Wilderness in the Eyes of a Contemporary and Thoreau.
(A comparison of the view of nature between Thoreau in his text, Walden and a person in today’s society.) People today seem to have many different views on nature and the purpose it serves us currently. Nature can be a place of horror and monsters, or a place of retreat, or simply something that exists. Widely, it appears that society now doesn’t have the appreciation of nature that was once held by our ancestors. Henry David Thoreau was one of America’s transcendentalists, had a profound respect for nature and what it could teach us. “…as with many generations of nature writers, including Henry David Thoreau…the lessons to be imparted are learned from long experience with and observation of nature,” (Dupler). Thoreau and his work, Walden, show a very different view of nature than common people of today’s society do. A person today might find that the way to success is dependent on their rate of work, Thoreau in, Walden, would disagree. While living at Walden for those …show more content…
Thoreau believed that living in nature would help him discover himself and his supposed purpose in life. “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life…” (pg. 383, line 8). He hoped that by living in nature, he would truly understand what life was, and this idea was one of the mind. “…urban dwellers with little access to green spaces have a higher incidence of psychological problems than people living near parks and that city dwellers who visit natural environments have lower levels of stress hormones immediately afterward than people who have not recently been outside,” (Reynolds). From the statements above, it can be concluded that Thoreau, and people of today would agree on the benefit of being in
(A comparison of the view of nature between Thoreau in his text, Walden and a person in today’s society.) People today seem to have many different views on nature and the purpose it serves us currently. Nature can be a place of horror and monsters, or a place of retreat, or simply something that exists. Widely, it appears that society now doesn’t have the appreciation of nature that was once held by our ancestors. Henry David Thoreau was one of America’s transcendentalists, had a profound respect for nature and what it could teach us. “…as with many generations of nature writers, including Henry David Thoreau…the lessons to be imparted are learned from long experience with and observation of nature,” (Dupler). Thoreau and his work, Walden, show a very different view of nature than common people of today’s society do. A person today might find that the way to success is dependent on their rate of work, Thoreau in, Walden, would disagree. While living at Walden for those …show more content…
Thoreau believed that living in nature would help him discover himself and his supposed purpose in life. “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life…” (pg. 383, line 8). He hoped that by living in nature, he would truly understand what life was, and this idea was one of the mind. “…urban dwellers with little access to green spaces have a higher incidence of psychological problems than people living near parks and that city dwellers who visit natural environments have lower levels of stress hormones immediately afterward than people who have not recently been outside,” (Reynolds). From the statements above, it can be concluded that Thoreau, and people of today would agree on the benefit of being in