Thoreau
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
They are the happy one's because their soul has found Nature, and they become "surrounded by the raw material of life" (97). 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 wants everyone to feel Nature's force. Nature is the holiest place, not the man made chapels, but the environment. Just as Thoreau directs people towards individualism through Nature, he applies religious allusions to Nature, in order to shed light on the Sacred in Nature. 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). It is a reflection of God which people can tangibly experience. Thoreau feels that "there is something in the mountain-air that feeds the spirit and inspires" (91). This type of crude nature can not be examined by just any settler, but by only those who choose to endure its wildness. Even a desolate place like a swamp can be viewed as "a sacred place-a sanctum sanctorum" (100). While in Nature, one's thoughts will be "clearer, fresher and ethereal" (93). A merchant and scholar, common city people, reek of the city culture where people control each other. There is a clear pathway through Nature that Thoreau believes people should attempt to follow. In the city, where people are driven by the forces of greed and ambition, nothing is real, and one can not truly be himself.
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Acceptance Essays
