Nature In 'Walden' By Henry David Thoreau

re from a distance, but many authors, such as Thoreau, go to nature to try to find answers.
In “Walden”, Henry David Thoreau recounts his time living on his own in the wild. He moved into the woods with only the bare necessities as a sort of personal experiment, but also to assure himself that he wouldn’t die without ever living. He was immediately attracted to the Howell farm because of “its complete retirement”. Thoreau’s yearning for nature is parallel to Ishmael’s longing to go out to sea in “Moby Dick”. For both, it was was a necessary action to live more fully, implying that they recognised the reverence of nature; that it benefits us in ways other than the material things we can take from it. Nature can make our lives more meaningful in …show more content…
He knows his life is finite, or shallow, but that nature exists forever without humans. Nature is more than us in every way, but we can be a part of it. Thoreau left the woods after his second year there because he had several more lives to live, and he couldn’t “spare any more time for that one”. He states that the experiment taught him that by charging forward confidently in the direction of your dreams, you will become successful. This almost contradicts with a following direction that reads “however mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard times”. There he seems to be saying accept the life you are living, which is different than to take charge and make your dreams come true.
Ralph Waldo Emerson speculates particularly on the importance of yourself, or your inner soul. He believes that man is free to act for himself, and should act for himself. Even though he knew it was important to trust in others, he theorized that a man’s soul is the first and foremost place that trust should be put into. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron