Swifts And Walden

Not everyone feels that nature and humanity should be viewed as a combined need, but in reality, what is humanity without nature? Some people understand that nature is a way of life, and they choose to go out and discover new things. For some, it is just simply relaxing, and for others, it is of high interest to know what Mother Nature has in store. In Henry David Thoreau’s story, from Walden, he realizes there is a lot more than what meets the eye between nature and humanity. He decides to find out all he can by living on Walden’s pond for a full year. In another story, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, he makes an accidental discovery in nature that totally reveals his thoughts on humanity, including his own wife and children. While both Thoreau’s Walden and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels help readers find some sort of satisfaction in learning more about the differences in nature and humanity, they also teach readers that nature is what each individual person can make of it. …show more content…
He wants people to connect with nature, not necessarily in the same way as he, but in a way they feel more comfortable and will be able to learn more about themselves. In one passage he states, “We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wandered” (78). He thinks that nature offers lessons only it can teach to the human soul. He makes a valid point when he says, “Is not our own interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered” (79). In other words, before a map became a map it was just a blank sheet of paper, until a few brave souls went out and explored the world to fill it up with these everyday places. Thoreau wants his readers to make use of the blank canvas’ they carry inside, so that like the coast, they can be discovered and may even become as