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重点论文网    文科论文    英语论文    解读《瓦尔登湖》中梭罗的自然观
创建时间:06-04

解读《瓦尔登湖》中梭罗的自然观


A STUDY OF THOREAU’S VIEW ON NATURE IN HIS WALDEN
摘    要
亨利·大卫·梭罗是十九世纪美国超验主义作家,当代环境主义运动先行者。在他的代表作《瓦尔登湖》中,梭罗记录了他在瓦尔登湖与大自然亲密接触的两年中对自然和人类深刻的思考。本文着重对梭罗复杂的自然观进行分析,旨在发现其对正处于环境与精神危机的现代人的启示。最后得出结论:自然和人类的关系是和谐的;自然既是人类生活的家园,又是人类心灵的归宿。梭罗外表简朴但内心丰富的生活是现代人生活的典范。


关键词:自然观;超验主义;东方哲学思想;印第安文化

 
AB ABSTRACT
Henry David Thoreau is the 19th century American writer of transcendentalism and the pioneer of modern environmentalism. In his representative work Walden, Thoreau records his profound reflections on nature during his two-year communion with nature at Walden. The thesis focuses on the analysis of Thoreau's complicated view of nature, trying to find out its implications for modern people who are suffering from environmental and spiritual crises. In the end of the paper, a conclusion can be drawn that the relationship between nature and man is harmonious; nature is both our living people home and spiritual home. Thoreau has set a good example for modern outwardly simple and inwardly rich life.

Keywords:Natural view; Transcendentalism; Oriental philosophy; American Indian culture

 

Contents
1. Introduction    1
2. Background of Walden    2
2.1 Social background and values of Thoreau's age    2
2.2 Thoreau's life experience    3
3. Sources of Thoreau's thoughts    4
3.1 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s influence    4
3.2 Oriental philosophy    5
3.3 American Indian culture    6
4. The connotation of Thoreau’s view on nature    7
4.1 To value each living being    8
4.2 To return to harmony with nature    9
4.3 Life of simplicity and spirit of diversity    10
5. The influence of Thoreau’s view    12
5.1 The pioneer of ecological literature    12
5.2 Inspiration for spirit and environmental crisis    13
6.Conclusion    15
Acknowledgements    16
References    17
 
1. Introduction

Henry David Thoreau is the 19th century American writer of transcendentalism and the pioneer of modern environmentalism. In his representative work Walden, Thoreau records his profound reflections on nature during his two-year communion with nature at Walden. However, the ideas in the book go beyond his age and are thus ignored by his contemporaries. His published writings have few readers and little impact on his life. Not until the development of environmentalism, Thoreau is rediscovered in the later period of the 20th century. His living experiment at Walden has become myth in people's imagination and the masterpiece Walden recording his thought on the relationship of man and nature is considered one of the greatest classics in nature writing, and one of the greatest books that shaped American mind.
With the development of modern civilization, nature has suffered devastation. Today, nature is giving place to material goods, which renders people helpless on a spiritual wasteland. Cherishing the memory of the good, old days and the dream to return to nature, modern people are in search of freedom and peace of the soul and a spiritual distillation, which is available only when man stays in harmony with nature. Walden is a book which propagates the harmonious coexistence between man and nature and transmits to human race "where he went wrong" and how he might "recapture the rhythm of life and the love of the simple things of life"[1]5. 
 
2. Background of Walden

“When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months” [2]5. 
With these words, Henry David Thoreau began his experiment of simple living at Walden Pond. Thoreau outlined his philosophy of life, politics, and nature in his work Walden. Before approaching this great book, I think it helpful and significant to take into consideration the background of Thoreau's time in which Walden was produced. 
  
2.1 Social background and values of Thoreau's age

Thoreau lived in an age of great development. Northern area was being transformed by the industrial revolution, cheap transportation and migratory movements. Southern area was readjusting itself to the cotton plantation tilled by slaves. It was America's busy age, or one of them. Each northern community was an ant-hill, intensely active within, and constantly exchanging ants with the other hills. Every man worked, or at least made a semblance of it; the few who wished to idle, and could afford idleness, fled from the opprobrium of loafing to Europe, where they swelled the chorus of complaint against democratic institutions. The Northern American had not learned how to enjoy leisure, their pleasure coming from doing things. The Northern and Western states were a land where dreams of youth came true, where the majorities were doing what they wished to do without class or official restraint. Half the population was engaged in realizing the ambition of frustrated peasant ancestors for a farm of their very own, clear of rent. The other half, having obtained the farm, had got tired of it and, like the boy who lost interest in his home-made radio, had turned to some other occupation or had taken up pioneering again. Under this historical background, Thoreau attempted to find the purpose of people's spiritual life.

2.2 Thoreau's life experience
    Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817, in what he thought "the most estimable place all over the world, and in the very nick of time, too"[3]3. 
Thoreau's family ran a small pencil factory, neither wealthy nor poor. Henry David Thoreau was the third of four children in the family. The Thoreaus were a closely-knit family and gave the young Henry and his brothers and sisters the feeling of security so essential to a happy childhood. John Thoreau, the father and Mrs. Thoreau had a common interest in nature, an interest they were later to share with all their children. The mother, eager to foster a love of nature in her children, often took them out into the dooryard to call their attention to the songs of the wild birds, and this sowed a love seed of nature in young Henry’s heart.                
Although Thoreau's family was not wealthy, yet Mrs. Thoreau had an abiding desire that her children receive the best possible education within their reach. So Young Henry Thoreau got a good education. In the summer of 1833, Thoreau took his entrance examinations and barely squeezed through to Harvard College. Despite his poor performance in his entrance examinations, Thoreau was consistently an above-average student at Harvard. He won small "exhibition money" grants from the Harvard Corporation for several times because of good grades. Learning at Harvard prepared for Thoreau a good knowledge foundation for his future, although he was wont to disparage the importance of his college training.
    Thoreau held deep love for his hometown. Concord was always in his mind throughout his four years at Harvard. So he returned to Concord after graduation when he resigned refusing to use corporal punishment in teaching. For some time, there were no more promising opportunities available, so Thoreau went to work in his father's pencil factory. Because of his effor

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