The Savages by Joe Kane - Book Report/Review Example

But when we see nature being destroyed such as oil spilling from an oil tank, or forests being burned or trees being cut down, there are less emotions. Because we don’t see its direct impact to people although we know about it. Seeing its direct impact evokes more feelings than just seeing oils spills or cut trees. Media can show us what is happening but it distances us from the intimacy or attachment to the issues of our world. Just showing information detaches us from the situation and makes us unfeeling viewers.

But when we see its impact to our community, when we see how it affects our lives, and the lives of other people, we begin to feel for them, and we begin to understand more and to feel more empathetic and sympathetic about their plight. Kane evoked emotions in his work because he used images relating the destruction of the Ecuadorian rainforest to live people, more specifically, the Huaoroni people. With this, he was able to reach out to people and make his nonfiction literature very informative as it opens us to the world of rainforest destruction.

The Huaoroni became the center of political dispute when it became known as an oil source. When it was discovered that the Ecuadorian rainforest held treasures of oil, the quest to dig up the oil opened the Huaoroni people to modernity. . Kane found himself very interested in the Huaoroni plight and he went to Ecuador to understand the plight of the tribe. His first encounter with the Huaoroni people made him realize that these people were trying to understand the intricacies of the modern world based on their forest and tribal knowledge.

This cemented by the fact that Moi, a young warrior who had the clearest understanding of their tribe’s impending doom, told him that they intend to talk to the oil companies and attack them with spears if they didn’t listen to their propositions. In Savages, Kane told the story of the tribe according to how he experienced and understood them. He lived with them for a couple of years, and he described in details what he saw and what he experienced with them. At first, he only saw the differences between the modern world and the tribal world.

The difference in language, the difference in behavior, the difference in values. But as he lived with them longer, he began to see the world as how the Huaorani people saw the world. He saw the forest “as an immense library.” He learned how the Huaorani people value their history so much, even the little things were remembered and given value. For example, where a jaguar appeared or where the tribe gets leaves as cures for different illnesses like snakebite and diarrhea. Although the Huaorani people have a different term for these things, it shows how these people have the same needs as the city people does.

Savages shows that there are no differences between their needs and the city people’s needs. The only differences that can be found are the language and the value placed on things. Although the Huaorani people call things