Book of Concord

Henry David Thoreau wrote in a time of change and ages past. Every era is opposed to the ones preceding and succeeding itself, but the Romantics were truly a group who hearkened to an old tune; one of integrated civilization and nature in medieval times. When he wrote Walden, Thoreau wrote about his own experiences in the natural world and how it changed him. In his writing, Thoreau explains why one should live deliberately. He actively argues to convince the reader to do so. Even today,…

The word ‘environment’ descends to us from French. The word was created around the year 1600 and meant “The conditions in which a person or thing lives” aka the ‘stuff’ around us1. This is a deeply anthropocentric understanding of nature, yet at the same time it denotes a deep intimacy with nature. Most people during the medieval period were peasants; as a peasant nature was of paramount importance, its presence all-encompassing. In class, we discussed the notion that in traditional agricultural…

In 2003, psychologist, Suniya S. Luthar performed a case study on adolescents brought up by both high and low socioeconomic income families. The aim of this experiment was to explore possible contrasts between the affluent and low-income adolescents. The upper-class youth reported remarkably higher levels of anxiety and depression. Anxiety of the white-collar families scored a 24% versus the normal average: 17%. Similarly, the wealthy male youth tested 59% for the use of illicit drugs…

The world is a buzzing place with endless sites to see, people to meet and possessions to own. The problem with this buzzing society, is that we forget to live in the moment, and enjoy each day to the fullest. People are consumed with worrying about how much they ‘have’, which can leave them competitive, materialistic, selfish, and forgetting what is really important. Henry David Thoreau believes to combat this, people need to simplify their lives, minimize the amount of friends they have, meals…

Thoreau decision to move to Walden Pond is a culmination of his transcendentalist ideals. He chose to live in simplicity and sounded by the natural world which he found to be incredibly stimulating. His time spent at Walden lead to his publishing of a book summarizing his time spent at Walden Pond and the revelations he made about spiritual rebirth, living deliberately and self-reliance. Walden was first published in 1854 and recounts his thoughts on the two years he spent…

A Place to Lay One’s Head From my house up on the ridge, if the cottonwood leaves below have fallen away in the autumn, you can see another smallish house straddling the thin line of the village river. It is tucked between the river and cottonwoods on one side and the wild field that my father sometimes plants with corn, wheat and rye on the other. I started building it about five years ago right around Christmas break from school. It is a pit house so the beginnings of it really weren’t about…

In the essay “Conclusion” from his book Walden, Thoreau discusses what he learned through his experience of isolating himself and living in the woods. Thoreau writes, “Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.…

Transcendentalism Comparison Essay In the late 1820s and the 1830s, there was an intellectual movement called transcendentalism, the forerunner of this school of thought was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Throughout his writings and multiple essays, he explained it as a way of life in which all knowledge is derived from within and from nature. It focuses on intuitiveness, self-reliance, honoring the uniqueness of your individual person, being free-thinking, and the fact that spiritual understanding is…

The Naturalism in Jack London’s The Law of Life In “The Law of Life”, Jack London expressed a life law by using old Koshooh’s whole life experience. Jack London was a famous naturalist novelist in the 19th century, and he was greatly influenced by Darwin's "survival of the fittest" and Spencer's evolution theory (Donald, Pizer)从哪里开始quote呢？加一个mark. He thought that nature decided the fate of mankind, and he believed that human should fight with brutal nature. In this story, 自然主义表现得非常清晰it mainly…

Transcendentalism is widely known throughout the world and some people believe themselves to be transcendentalists even to this day. Most know transcendentalism to be a movement started in the nineteenth century; it is a idealistic philosophical and social movement. Beliefs of a transcendentalist consist of but are not limited to: being a nonconformist, nature is spiritual, inspirational and symbolic, self-reliance is important and following personal beliefs is the key to a happiness and leads…