Thoreau's Obsession With Nature

Henry David Thoreau is a writer that is obsessed with nature. To Thoreau nature is just more than trees, dirt, and animals. Nature is about the spiritual connection your soul can have. How nature makes you feel and forget about the realities of life is what's important to him. He begins his writing, Walking (1862), saying "I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil-To regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature rather than a member of society" (Pg. 885). What I believe he is trying to say is that in nature everyone is free. Free meaning that there is no suffering you can be at peace with yourself and spiritually connect with what nature brings. …show more content…
He watched internal distances increase, as walking precedes time and is its once necessary of condition of possibility" (Swensen, 10). The explanation of this is that Thoreau refers to the woods as the wild, which can mean a lot of things. For instance, when I think of the wild or wilderness I think of isolation. You are away form the world and it's just you and nature. When Henry goes on his walks it's more of finding a spiritual connection with himself and nature. In the passage he says, "I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit" (Pg. 889). While reading I really connected to this quote. What he is saying is that he is physically in the wilderness but he spiritually and mentally isn't there. I feel like this sometimes when I'm in public spaces, for example, When I'm at school functions such as homecoming I feel invisible, like I don't actually belong. I normally go to these types of things to make others feel happy but I don't really enjoy going to crowded