Emerson And Wharton Essay

Author, Henry David Thoreau and Mary Oliver are both very passionate about nature and what it has to offer in life, as well as the symbolism behind nature and its creatures in their works of literature, in “Walden”, and “The House of Light”, Both authors discuss their views of nature and the beauty of the world that they want to make familiar to their audience. In this essay, I’ll provide my reasoning behind this statement.

“Nature” is an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and published by James Munroe and Company in 1836. [1] “Nature” has a total of 41 pages. The essay consists of eight parts: Nature, Commodity, Beauty, Language, Discipline, Idealism, Spirit and Prospects. Each part takes a different perspective on the relationship between humans and nature. In this essay, Emerson emphasizes the foundation of transcendentalism, “a religious and philosophical movement that developed during the late 1820s and 30s in the Eastern region of the United States as protest against the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism.” [2] “Transcendentalism suggests that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and suggests that reality can be understood by studying nature.” [3] “Transcendentalism is closely related to Unitarianism, the dominant religious movement in Boston at the early nineteenth century. Transcendentalism evolved as an organic consequence of the Unitarian emphasis on free conscience and the value of intellectual reason.” [4] Emerson divides nature into four stages: commodity, beauty, language, and discipline. These define the ways by which humans use nature for their basic needs. The historical significance of “Nature” was that transcendentalism club led the celebration of the American experiment as one of the individualism and self-reliance. [5]

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the giants during the 19th century American Transcendentalism movement. Their influential work brought upon shared beliefs on concerning spiritual perspectives, government interference, and the ideology of cultural values in American society. Nature has a multitude of meaning if looked at it from all angles, but deeper within nature is the reflection of what you exert while in it. However they agree on the human condition, the two authors speak with different tones that reflect how nature affects the entirety of man’s spirit. While both Emerson and Thoreau practice the spirit of the human condition, Emerson focused his energy on how “[nature’s] philosophical import [is]…unchanged by man” (215.) where Thoreau implied that we are “subjects of an experiment” (1051).

Emerson and Bryant both have a similar idea on how nature can affect a person’s life. Emerson shows his idea in one his writings Nature when he says “to speak truly, few adults person can see nature… in the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows… in the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (Emerson). This reveals the gift/amazement Emerson believes nature possess. He believes that only a few can see nature because only a few people have deep intellectual thinking that allows them to see past the surface and grasps the benefits/value of nature. The gift nature possess to him is the affect that it can have on an individual’s mood. He finds a connection with nature that he doesn’t in the streets or villages. This is because he doesn’t find the same gift in other places like he does in nature. He finds something

The attitude of the narrator in the prose passage by Ralph Waldo Emerson towards nature is that of pure admiration. He is very found of nature and appreciates its ethereal beauty. Emerson makes use of the literary devices of metaphor, symbolism and personification to help readers understand this admiration. One example of a metaphor Emerson uses is when he states that “nature never wears a mean appearance” (Emerson).

In the article “Nature”, Emerson displays the values of nature, and why man cannot grasp the true significance of nature without being in solitude. By presenting the real beauty of nature in a multitude of ways, the author supports his reasoning with valid evidence. Ultimately, the article is intended to render the reader various thoughts about the value of nature. First and foremost, relating to the novel Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s journey into nature reflects the one depicted by Emerson in varied ways. For example, Montag took time when he was alone to really look at the stars, is described by Emerson when he states, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore” (Lewis).

Emerson encourages the eminence of nature saying, “But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate him between him and vulgar things.” This quote exemplifies how nature affects man as it clears his mind and makes him a wiser person. Nature could help society as it brings one closer to Earth and aids the population in having a further understanding of life. Thoreau elaborates this idea saying, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…” Thoreau's idea of nature shows how it can teach us the ways of life.

