Man and Nature were always linked together right from the beginning of time. Men depend for their livelihood on nature and this is why people give a lot of importance to nature ultimately leading to the protection of nature by men. The common understanding of men is that they protect nature but on the other hand nature also shapes the life of man so man and nature stands at an equal position. Ralph Waldo Emerson born on 25th May, 1803 and died on 27th April and Henry David Thoreau who was born on 12th July 1817 and died in 6th May 1862 were both born in Massachusetts were friends and Thoreau was influenced by Emerson. Nature according to Emerson should be given importance since man has to seek for answers from nature and that no matter how intelligent a man may be yet it is on nature that he will have to depend but Thoreau has a different opinion to it and he thinks that nature is important but man should be given equal importance.
According to Emerson in ‘The American Scholar’ men are mere puppets and all that men know about history comes from the bookish knowledge. What Emerson is trying to say is that a man should not be a bookworm and that man should look for answers from the nature since nature has all the answers to the questions that men have. One man can represent the whole society of human race if what a man does is appreciated and worth. Man is not sure of his origin also and it is the fables from the books that tell men of how the human race started. The common understanding of men today is that Man was divided so that Men were created but man has forgotten this fact and they think that they are now individuals and this is what Thoreau has to say as well in ‘Walden’. According to Thoreau nature only has answers but it i...
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...to be the highest power holder yet everything has to go according to how God created things to be (American Scholar, 1837).
In conclusion Emerson and Thoreau compare man and nature to be interrelated but Emerson states that nature should be given more importance than men whereas Thoreau argues that both man and nature are evenly significant.
Works Cited
Henry David Thoreau. (2014, April 16). Retrieved on 17th April, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson. (2014, April 16). Retrieved on 17th April, 2014 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson
Emerson, R. W. (1836). Nature. Retrieved on 17th April, 2014 from
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/emerson/nature-contents.html
Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, life in the woods. Retrieved from
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm
Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson conveyed strong, specific viewpoints on the world through their writing. The transcendentalist ideals differ vastly with the lives lived by most of the modern world today. Firstly, the two differ on views of self-reliance. Secondly, they have different outlooks on the government and organized groups. Lastly, transcendentalist and modern American views vary by the way they view nature. These differences between transcendentalism and life today are essential in understanding life then, as well as life now.
In Thoreau’s excerpt of “Walden”, he writes about moving to the forest to live in a cabin. He gets away from the busy world around him and secludes himself to nature. While living out in the forest, Thoreau would take the time to enjoy the beauty of nature and come back to the cabin and write about it. In Emerson’s excerpt of “Nature”, he writes about the relationship of humans and nature.
Essay question: Compare and contrast the relationship between man and nature in Emerson and Thoreau.
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know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my
While Emerson and Thoreau certainly have difference of opinions, they recognize the need for public discussion and discourse. Emerson declares “a foolish consistency” to be “the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson 367). This is shown in their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience” in which they support individuality and personal expression. Despite their contrasting views of society and government, the two most prominent transcendentalists in literary history share a passionate belief in the necessity that every American must exercise their constitutional rights and make known their views even and especially if it challenges the status quo.
...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.
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.
Emerson starts with a description of one who has the ideal relationship with nature, "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." Emerson is saying that man needs to retain wonder of nature, a quality often lost as a person ages. People become too distracted by petty conflicts that in Emerson's eyes, are ultimately insignificant.
Emerson's essay, Nature is essentially one that seeks show a new form of enlightening the human spirit and urges the establishment of a stronger link between man and the Universal Spirit through. Emerson sees nature as this inspiration to people and catalyst for a deeper understanding of the spiritual world.
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.
Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne are different and alike in many ways. Thoreau was a man that never married and believes each man should "march to his own drum" or go his own pace. Nathaniel Hawthorne on the other hand, was married very quickly. Thoreau was described "as ugly as sin with a long nose and queer mouth." Hawthorne was handsome on the outside, but depressed on the inside. Hawthorne was a Dark Romantic, while Thoreau was a Transcendentalist.
In many works of literature, authors often have a point they are trying to convey. This may be something about religion or politics, for example. In From Walden by Henry David Thoreau and Against Nature by Joyce Carol Oates, both authors are trying to make different claims regarding the topic of nature. Thoreau’s piece speaks more positively of nature whereas Oates’ piece contradicts the romantic views some writers have about nature. In making their claims, both authors utilize different structures to convey clear messages to the reader.
Nature, written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is a literary work about natural world and its properties. Nature is divided into an introduction and eight chapters. Emerson defines nature as everything separate from the inner individual. The inner individual meaning the soul. The titles of the eight chapters are: Nature, Commodity, Beauty, Language, Discipline, Idealism, Spirit, and Prospects. In chapter three, Emerson introduces the idea of beauty. Beauty is a part of the natural world and it serves our needs and desires. He makes it clear that beauty is a nobler want of humanity (Emerson, 944). Beauty is not absolutely necessary for the survival of man, but it is beneficial and extremely useful.
Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882), the leader of the Transcendentalism in New England, is the first American who wrote prose and poem on nature and the relationship between nature and man Emerson's philosophy of Transcendentalism concerning nature is that nature is only another side of God "the gigantic shadow of God cast our senses." Every law in nature has a counterpart in the intellect. There is a perfect parallel between the laws of nature and the laws of thought. Material elements simply represent an inferior plane: wherever you enumerate a physical law, I hear in it a moral rule. His poem The Rhodora is a typical instance to illustrate his above-mentioned ideas on nature. At the very beginning of the poem, the poet found the fresh rhodora in the woods, spreading its leafless blooms in a deep rock, to please the desert and the sluggish brook, while sea-winds pieced their solitudes in May. It is right because of the rhodora that the desert and the sluggish brook are no longer solitudes. Then the poem goes to develop by comparison between the plumes of the redbird and the rhodora . Although the bird is elegant and brilliant, the flower is much more beautiful than the bird. So the sages can not helping asking why this charm is wasted on the earth and sky. The poet answers beauty is its own cause for being just as eyes are made for seeing. There is no other reason but beauty itsel...