The Overstory by Richard Powers shows the reader a narrative that the life of every single tree is comparable to the life of every single human. That the rights of humans are interwoven with the rights of trees and our environment. These trees enlighten us on our mistakes as we kill them similarly to the way we kill other humans. Not only that but how the human race kills trees while doubting their intelligence and their ability to communicate and save each other. This book tells a story that trees are more closely related to us than we think they are, “Old trees are our parents, and our parent's parents, perchance. If you would learn the secrets of Nature, you must practice more humanity.” (Overstory, 5)
The Overstory opens up with a beautiful story of a Chestnut tree. It’s about this farmer who takes these chestnuts and plants them into the ground and watches them grow. These nuts change to saplings and only one of them survives to be a tree. These saplings grow with his children. Then they start taking pictures of the last tree. Every month around the same day he would take a photo. Then his son, and his son’s son carried on the project till they get this magnificent flip book of change and growth. Something that you wouldn’t notice day to day but change and growth that happens gradually over time. Much like humans and our growth. When we are young we do not see the changes over time, but if you take a step back and look at the bigger picture you can see that change that happens. During this time that the tree is growing a sickness sweeps over North America wiping out all chestnut trees in its path. So humans do what they do best and destroy the trees, “Loggers race through a dozen states to cut down whatever the fungus hasn’t reached. The nascent Forest Service encourages them. Use the wood, at least, before it’s ruined. And in the salvage mission, men kill any tree that might contain the secret of resistance.” (Overstory, 14) They killed these trees before any of them were given the chance to try and live, and very few chestnut trees remained. This reminds me of another part of the book. In the seventh short story we read in the Overstory, Patricia Westerford’s father says, “We only see things that look like us,” (Overstory 114) she later says something very similar in a book she wrote called The Giving Tree she says, “people see better what looks like them.” (Overstory, 221) People killed these trees because the trees look different than people, and even though they do so much for people and for the environment they were torn down and killed. When plagues and sicknesses ravage humans instead of killing we try to find cures, and eventually, there have been people who have resisted that sickness and we have found those cures. Maybe instead of tearing down those trees for their usefulness, they could have tried to save them with the same effort as they try to save their fellow humans when they are sick. However, instead of helping, those loggers were encouraged to kill and chop every chestnut tree until only a slight few remained who were too far away from that sickness, but in the end, those chestnut trees were as good as extinct as well. America's fastest-growing tree is gone in the blink of an eye.
This isn’t the only time that humans look at trees as if they are mindless plants. Trees may not have the intelligence to speak and move like we can, but they still communicate. Trees do not discriminate from one tree to another, ash trees do not only protect ash trees, birches do not only protect birch. Ash trees protect and communicate with birch, walnut, pine, and many more. Patricia Westerford tells us all about it when she writes her first paper as a doctor of science. Over a long period of time, she performs experiments with the trees to see if they can communicate with one another, “Another nearby tree gets infested. She measures again. Again, she doubts the evidence… Confirmation comes the following spring. Three more trials, and she’s convinced. The trees under attack pump out insecticides to save their lives. That much is uncontroversial… Trees a little ways off, untouched by the invading swarms, ramp up their own defenses when their neighbor is attacked. Something alerts them… Only one conclusion makes any sense… These brainless, stationary trunks are protecting each other.” (Overstory, 125-126) Even though these trees are not the same, even though they look different from each other, trees do not see themselves that way. They see themselves as one being, with one common goal. To survive. To take care of each other because that is the only way to make it to the end. These trees are older and wiser than people could ever dream. They know so much because they have been through the rise and fall of great civilizations to see it all. Just like that chestnut tree that saw the family through a bark frame. “There are no individuals. There aren’t even separate species. Everything in the forest is the forest… two trees join their vascular systems together and become one. Networked together underground… trees feed and heal each other, keep their youth and sick alive, pool their resources and metabolites into community chests… trees are far more social than even Patricia suspected.” (Overstory, 142)
Humans on the other hand have a hard time seeing each other as one being. Through out the the course of history our color, our cultures, and our very beings have separated us from one another. The movie Hotel Rowanda is a dark movie about the genocide of the Tutsi people by the Hutu. These two groups of people are both humans, have similar colored skin, and have the same amount of fingers, eyes, ears, and limbs. However, they have been treated differently which causes a divide between these two groups. The Hutu see themselves as better than, because at one point in time, they had been told they were better and put in a position of power, because of that it led to hate towards the Tutsi people. Not every Hutu thought like that. The main character was a Hutu and he married a Tutsi woman. However, the Hutu people couldn’t see passed these minuscule differences. In their mind Hutu were better they had separated themselves, and thought themselves better. So they committed genocide towards the Tutsi. Till almost all of them were dead. Trees are the exact opposite. Trees are all on the same playing ground. If one thing attacks a tree then that tree tells all the others to be prepared. That something is coming, that they need to protect themselves. However, very much like trees, these humans group up with each other. Almost all the Hutu grouped up with each other for one common goal, even if it wasn’t a good goal. The trees do the same. As Patricia Westerford says, “No other animal close ranks faster than Homo Sapiens.” (Overstory, 127) If you mess up in a social group you may never be welcomed back. If you make one wrong move you can be fired and have close friends turn on you. Humans will also close their ranks faster than a breath, but at least even for a moment, they are on the same side. If we look towards trees maybe we too can find a way to be on the same side.
