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Relation of man with nature by emerson
Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau
Relation of man with nature by emerson
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Compare and contrast the relationship between man and nature in Emerson and Thoreau?
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25th, 1803 and died on April 1882. He was a poet, lecturer and essay writer. Slowly he started to disbelieve in his religion and social believes and started to study philosophy like Plato (Transcendental, nature). Keeping in mind his philosophy studies he gave a speech on “The American scholar” in 1837. Only during 1932 “The American Scholar” became the most popular magazine, where a speech was declared by Emerson to the people of America and his speech became one of the best sellers and had won many awards. Thoreau began writing during 1840s with the help of Emerson as his teacher and friend as well. He was known for his opinions about Transcendentalism during those days. Both of them wrote many poems about Nature. Emerson and Thoreau consider that nature is what forces them not to depend on others idea but to develop their own. Which inspired themselves and encouraged others to write on their own? The relationship between Emerson and Thoreau on man and nature has implemented their own ideas but have similar ideas at some extended and both of them learned from each other.
According to Thoreau, "I wanted...to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion" (Thoreau 235). He takes Emerson’s advice were he says, "Let us demand our own works and laws and worship" (Emerson 215). Emerson tells that people depend upon possessions or effects that was told by ancestors and doesn’t put hard work. Neither people take what on earth our lineages and others before us have told and we don’t think twice about whether we should try new ways or path for ourselves nor do what they did....
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... Thoreau describes the coming of spring as a vast transformation of the face of the world, a time when all sins are forgiven.
Works Cited
Study mode (October 1999). A Comparison of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s Beliefs. Retrieved from on April 18, 2014 from
http://www.studymode.com/essays/a-Comparison-Of-Henry-David-Thoreau-15625.html
Titties (n.d.). A COMPARISON BETWEEN RALPH WALDO EMERSON & HENRY DAVID THOREAU? Retrieved from
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid= 20080121080515AAI5fuJ
Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, life in the woods. Retrieved from
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm
Emerson, R. W. (1907). The American scholar. In Essays. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-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.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
Thoreau distinguishes what he wishes his life was; he compares what he wants out of life to what he currently has. He says “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” He makes note of how dear and important life is, and how he wishes to live in a way which he hadn’t been before, by making the most out of the life he has left.
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.
How people see one another vary in numerous ways, whether it be from actions or what is gathered through spoken conversations. When an intellectual meets someone for the first time, they tend to judge by appearance before they judge by how the person express their thoughts or ideas. In Thoreau’s excerpt, he emphasizes the importance of his philosophy, especially by making sure the reader is aware of his own feelings about it. He puts literary devices such as metaphors, personification, and imagery to construct his explanation for his philosophy as well as provide several attitudes to let the reader identify how he feels towards people and the value of their ideas.
Many people who happen to fall into the cultural norms find Thoreau's statement to be intimidating. The way they view the world is extremely sheltered they do not choose this, it is jus t the way they are. They have always viewed the world through a screen that filters what they see. This screen is different for each individual depending on his or her cultural background and/or home environment. These factors along with many others create the screen by which they see the world.
Thoreau wasn't one to take advantage of what the world had to offer and just took life for what it was, all while following his motto of doing what was right. Thoreau sees the miracles of the world similarly to the Whitman poem because there isn't a limit to what can be appreciated. There are quite a few modern views that compare well to Thoreau. As they take that step away from society defined by technology and progression and just take a look at the bigger picture, one of these approaches is the recent Occupy Wall Street movement.
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.
While Emerson never truly factored his transcendentalist ideals into his daily life, Thoreau made a point out of living out his days as a man free from society and connected to nature. In 1846, he refused to pay his poll tax to the government because he believed the war was unjust and did not want to support the government. In doing this, he showed that he remains strong in his own beliefs and will not agree with something just to conform to society. He also showcases Emerson’s philosophy on learning by forming beliefs based on his own life and morals, which were based in nature, receiving instruction from Emerson’s ideas on self-reliance, and taking action against something he believes is unjust. In an excerpt from one of Thoreau’s books, he 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, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau 16). What he is saying through this is that he wants to evaluate himself in the context of nature and understand what life is like in its purest and fundamental form. He hoped to gain a knowledge of the world and explore what nature had to offer and learn from his experience. Also, Thoreau is letting his readers know that connecting with nature is essential in finding yourself and
...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.
"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."
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.
In 1817 Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts. While living with his family Thoreau drove his mother 's cow to the pastures where he became interested in certain aspects of nature and of certain delights of solitude. Later in life Thoreau studied at Harvard University, where he mastered in Greek and Latin languages. During the 1840’s Thoreau gained a friendship and mentor, whose name is Ralph Waldo Emerson who is also a poet. While working with Emerson
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...