How to “Live”
“Take off those fucking sunglasses and unpeel both eyeballs, look around” (Abbey 233). Embracing nature is the main idea in both Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey is an autobiography based on Abbey’s experiences as a park ranger at Arches National Monument and it was published in 1968. Walden by Henry David Thoreau is about Thoreau’s life in the woods, and it was published 1854. Although written more then a century apart from one another, both Thoreau and Abbey develop a philosophy of leaving society behind and living a more deliberate life through experiencing the wilderness in their works. However, Thoreau’s definition of living a deliberate life is based on
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a balance of nature and society, where as Abbey’s definition is to completely surrender to nature. Reading Thoreau through the lens of Abbey shows that a call to simplify is also a call to make more time. In chapter two of Walden, Thoreau says, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand” (Thoreau 1029). Thoreau believes that our lives are two complicated, and that we need to simplify our lives. He provides ways to disentangle our daily lives including having one meal a day instead of three and five dishes instead of a hundred (Thoreau 1029). In Desert Solitaire, Abbey says, “For chrissake folks what is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare?” (Abbey 233). Abbey believes that with all the distractions in our lives, we have no time to stop and take a moment to experience the beauty of the natural surroundings. This is relates to Thoreau’s call to simplify our lives by allowing your affairs to be two or three instead of hundreds because of the time that is being consumed due to each affair. Affairs, especially when they are petty and insignificant are a big time-waster, if you simplify the number of affairs you are in turn, making more time. Similarly, decreasing the number of meals and dishes in a day will allow for additional time because you are not taking the extra time to prepare meals and clean them up. Both authors argue that there is a point in which physical labor becomes busy work instead of a necessity needed in order to survive. This calls into question how much work is intellectual versus how much work is busy work. While reading Thoreau through the lens of Abbey, the call to simplify emerges as an analogous call to make more time. Furthermore, reading Abbey against Thoreau fully exposes that Abbey is fully rejecting society. Thoreau still visits the village where society resides, he says, “Every day or two I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incandescently going on there…taken in homeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in it’s way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs” (Thoreau 1068). If heard in moderate amounts, Thoreau does not believe that the gossip and talk of society is draining. He still wants to embrace people, even if society can be extraneous at times. By explaining why some gossip may even be refreshing, Thoreau gives the impression that his actions have been thought through and that his deliberate life relies on just the right amount of society. On the other hand Abbey says, “turn your back on them and take a long quiet walk straight into the canyons… come back when you damn well feel like it” (Abbey 233). Abbey is telling the visitors of the park to just leave their companions and get lost, essentially to block out distractions and to have some alone time. He believes in completely ditching society, and leaving civilization behind. Abbey is very misanthropic, and therefore turns to nature because of his rejection of society. This is further illustrated when comparing Thoreau to Abbey. Thoreau has planed out his days so that he still gets some human interaction, and this shows that he does not fully dismiss society. He is still concerned with making humans happy. Abbey, on the contrary, doesn’t even need to plan out his days because he completely discards society and seeks refuge in nature. He isn’t concerned in the well being of other humans. The degree to which Abbey entirely rejects society is entirely uncovered when comparing Abbey to Thoreau. In addition, Thoreau believes that nature can serve as a pathway to a healthier life where as Abbey believes that nature is the end goal.
When talking about his experiences in nature, Thoreau says, “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” (Thoreau 1032). Thoreau talks about his experiences of going into nature in order to live a better life. He believes that nature can teach you how to live a better life. Nature serves simply as a guiding tool to living a deliberate life and being a healthier human. In contrast, Abby says, “For God sake folks get out of them there machines, take off those fucking sunglasses and unpeel both eyeballs, look around; throw away those goddamned idiotic cameras!” (Abbey 233). Abbey wants the readers to completely surrender themselves to nature. He believes that the people visiting the park are oblivious to the nature in front of them. Abbey wants it to be known that society and the technologies of the modern world aren’t really important. The reader should just throw away what they have and return to nature. After reading Thoreau through the lens of Abbey, it is evident that the end goals of both authors are completely different. Thoreau’s end goal is to live in society with the strong influence of nature guiding the way. He believes that nature is the means to the end of a healthier human who still lives in society. Abbey’s does not …show more content…
believe that humans are important, and his end goal is to surrender to nature. He believes that nature is not the means to an end, but it is an end in its own right. The way in which nature relates to living a more deliberate life differs between the two authors. Thoreau believes that nature will be the guide to a more deliberate life, and Abbey believes that living entirely in nature is living a deliberate life. Lastly, reading Thoreau through the lens of Abbey ultimately proves that Thoreau wants to take advantage of nature, and Abbey wants nature to take advantage of humans.