This book shows us that we and trees are the same, it says that “You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes. (Overstory, 132) If we see ourselves as equal to everything else maybe rights wouldn’t be an issue. Maybe corporations wouldn’t be as greedy, maybe the word genocide would not be in the dictionary. However, those ideas are not known and will never be. For we have separated ourselves from the green earth and the looming wise trees. We have separated ourselves within ourselves just to prove who is better and smarter, who is stronger and faster. We separate ourselves on so many different levels it's amazing when we can come together on anything. Usually thought when humans do come together in big ways it’s almost always for something bad.
Douglas or Douggie Pavlicek is another one of the characters in this book. He is a Vietnam war veteran and took place in a real controversy experiment that happened in human history. It is known as the Stanford prison experiment where several college students were divided into two, prisoners and guards. They would go two weeks living out this simulation and they would be studied on situational effects. It ended badly. The experiment ended after six days. Douggie became prisoner 571. The prisoners were subjected to cleaning out poop buckets, strip searches, solitary confinement, and much more. If a guard said it, prisoner 571 had to do it. This part in the book also translates to Hotel Rwanda really well. It shows that if people are given power to be better or put in a position where they are deemed better then they will act with malicious intent. Just like the Hutu acting towards the Tutsi, by killing them and even calling them roaches because they were no better than bugs. When they should be in fact equals. The guards and the prisoners were equals, however, the guards teamed up and took advantage of their situation and acted maliciously. At first, Douglas’s story doesn’t seem to have much involvement with trees, just with the fact that humans are messed up on some psychological standpoint, but later on during the war, we see a tree. A lone banyan tree looms and as Douglas is crashing to the ground out of control, with no use of his parachute and a bullet in his leg, the tree saves him. It catches him. This tree saves his life, and he feels like he owes the universe or the trees a favor. In the second part of the book we see Douglas and he works to replant trees. He is proud of his work, but when he finds out the intentions behind it he is disgusted. He feels like doing something and making a difference, but he’s not. ‘“The hell we celebrating, Rockefeller?” “My fifty thousandth tree. Nine hours a day, rain or shine, five and half days a week, through ever planting month, for almost four years.” …“You know they’re just gonna cut them right back down again, couple more years.”... “And those companies you plant for? You realize they get good-citizen credits for every seedling you plant? Every time you stick one in the ground, it lets them raise the annual allowable cut.” “No,” Douglas says. “That can’t be right. “Oh, it’s right, all right. You’re putting in babies so they can kill grandfathers. And when your seedlings grow out, they’ll be monocrop blights, man.”’ (Overstory, 185-186) No matter how many good people are in the world, no matter how much one person tries, greed, corporations, and privilege will find a way to ruin everything. No matter how many trees he plants, no matter how many hours he spends it will never be enough, because the people with money will keep killing trees like they are nothing. This story tells us how important trees are, and how wise they are. Douglas says, “Hang on. Only ten or twenty decades. Child’s play, for you guys. You just have to outlast us. Then no one will be left to fuck you over.” (Overstory, 90) If these trees can just survive until humans kill themselves off with war, and genocide, and chemical waste then the trees can live. They just have to make it. This line is so powerful, because he knows that the trees have been here long before us, and will be here long after us. The corporations in these books may be killing off old wise trees, but maybe those young trees he plans will grow to be even bigger, and wiser. To see the end of their civilization and the beginning of a new one.
