Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was not the most interesting writer in my opinion, but he did have his moments where he would catch my attention, but he also seemed to wander around at times.

He was a great observer, a naturalist. He always seemed to see things that others did not see, or did not take the time to see. He took amusement in the mouse in his home that was native, not introduced, and how an otter managed to grow to four feet long without a human getting a glimpse of the otter.

He also seemed to have a true, sincere respect and for nature. In Walden:, or Life in the Woods, he shows talks about the “ignorant or reckless” sportsman who leaves the innocent partridges to a fall a pray or decay. He almost takes respect to ownership when he talks about the hens and chickens being his. In Walking, he actually speaks for Nature, and says man is just an inhabitant or a part and parcel of Nature.

I feel that he believes in nature and that it should be respected. He actually says, “I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows.” He even goes further into his belief about nature by saying that the most alive is the wildest and that “all good things are wild and free”.

He comes off as a tree-hugger to me, so I definitely think that there is a place for him in today’s environmental movement, just maybe not one that is mainstream. I feel that he would like everything to go untouched and to be 100% in its natural setting and ways, which today is nearly impossible in certain aspects.