Transcendentalist has a handful of principals from self-reliance to the thought of technology is harmful.The main tenet throughout the paper will focus on the importance of nature. Transcendentalist views nature as a gateway to the spiritual world, a way to the Omnipower. Henry David Thoreau immersed himself into nature fully “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it”(Thoreau II). Thoreau reveals how he has taken the time to observe nature to its fullest extent. He saw nature as a neighbor who was to be respected just as a man would treat another. Ralph Waldo Emerson a great transcendentalist, a mentor to Thoreau. Emerson’s point of view of nature showed how men and nature can become one to uplift themselves from the worldly shackles. Thoreau and Emerson both had a concept that nature was essentials to mankind, one sought out to respect it and the other viewed as a form of release.Nature is important to transcendentalism because it leads to spiritual connection and harmonization.

As emerging leaders of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson and Thoreau both rejected previous beliefs of intellectualism and spirituality. They shared a deep love of nature and appreciation for the natural world. Emerson expresses in his writing of “Nature” that all questions about the divine, God and nature itself can be answered through one’s experience and study of nature. Thoreau expresses a similar love for Nature in his writings of “Walden”. Written during a time when he lived among nature in a cabin on Walden Pond. He takes time to appreciate the change of the seasons and the animals which he encounters. He writes “I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (906). They both stressed the importance of intuition and individuality. They shared the belief

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” is sometimes referred to as the Gospel of Transcendentalism because it set a foundation for Transcendentalism that subsequent writers could use as an example. “Nature” searches for truth in the individual. It establishes as idealist tone in the story, which means it sees that everything can be made better. However, Emerson’s idealist ideas, in contrast to the theories of other writers, perceive the view of the world with God.

Furthermore, he evokes the notion of the embodiment of nature and how few are able to see it; claiming the ones capable of perceiving such enlightenment are the ones who retain a benevolent innocent spirit—such as child—and who has retained the concept in times of adulthood—the poet. The mind of a child responds emotionally rather than sensorial. As a final remark in Emerson’s first chapter of nature, he states: in order for man to see nature plainly and receive the benefits one must push aside the old ways of thinking and egotism to become, as Emerson states, a transparent eyeball. ‘I am nothing, I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am a part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental” (______). This form of vision represents the primary benefit of Nature, a form of ultimate transcendency where there is a spiritual real of reason beyond material understanding. Humanistic delight in the landscapes, which is made up of many forms, provides an example of this integrated vision in which the universal entity transmits itself into one’s consciousness and makes one sense oneness with God. Nature, is thereby a metaphor of the mind in Emerson’s eyes.

Nature has always been a constant influence in the history of man. Whether it is appreciated, revered, ignored, or acknowledged, nature has been a prominent force throughout history. Analyzing literature across the years reveals the many different relationships man has had with nature. Despite it’s different interpretations, nature is a recurring theme from Native American literature, to Romanticism and its subcategory of Gothic Romanticism, to Transcendentalism, and to Realism.

Emerson and Hawthorne both focused on nature and how humans affected it, but Emerson wrote more about being optimistic than Hawthorne, whom was more of a dark romanticism writer. In the essay "Nature", Ralph Waldo says, " But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give a man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime"(Emerson 11). This quote demonstrates how Emerson focuses on the feel of nature to oneself being one with nature. Previously he talks about how nature offers solitude and how we should take advantage of it instead of ignoring what the world has to offer.

Nature and wilderness were very important ideas to some extant for St. John de Crevecoeur and Ralph Waldo Emerson, each had their own opinions and ideas that contrasted against each other and were somewhat similar to each other. Emerson who valued it and looked at the nature as something to proud of had used it many times in his works as examples and that we are part of nature as well and make whatever choices from it as it can from us. While Crevecoeur believes that in every land it has its own form of culture as it does its own kind of nature, and describes how the land and nature was then and how it will be giving details of it in his pieces of work. How they use and see nature is described equally important in both their works “the American Scholar” and “What is an American” but shows how different their views really are in them.

The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the heart of a child (Emerson, Page 898). Bryant also discusses nature as a beautiful and elegant part of life. She has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty (Bryant, lines 4-5) Bryant describes nature as majestic also.