thoreau’sviewofnature(编辑修改稿)

thoreau’sviewofnature(编辑修改稿)内容摘要：

e formation of Thoreau39。 s view of nature. Cultural reasons Transcendentalism is a literary trends prevalent in the United States from 1830 to 1850. The key point of the thought advocates one can go beyond feelings and rationality and get to know the truth directly. Transcendentalism argues that the human world is a microcosm of the universe. “Believe in yourself”, this Emerson39。 s famous quote, became the motto of transcendentalists. This view emphasizes people39。 s initiative, lying the ideological foundation of romantic literature which expresses the individuality. Thoreau lived in the heyday of transcendentalism and was acquainted in Emerson during his study in Harvard in 1837, and finally worshiped Emerson as his teacher. Emerson praised Thoreau as the “forest seer”, “the minstrel of the natural year” and said: he witnessed many secrets of nature, “Others only listen and guess standing far across the dark bushes , but it39。 s all show to this philosopher” (Ralph Waldo Emerson 242245). Thoreau is indeed a minstrel of the natural year. In regard to nature, he accepted the point of view that everything has a spirituality. He believed that only by getting close to nature does human nature could be regained. 5 The content of Thoreau’s view of nature Here Thoreau’s view of nature is generalized into two parts: frist, all things in the world have a life。 second, humans should return to nature. All things on earth have lives To Thoreau, the beauty of nature lies in lives, stemming from the spirit of life. Nature has spirituality, and all the creatures existing in it have spiritualities. Life is beautiful. The existence of life reflects the spirit of the universe. We say nature is beautiful just because nature expresses life. Transcendentalists believe all things are spiritual and they praise highly on a mysterious nature point. Emerson once expressed: A natural phenomenon is the symbol of some kind of mental phenomena. Behind the nature, what imbued with the natural world is a spiritual presence(董衡巽 61). Obviously, Emerson thinks nature is only the existence of spirit, and nature itself is a map of spirit. In early days, Thoreau was affected by Emerson’s transcendental nature point, but later, he formed his unique insights and views gradually. Though Emerson laid out a new view point of nature, clarified the relationship between men and nature, he never had a passion like Thoreau that joined into the wilderness. Thoreau told us that only by getting close to nature and the wilderness could human experience the great power of nature and achieve true freedom and liberation, pursue the real meaning of life. Clearly, Thoreau’s view of nature jumped out the transcendentalism barriers。 he stressed that nature is the presence of a life rather than the presence of a spirit, which makes nature more real and more specific. He believed that the laws of nature are more unchangeable than any roles of the tyrant, but he holds a lenient attitude toward people’s life. “She allows people to release their moods in a pleasant summer day, and does not denounce their behaviors. She is tolerant and enlightened with people who picking up bad habit, and of course, she will not refuse to five 6 them ” (宇岭 19). In Thoreau’s eyes, nature is a simple and free existence。 she is not mysterious, not far from us, and we can feel her if we walk closer. As we said in the former part, Thoreau is a considerate person, His careful observation and accurate description are so amazing. “Daces, whose fishscale is soft and silvery, have graceful and elegant figure and looks like a scholar. Their beautiful figures often appear in the inside paper’s illustration of books of England . They prefer a flowing river and sandy bottom, biting the bait casually......”(宇岭 15). This kind of description can be seen everywhere in Thoreau’s book. It can be said that these detailed pictures are Thoreau’s harvest during his dialogue with nature. This spirit of dialogue presupposes recognition of all things is the existe nce of life. In this height, Thoreau poses the song which belongs to himself and the entire human race. In Thoreau39。 s life, his feelings to nature can be described by two words, that is, cherish and respect. He cherished the natural world, and he believed that this treasure can bring him endless enjoyment. In nature, everything is Thoreau39。 s friends: plants, mountains, water, all things could enter into his heart. Besides, Thoreau advocated dialogue between man and nature, he stressed that human being have no special privileges in front of nature. Human could municate with nature world. Through this conversation, human could know everything on the earth, and more important， know himself. Human be。