When describing the attractions of a property he says, “its complete retreatment, being about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by a broad field” (Thoreau 1024). Thoreau’s new home is two miles from the nearest town. Two miles isn’t extremely far away, but it isn’t significantly close either. His careful and deliberate planning allows him to be just the right distance from civilization while still experiencing nature. By acquiring a property two miles out of town, he is taking advantage of he fact that his house is in nature but still accessible to society. On the other hand, Abbey says, “let them out of the car, let them go scrambling over the rocks hunting for rattle snakes and scorpions and anthills- yes sir, let them out, turn them loose” (Abbey 233). Abbey wants the people visiting to be clueless and reckless He believes that people are taking what nature has so kindly offered them for granted. He practically begs the people to completely abandon society and live, live amongst the wilderness. Rattlesnakes, scorpions, and anthills are very dangerous, and children are very naïve. By letting children loose over the rocks with all the dangers near by, Abbey is practically calling for nature to take advantage of the children. When reading Thoreau
and Abbey against each other, the role of nature in living a more deliberate life becomes clear. Thoreau wants the human to take advantage of nature, where as Abbey wants nature to take advantage of the human. In conclusion, both Thoreau and Abbey have the basic philosophy of leaving society behind and living a more deliberate life, but what each author defines as a deliberate life varies based on what nature and society means to them. Thoreau believes in taking advantage of nature. His house that’s two miles away from society allows for him to simplify and make more time, while also balancing society in his life. Balancing nature and society will be a war, but doing so will make you go back to society as a wiser person. Thoreau is not misanthropic like Abbey; he still cares about other humans. His definition of living a more deliberate life is to use nature as a tool in order to live in society as a wiser person. Abbey believes in letting nature take advantage of humans. The simplification of complications in society allows for more time, and by completely surrendering to nature, time will be infinite. Abbey is completely cutting out the balance that Thoreau wants because Abbey doesn’t care for other humans. His definition of a deliberate life is a life free from society, and therefore, free from balance.
Nature for McCandless was something he knew very well, for he had been since he was small, always wanting to climb higher. When at home, he felt trapped and the wild served as a cleansing power for him. When arriving to alaska, McCandless wrote a declaration of independence, as Krakauer puts it, writing “Ultimate freedom. . . . Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return , ‘cause ‘the west is the best’”(163). McCandless felt like he had no home,so he made nature his own. Similarly, Thoreau explains, “i found myself suddenly neighbors to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them . . . to those smaller and more thrilling songsters of the forest”(9). Thoreau cherished nature and the endless possibilities it contained. Likewise, Thoreau 's house was a place in which he “did not need to go outdoors to take the air for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness”(9) This allowed Thoreau stay in touch with the wilderness without feeling captive in his own home. Both Thoreau and McCandless were attracted by nature and the clarity, freedom can bring to one’s
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is an autobiographical narrative written by naturalist Edward Abbey. Abbey composed the account based on his personal experiences as an employee for the United States Park Service at Arches National Monument in Utah. Abbey’s anecdotal account is nonlinearly comprised of occupational experiences and renditions of the region’s folklore. These illustrations analogous because they exhibit related themes and trends associated with the author’s experiences and beliefs.
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
In his journal, Thoreau muses upon twenty years of changes in New England’s land and beasts. He lists the differences in plants and animals, comparing them to past accounts and descriptions. He questions if the growing human presence has resulted in “a maimed and imperfect nature.” Cronon believes that this is an important question to consider. He points out that although changes do happen in nature, it is not so easy to determine how they changed. He is also not sure if Thoreau’s description of “a maimed and imperfect nature” is the correct way to refer to ecology, since it is by its essence, a fluid system of changes and reactions. Cronon does not deny the impact of
Both Thoreau and McCandless had a deep appreciation for solitude in nature. In Walden, Thoreau explains how he’d “... love to see Nature that is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence..” (Thoreau, Walden 238). While being on his “adventure”, Thoreau was able to observe all of the little things in nature, and appreciate all of the little things. While in civilization, one would not be able to notice such things because there are much too many people around to notice. While on his journey, McCandless “No longer.
