Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay 'Nature'

The rhythm of this quote is simply soothing and majestic. I definitely agree with him in the aspect that one can find his inner self through nature. Not through pollution, cities, nor materialism. Emerson’s last nine words are what influenced me the most because man himself carries the Earth in his back. We all bleed blood, are made of soil, breathe oxygen, and has inner beauty the way nature does.

In the adventures of Buddha, my retreat to a lake house in Maine, and Cheryl`s 1000 mile journey through the Pacific Trail in Wild represent ways that nature can teach you something when you travel back to the wilderness. In ancient times Buddha began as a young man who had everything and gave it all up to discover his true self. The Buddha

Nature is an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and published in 1836. The importance of this work is that transcendentalism arose with this art of work. Transcendentalism is mainly a combination of

“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).

He personifies nature as a human being by giving him the ability to hug and give warmth to others. He also says that people should have no worries in him because the beauty of nature is not the temporary happiness of sadness that life brings you, but the ability to breathe in air. The ability to stand up and walk. Nature has the ability to bring the best out of the worst. The narrator also says that people can truly see nature when they are isolated from society due to the fact that they can think take their time to analyze

Throughout many writings, authors use analogies to compare two indicated topics to one another in a more detailed evaluation. Analogies help the reader to grasp the indicated topics the author compares, giving the reader a further knowledgeable understanding of the comparison. Ralph Waldo Emerson uses numerous analogies throughout many of his writings to create a smooth assessment of the subject stipulated. The analogies used throughout Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writing entitled “Nature” gives the reader more knowledge of the topics, a comparable similarity of the given topics and how the given topics interact together to further explicate the comparison.

Nature is the accessible feature that brings an individual back to his center of life.

Chris McCandless probably wasn’t the first to think, “When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it.” In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and the short story “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, they both have the belief that by living off of nature and preserving it, the closer one will come to understanding the nature of nature.

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.

Albert Einstein once said, “Look deep into nature, then you will understand everything better.” Nature is something that often gets taken advantage of, and people tend to forget it’s true beauty. In this prose passage, Ralph Waldo Emerson uses figurative language, comparison, and contrast to illustrate his appreciative attitude toward nature Emerson uses a great deal of figurative language to reveal his appreciative attitude toward nature.

This theme is shown by the imagery of youth in “Nature”, the importance of the boot plant to Wall-E, and the value that both place on living life in sync with nature. Emerson’s “Nature” shows that once you find your solitude in nature you can finally realize the importance of nature. Emerson writes, “Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece”(Emerson). Nature is a good place to be. Whether it is to think, to remember, or a place you can be eternally

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an inspirational and passionate transcendentalist writer, had an immense amount of respect for the world around him. In Nature Emerson writes, “I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all” (1). Emerson respect for nature is apparent when he uses this quote to show his enjoyment of being in nature among the landscape and animals. Observing nature is all Emerson wants to accomplish; he does not wish to change nature or obstruct it in any way. Emerson shows that in nature he enjoys closely watching the birds sing in the trees, the bees buzz amongst the flowers, and the wind whistling in his face.