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Thoreau’s understanding of nature and human life
Thoreau's thoughts on nature
Thoreau’s understanding of nature and human life
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Henry David Thoreau started writing nature poetry in the 1840s with the help of his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. The transcendentalist is known for the book Walden. Thoreau once said that “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.” This means that society is too materialistic and technology typically controls us. He hopes that this would allow him to “meet the facts of life… the vital facts,” and rediscover the beauty and grandeur of that life. Away from the complexities and tasks of everyday life, he wants to live simply, close to nature. In writing, he truly seeks nature for inspiration because he believes that a style that imitates nature conveys the principal truths of human nature. Thoreau gives advice in the passage Walden for …show more content…
He believes that America is focused on expensive things that are unnecessary. He criticizes people for being obsessed with technology and not focusing on what is necessary. The quote means that America and the people as a whole are dependent on technology. He also expressed, “It is life near the bone where it is sweetest,” (Page #) meaning that when people don’t have many materialistic things, they enjoy the things they have and life with the bare minimum. He considered the railroad to be a straight line going nowhere and people wouldn’t have a thought I their mind. The railroad is a symbol of something that is bold and everyone knows of. It made men give up on thinking and the train let them travel from place to place far away without a thought. Thoreau thought the train was a distraction in life, where men are traveling everywhere without any concern on how they ended up where they got. Thoreau spoke of two human costs: one that affected the body and one that affected the mind. He …show more content…
Either we will let the “railroad” ride upon us, or we will not fall in the trap that society has. People think that society depends on humanity to survive. People use the insular mindset to think that if they didn’t use technology then it would not exist. The truth is that humanity wouldn’t be able to survive without it due to this world being based around it. This world is too dependent on technology, and it takes someone brave to detach from it and live life with the bare minimum. In Thoreau’s mind, the train symbolized everything wrong with humanity. They were greediness, ignorance, and destructiveness. The railroad was a path to nowhere and was also destructive. Thoreau meant for the railroad tracks and the train to be two different things. Each of them symbolized human qualities. Some good qualities that the railroad had was it brought people to new places, and have new thoughts. The materials that people benefited from the railroad were farmer’s goods, foods, books, and culture. He thought that bringing books into the train is good because people read them, but they should be writing their own books and focusing on their own thoughts instead of reading someone else’s work. Thoreau thinks these things are not needed because they distracted men from the pursuit of thought. Thoreau did not intend to be a hermit, however he valued solitude and wrote about the life in a cabin surrounded with
As Henry is working for Waldo, he will take care of Edward who’s his son. After doing so one day, Henry is placed a very uncomfortable situation where Edward asks his mother Lydian if Henry could be his new father. Lydian then starts to want Henry gone but wants to do so by finding him a nice woman to settle down with. She tells him that and he says “you want to be a matchmaker, Lydian? Find me something innocent and uncomplicated. A shrub-oak. A cloud. A leaf lost in the snow” (Lawrence and Lee 78). By saying this Henry’s showing how he favors nature and its beauty. Adding to that, the teachings that Henrys share with others show the importance of nature. This is seen when Henry is trying to get Emily to see the fact that there’s more to Transcendentalism than being a tree-hugger and to look at nature to see its beauty. He explains this to her by telling her “what is a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on? Did you know that trees cry out in pain when they’re cut? I’ve heard them” (Lawrence and Lee 34). With this being said, Henrys explaining that in order to have a nice place to live, nature has to be taken care of. Overall, The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail focuses on the importance of
Harton, Ron. "Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing." 9 August 2009. The Thoreau Reader. Online Document. 17 March 2014. .
A famous quote by Henry David Thoreau “ We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us,” is used in the story Walden about Thoreau’s life. Because Thoreau is clearly against materialism and believes a man who lives a simple life without worrying about money is much happier than a man with too much money, it can be inferred that Thoreau using this quote means being too materialistic can be harmful. It can be harmful because when a man becomes materialistic he becomes a slave to the materials he owns.Therefore Thoreau establishes a view on being materialistic as bad. He believes he can prove that by building a house for only $28 and only living off things that are essential for survival. He not only does that, he influenced a lot of other
Henry David Thoreau was a mid-nineteenth century transcendentalist philosopher and writer. Thoreau is best remembered for his book “Walden”, detailing his simple life living by Walden Pond. His other most well-known work is “Civil Disobedience”, a philosophical, political piece concerning his views on 19th century America. A fervent pacifist, humanitarian and abolitionist, Thoreau stopped paying his poll taxes (a tax levied on all adults in a community) as a form of protest towards the government for the Mexican American War and slavery. After being imprisoned in July 1846 for not paying his taxes, Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience in response. The two main things that Thoreau argues for in “Civil Disobedience” are the idea of a limited government
...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.