The opening paragraph is an incredibly vivid account of nights spent by “the stony shore” of Walden Pond. His description of the animals around the pond, the cool temperature, and the gentle sounds of lapping waves and rustling leaves all serve to remove the idea that nature is a wild and unkempt world of its own, and instead makes it seem much more serene and graceful. Any who thought of Thoreau as an insane outdoorsmen may have even found themselves repulsed by the monotony and constant bustle of city life and longing for the serenity felt by Thoreau. This
Thoreau decided to go to the woods in order to avoid the social distractions of society and to find the real meaning of living life. He makes this idea very clear in the beginning of the book on pages 4 and 5 where he sees the problems in the world. He speaks
Thoreau went into the woods for many different reasons than McCandless. He decided to live in the woods so he could live deliberately. He desired to learn what life had to teach him and face only the essential facts of life without any other distractions. Going into the woods, would let him know that he had lived, so when he died, he wouldn’t regret never fully living. He wanted to figure out if this life in nature was mean or sublime. If it was mean, he hoped to publish his findings to the world, but if it was sublime, he would just know this knowledge and use it for his next excursion. Thoreau heavily believed in simplicity. He felt everything should be simplified, and that people were squandered by details. As he said, “ Simplicity, simplicity,
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.
He is unable to understand why they can’t leave nature alone. His frustration stems from the fact that so much valuable land is being destroyed, to accommodate the ways of the lazy. It seems as though he believes that people who are unwilling to enjoy nature as is don’t deserve to experience it at all. He’s indirectly conveying the idea that humans who destroy nature are destroying themselves, as nature is only a mechanism that aids the society. In Desert Solitaire Abbey reminds the audience, of any age and year of the significance of the wild, enlightening and cautioning the human population into consciousness and liability through the use of isolation as material to ponder upon and presenting judgments to aid sheltering of the nature he
The love for nature is one that is formed when young. Thoreau shows evidence of early development of a lifelong love for nature that he would carry with him in everything that he did. As a young boy of ten he was fond of walking deep into the woods that surrounded his home in Concord in search of solitude (Salt 18). Thoreau expressed an interest in living at Walden Pond at the age of ten (Salt 19). His love of nature can largely be credited to qualities inherited from his mother (Salt 22). It would rightfully be his love of nature that he would be remembered for.
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.
Both Thoreau and Emerson teach us, who live in a more narrowed and often polluted nature, to get rid of our false sense of control and superiority that is influenced by the contemporary trends and culture. They want us to discover our proper ethical and spiritual place in nature. We must remind ourselves now and then that we are not crucial to nature's health, yet our capacity to destroy the nature is growing and becoming more violent. The best of our human tendency, though, depends on our fostering behavior, caring and respectful relationships with the nature that provides us with so many beautiful resources. We are liable to serve the nature for it serves and cater our lives in return. That is wisdom beyond eternity.
In conclusion, by temporarily removing himself from society and thrusting himself into nature, we are better able to understand how Thoreau conveys his attitude towards life. He believes that in order to enjoy it one must free himself or herself from the high-tempo nature of society, live life more simplistically, and experience the reality that is hidden by all the things that are irrelevant in our
Henry David Thoreau implies that simplicity and nature are valuable to a person’s happiness in “Why I Went to the Woods”. An overall theme used in his work was the connection to one’s spiritual self. Thoreau believed that by being secluded in nature and away from society would allow one to connect with their inner self. Wordsworth and Thoreau imply the same idea that the simple pleasures in life are easily overlooked or ignored. Seeing the true beauty of nature allows oneself to rejuvenate their mentality and desires. When one allows, they can become closer to their spiritual selves. One of William Wordsworth’s popular pieces, “Tintern Abbey”, discusses the beauty and tranquility of nature. Wordsworth believed that when people