from the restaurant lights. Even in a place, like Young Harris, where there isn’t a major city for miles in any direction there is still small areas that intrude on the night sky’s beauty. The constant glow and hum of the lamps make it hard for observers to see past the light’s glare.

In the suburb Kennesaw there is plenty of light pollution that spread from the capital city of Atlanta. There are many lamps that are designed to look nice yet do not like the walk ways well, many stores that glow like beacons in the night, and homes with light pouring out of the windows at all hours. This lamp post, picture taken at University Place at Kennesaw State University, is an example of nice lamps that do not get the job done. The light should be pointed downward so students can see around themselves as they are walking back from classes at night time. However the design makes it where the light shine at a more diagonal line; which makes it where we will need more lamps to light the sidewalks. With all of the lamps piling on top of one another the light pollution will mount.

Even with all of the negatives of light pollution that constantly surrounds us, there is hope. There are plenty of small steps we can take to make our homes more light pollution friendly, “One thing that we can all do at home is to have shades on any of our outdoor lighting fixtures,” says Professor Morgan. On their website Utah Skies suggests installing motion detectors that turn on lights so that we are not left without the feeling of being secure. The main objective isn’t to go into a blackout every night; that just isn’t sensible. What we should all strive for is to make better lighting choices for our homes and our towns. That way cities can save money, the nation can save energy, the lives of countless animals will be protected, and people can live healthier lives.

Overall, the management of light pollution is all about educating people about the pollution that we emit every night. Without education we all will continue to use up our electricity, shining light out, and not caring about who it affects. Just for one night, it would be nice for everyone to just take a break from everything, turn out the lights, go outside, and look up. Become inspired by what we see “…Starlight vista has been and continue[s] to be an inspiration of the mankind, and that its contemplation represents an essential element in the development of scientific thoughts in all civilizations,” says the International Conference in Defense of the Quality of Night Sky. We all have the right to see the stars—to learn from stars and appreciate them for the beauties that they are in our right.

Bibliography:

Beatty, Kelly. “Night Lights Worsen Smog.” Sky and Telescope: The Essential Magazine of Astronomy 15 Dec. 2010. Print.

“Declaration In Defense of the Night Sky and the Right to Starlight.” Welcome to the StarLight Universe. Star Light Initiative, 20 Apr. 2007. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.starlight2007.net/index.php?option=com_content>.

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