Conflict with Technology in Coon Tree by E. B. White

In E. B. White’s essay “Coon Tree”, White believes that nature is beautiful and technology is destructive. White describes about raccoons that live in a tree right beside his house. He also talks about his frustration about the transformation of his kitchen. White describes and talks about technology and how it is changing the world. He shows his love about nature and animals by giving so many details on the coons. White has so much frustration with new things replacing old things.

White has love for a family of coons that lives in a tree right beside his house. His affection toward the coons is shown when he says, “She is like a member of our family”. It is normal for White watching coons that he says, “The mother’s comings and goings are as much a part of my life at this season of the year as my morning shave and my evening drink. ” White even knows when the coon leaves and when the coon arrives back home. White had so many opportunities to kill the coon because she eats and ruins his corn, but he likes the nearness of the coon more than having five less ears of corn. He adores watching and observing the coon so much that he wakes up in the middle of the night to watch her arrive back at her tree “. . . I have taken to waking at three to watch her home-coming and admire her faint silhouette against the sky as she carefully sniffs the bark all around…”. White says that the coon has two side. She has arboreal side, motherly, and a terrestrial side, hunter. When she is in the tree she cares for her young and does her motherly duties and when she hits the ground she is a hunter and will do anything to get food for her babies. White noticed that when the coon would go down the tree, she would go down backwards and then when she got about six feet from the ground she would switch and go head first. This is why he thinks she does that, “I believe it is because although it comes naturally to her to descend headfirst, she doesn’t want to arrive on the ground in that posture lest an enemy appear suddenly and catch her at a disadvantage. ”

In White’s essay, he talks about his frustration with the transformation of the kitchen. White believes that the kitchen has came a long way and it has a long way until it becomes a good kitchen again. White heard a speaker say, “The kitchen as we know it is a dead dodo” and White said “I think the kitchen, like the raccoon, is a dead dodo only if you choose to shoot it dead. ” That statement right there tells us that White likes what we have. White doesn’t want to transform the kitchen because he likes to work with what he has and enjoys the kitchen. “Our kitchen today is a rich, intoxicating blend of the past, present, and future. . ” this says that we have a mixed kitchen already, so why change it? White likes the old appliances better than the new. He rather have a wood stove than an electric stove because he rather go get wood than find his reading glasses to read the electric stove.

Technology is changing so fast and is coming out with so many new things that are changing the world. White thinks technology is destructive because there is no evil in nature. White used a quote from Jim Bailey, which said “I have no sensation of speed when I run”, he, also said “. . . and I never know how fast I’m going. ” The reason he put this in his essay is because that is how technology is changing. Its changing right before our eyes and it is hardly even recognizable. The new technology that keeps coming out is making the people nowadays start doing less work. For example, when wood stoves were the only stoves, you had to go physically get wood from the forest and cut a tree down and chop it up, but now with the electric stove, all you have to do is turn a knob and the stove turns on. The new technology keeps making the people of this world even less active.

In his essay, White gives details about his conflict with technology. White is frustrated between nature and technology. Technology is changing the world and he thinks that the new kitchen is a “dead dodo” because it is becoming more and more easier and requires less work. White has a lot of opinion in his essay and gives a lot of insightful imageries. White says in his essay that nature is beautiful and that there can be no evil but thinks that there is evil in technology because it is changing the world and making people less active.