For my final essay, I am planning to close read Helen Rozwadowski’s Vast Expanses: Introduction: People and Oceans. I will explore how Rozwadowski redefines the ocean as a space shaped by human knowledge, power, and imagination rather than a neutral part of nature. My essay will focus on how she describes the ocean’s “vastness” not just as a physical quality but as an idea built through exploration, science, and stories, turning something wild and limitless into something they can name and own. I plan to analyze how Rozwadowski connects human curiosity about the sea to the desire for control, how people have tried to measure, name, and own something that resists boundaries.