Comparing Thoreau And Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau and Waldo Emerson were firm believers in transcendentalism, and this was reflected in their writing. These authors believed that transcendentalism exemplifies nature because of its self reliance and individuality. Walden, and Nature, written by Thoreau and Emerson, shows how these authors were believers in transcendentalism, and the idea that living a simple life and celebrating the truth found in nature can spark emotion and imagination. Emotion and imagination are felt very strongly in Nature, written by Emerson. Emerson writes about an occult relationship between man and vegetable and the harmony of both. He expresses feelings that there is nothing in life that nature cannot repair. “There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.” (Emerson 10-11) Here Emerson expresses emotion, because he is saying that no problem big or small cannot be solved by the power of nature. Emerson shows his imagination in Nature by saying a man is always a child in the woods. “In the woods too, a man casts off his …show more content…
Living a simple life is a main point Thoreau tries to drive across in his writing. He believes that we should live like nature, and not fret and worry about every little thing. “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.” (Walden 95-96) Thoreau comes to the realization that he has not truly lived until he lived in the woods. He writes how if you follow your dreams and endeavors you will be successful and fulfilled. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”