There, in this narrative about the love of trees is one more character that stands out brighter than the others. Neelay Mehta. He and his father designed a video game about trees. In our current modern day, there are games like Stardew Valley, Coffee Talk, Moonstone Island, Harvest Moon, Coral Island, and many other farming simulators or what is now known to be cozy games. These games are interesting in the fact that they are based on everyday life activities. In Coffee Talk, you talk to customers and make coffee. In Stardew Valley you grow crops, fish, farm, take care of animals, and date people. The thing about these cozy games is most of them take place in forestry towns, or with nature all around you and they don’t have the annoyance of rude people. You just exist and can play and live and explore. That’s why these games are so fun, because even though in real life these tasks would seem meaningless and tedious. However, they are fun if you are in the right environment. Neelay figured that out too.
They developed the game Redwood. After sequels and different versions, he came up with a beautiful game. Since the first one it had been a best seller, but the newest one is revolutionary. A game where you can survive with the land and with other people, co-exist and explore the beauty of the world. Not hurting and revolutionizing it to be a corporation. In Stardew Valley there are two roads you can take, where you can rebuild the community center and get rid of the corporation Jo-Jo Mart, or where you buy the last membership to Jo-Jo Mart and it closes down the small local business in Stardew Valley. In the vast world of online gaming on pc only 4.2% out of more than 530,000 people gained this achievement. That means that those players would rather work and struggle and be one with the land and save trees, save towns, save people than join a corrupt organization. The Redwood game, it brings that same enlightenment that Stardew Valley brings. That we are one with our environment. That the world around us affects us. At the end of the day, these games are supposed to make us feel something. It’s not just a cozy game about living. It’s an experience and a message to do better, to be better. To change our ways so that one day we may still be able to see the environment flourish and thrive.
Trees save lives just like people do. Trees care for each other just like people do. Trees may not be able to feel or be able to think like humans, but they are a living thing worthy of rights. Animals have rights at least to an extent. We color ivory husks so they are not hunted to be used, we try to save abused animals because they do not deserve that. What about the trees? We are hunting, burning, and cutting down trees. One day soon all the old trees will be gone because of human greed, and where will that lead? This is more than a genocide of trees, it is the destruction of ecosystems, and homes. These trees give squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and insects homes. By cutting down these trees we are not only stealing our oxygen from our very lungs but we are wrecking homes. These trees tell stories. The rings of a tree will tell you how old it is. Archeologists are the ones who study how to world was, and how people were, they can tell you what the weather was like 500 years ago from a tree that old or older. The rings will be wider if it rained, and thinner and paler if it was a dryer season. They cannot go back in time and look at those trees, but once they are cut we can see the years. Count back those rings and see how life was. “The years roll away under his fingers-their floods and droughts, their cold spells and scorched seasons all written in varying rings. When the countdown reaches 1975, he makes a fine black x… makes another x on a ray just a little bit counterclockwise from the first, and labels it 195o… and in the outermost ring, that caption: CUT DOWN WHILE YOU SLEPT.” (Overstory, 206) These trees that are older than parents and grandparents are being cut and used. Shouldn’t they get a say in what they are used for? Shouldn’t they get a say in whether or not they are cut down?
The Overstory is a book about trees. Simple as that. It tells the story of nine people whose lives are changed because of trees. Whether it be their death that leads them to fight for the rights of trees, or for a veteran who thought he was doing some good, or even for that scientist who got ridiculed for believing that trees are social creatures. The Overstory is a book about trees and the lives that try to protect and change the world because the world is ever-changing. Humans may murder, steal, cause chaos, do good, fight for what is right, but trees? Trees have been here long before us, and they will survive long after us too, it is just a matter of if we will learn our lesson before our time runs out, and if we persevere what little is left.
Class project I did about the Overstory By Richard Powers
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