Thoreau Essay Research Paper The Power of

Thoreau Essay, Research Paper The Power of Nature in Walking In Walking , Thoreau uses wild and religious references to illustrate his own thoughts about the true Nature. Through these citations, Thoreau compares the tainted city culture to that of pure nature. The writing clarifies nature as a place of thought, where people s true feelings emerge. Lastly, Thoreau elucidates the Sacred located in Nature through strong religious allusions. First, Throeau uses wild and religious imagery to juxtapose the city, human culture, with the Nature that he claims to be pure. In the introduction to the text, Thoreau describes Nature as having absolute freedom, and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil (71). Right away, Thoreau makes it clear that the society of

man differs from the society in Nature. The Nature being described lies untouched and uncorrupted by man unlike the nature created by humans which remains tame and cheap (80). According to Thoreau, every time man upsets Nature, its value depreciates. The idea of man made nature disgusts Thoreau so greatly that he would rather reside in the Dismal Swamp , then dwell in the neighborhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art contrived (99). For a man to prefer the doldrums of the swamp than the beauty of a spring garden, truly exemplifies the contempt Thoreau has for unnatural Nature. As Thoreau saunters through Nature, he gathers his thoughts and becomes immersed in the scenery. In the city, where people are driven by the forces of greed and ambition, nothing is real,

and one can not truly be himself. The wildness that Thoreau refers to is the preservation of the world, (95) and Cities import it at any price (95). This personification of a wild force clearly exemplifies how man can lose oneself in Nature. Obviously Thoreau believes that the city lacks wildness , therefore, making it an inferior place to Nature. People who let the wild control them are being true to their aspirations in life, because they let Nature take them on their proper path. Thoreau states how the trapper s coat emits the odor of musquash, (96) which to him is a sweeter scent than that which commonly exhales from the merchant s or the scholar s garments (96). A merchant and scholar, common city people, reek of the city culture where people control each other. In Nature,

everyone moves on their own unattached to everything except the landscape surrounding them. According to Thoreau, eventually the wild will conquer over the created. He claims that the founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source (95). Nature doesn t choose people, people choose Nature by embracing its effervescent qualities. Thoreau wants everyone to feel Nature s force. Aside from epitomizing Nature as an escape from the city, Thoreau utilizes imagery to illustrate Nature as a place of thought. While immersed in Nature, man can think on his own without letting collective thinking influence his decisions. Thoreau feels that there is something in the mountain-air that feeds the spirit and inspires (91). In

effect, climate does thus react on man, (91) so by immersing oneself in the natural state, one s true thoughts can be ascertained. While in Nature, one s thoughts will be clearer, fresher and ethereal (93). Walking along landscape [that] is not owned, [the] walker enjoys comparative freedom (84). The wild and unknown force the walker to let his thoughts be free, whereas in society, issues of work and possession burden one s mind. While walking in Nature can be refreshing, people who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds (71). Thoreau describes a saunterer as someone who allows their mind to become a part of Nature and who seeks to find things in Nature. If someone walks simply to revive their body and not their mind, then they are