Water and Ecologyin English Literature

presented by:

Katarina Pendo 8b

Stella Starčić 8b 2013./14.

Water has always fascinated humankind.

The ocean, the waves, the way it flows,

the way it is so necessary for life and yet is so deadly.

As a result, it has become a prominent symbol in literature, though it is used in many different ways.

Water is often used to symbolize things in literature. Water is a universal symbol of change and is often present at turning points in a story. Since water is often a sign of life, many times water represents life.  Likewise, water can also represent death (such as dark murky waters). Water can also be up into two categories: fresh water and bad/polluted water. Fresh water can represent good health, and bad water symbolizes bad health. Water can also mean purity and cleansing. It also represents thirst, since people drink water to quench their thirst. 

Mark Twain represents water as a boy's dreams, and a future of success. The Mississippi, in The Boys' Ambition, is described so elegantly that there is no doubt it can be everything good.

“...the great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide along, shining in the sun...".

The river holds beautiful things; shining ships, real adventure. Even the main street in the speaker's little town is called Water Street. The heroes of his life ride the steamboats that puff up and down the banks.

twainquotesMy books are water; those of the great

geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.- Notebook, 1885

High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.- Letter to William Dean Howells, 15 February 1887

The use of water as a symbol clearly has no set rules.

Authors use it in different ways, representing different things, to make different points.

All the same, is that not one of the major characteristics of water?

It is constantly versatile, and yet it never changes; it gives constant fuel to the fires of imagination.

Literature will never be able to do without it, and with all probability, water will symbolize new and unchanging things in the future.

• 97.2 % of the Earth's water supply is salt water.• Only 2.8% is fresh water !!!

Water supply=zaliha vode

Water Pollution 8

9Water Pollution

• Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies. (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater).

Water pollution=onečišćenje vode

• Water pollution affects plants and organisms

living in these bodies of water and in almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to

individual species and populations, but also to

the natural biological communities.

Plants= biljkeOrganisms=organizmiNatural biological communities= prirodna biološka staništa

Each year, plastic waste in water and coastal areas kills up to:

•100,000 marine mammals,

•1 million sea birds, and

•countless fish.Water Pollution 13

•dead animals•dead plants•harms the ecosystems •heat waves • climate change/global warming •droughts •more bugs •more diseases

Water Pollution 14

Continued…..

•rise in water from melting glaciers It's harmful for us! •asthma •heavy breathing •cancer

•Each year about 250,000 people are admitted to hospitals or emergency rooms with pesticide poisoning

Water Pollution 15

What can WE

do ?

Wash vegetable and

fruit in a bowl !

Collect and recycle

rising water !Don´t take baths ,

take showers!

Don´t leave your tap

open while brushing teeth !

Fix your snivel!

YOU CAN

Save Water !

You not only save the Earth …

You also save

your money !