Though best known as a literary figure, Henry Thoreau showed a lasting interest in science. He read widely in the scientific literature of his day and published one the first scholarly discussions on forest succession. In fact, some historians rate Thoreau as one of the founders of the modern science of ecology. At the same time, Thoreau often lamented science’s tendency to kill poetry. Scientific writings coupled with his own careful observations often revealed life to him, but in other ways rendered nature lifeless. Modern-day Thoreauvians are also aware that science has largely become a tool for control and increased consumption, rather than for the appreciation and protection of wild nature. This paper explores some of Thoreau’s reflections on science and "system," and presents his view of the proper role of science in our lives. As will become clear, Thoreau’s worries are occasioned by his own scientific endeavors. His responses to science’s insufficiencies are reformist, suggesting ways to improve and supplement science rather than discard it.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
During the nineteenth century, some of the most renowned classics of contemporary American literature were written by history’s most cherished writers, one of them being Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was a dark romantic writer who spent a great deal of time in the company of several other influential writers of his time, many of whom were transcendentalists. Although Hawthorne himself was not a transcendentalist, he lived in community with several of them, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the Alcott family in Concord, Massachusetts (“Nathaniel”). However, Hawthorne was exposed to transcendentalist views even before this. For six months in 1841, he was a resident at the experimental utopian community of Brook Farm, which
Henry David Thoreau wanted to express his thoughts to the world. He did so by writing Walden a book that gives insights on the world from Thoreau’s point of view. “Walden” gives valuable advice in all types of fields. It shows aspects of Thoreau’s personality and how he views the world. To the best of my knowledge, Henry has many characteristics that he expressed in this book. Most of what he wrote was impressive. Honestly, I was extremely enthusiastic about reading this. Initially, I thought it would be a book like Great Expectations. But my expectations were wrong. I did not think I would actually learn things. Surprisingly, it sparked motivation in me. I wanted to be more in touch with nature. It seemed like Henry David Thoreau had everything figured out. He was calm and thoughtful and he seemed to look at life in a different way. Being in solitude in nature must really get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to look at your flaws and look at your talents. I was greatly intrigued by every page of Walden.
Thoreau, among the most heralded writers of the North American continent, may have lived on his little as possible, but the grandeur of his writing style suggest quite the opposite. This does coincide with a key part of Transcendentalism - putting matters of the mind and spirit far above any materialistic preference. Chapter 5 of Thoreau’s memoir Walden explains his reasonings for isolation through several rhetorical strategies that emphasize the splendor of aloneness and nature.
He pointed out everything he thought was wrong with the new world we live in saying we “live too fast” and “our life is frittered away by detail” (Thoreau 181). He ended his piece by saying “Why should we live with such a hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” (Thoreau 183). He believed that our lives were becoming unnecessarily complicated and he promoted “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Thoreau 182). He even used a metaphor of the railroad to show that in our need for increased transportation, the mistreatment and death of laborers was occurring in the U.S. saying, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides up on us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them.” (Thoreau
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
I believe everyone values certain Transcendentalist ideas, even if they don’t know it. Because in my eyes, Transcendentalism can’t be fully taught. It must be understood, and known through experience in nature. Henry David Thoreau, one of the fathers of Transcendentalism, said, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”. It’s well known that Thoreau was familiar with Eastern philosophy. When he describes Transcendentalism in this quote, it becomes evident. He lived life purely and remotely. He wished to find true contentment by learning more about himself and his relationship with the natural world. In Taoist terms, he was searching for the Way. Isolation in nature
There have been hundreds of writers that have left their mark the American literature. Many writers use their ideas and beliefs when they write their stories. These stories are then in society forever and they influence future writers. Writers are influenced by the stories they read or grow up reading. Every writer touches American literature in their own unique way. Henry David Thoreau influenced American literature the most because he inspired future writers to have and use a connection to nature in their writing, he changed writings to focus on using the imagination, and he influenced writers to be individuals by not sticking to conformity as people or in their works.
Henry David Thoreau, an American born author and philosopher, was born in Concord, Massachusetts in the hot, bright summer of 1817. He survived from July 12, 1817 through May 6, 1862 and died in the late spring due to a severe case of tuberculosis that he battled since his college days at Harvard College. Thoreau had a very normal childhood, and it was not until his later years that he actually came to know his true self and how he wanted to live. He attended college at Harvard College. There, he studied many different languages. He was a very bright man and did not do what others would have expected a guy like him to do after college. Thoreau is considered one of the best authors in American literature and his works are