卢梭瓦尔登湖毕业论文Thoreau's--walden

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　2012 届

　 分 类 号 ：I106

　 单位代码 ：10452

　 某某大学

　毕业论文（设计）

　 敬畏生命 ：

　梭罗《瓦尔登湖》的主题分析

　姓

　名

　 某某某

　学

　号

　 200804690943

　 年

　级

　8 2008 级 级 0 10 班

　 专

　业

　英语

　 系 （院）

　 外国语学院

　指导教师

　某某某

　2012 年 4 月 20

　日

　Reverence f f or Life ：

　A Thematic Analysis of H. D. Thoreau ’ s Walden

　 A Thesis Submitted to Foreign Languages School of

　 xxxx University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

　 By Xxxx

　Supervisor：

　xxxx

　April 20, 2012

　Acknowledgements Many people have contributed to the writing of this dissertation by providing me their invaluable time, feedbacks, comments and critiques. First and foremost, I would emphasize my greatest debt to Professor Gu Huiping, my advisor, who painstakingly went through the early drafts and provided generously detailed criticism. Without her advice and constant encouragement, it would be impossible for me to achieve the completion of this dissertation. Her expertise and patience gives this thesis more chances to be improved and polished. Deeply impressed by her kindness and strict style, I believe that her influence on me will be lifelong.

　I would also like to express my appreciation to my classmates for their selfless assistance and patience in helping me at any time.

　At last, I feel much obliged to my dear parents, who have brought me and support me all the time. No words can fully express my sincere love and gratitude for them.

　Abstract At present, the ecological crisis is becoming more and more serious and it is a fact that people are chasing material wealth blindly with no attention to the needs from heart,

　therefore, it is of great educational significance to explore Thoreau’s attitudes towards life embodied in his works

　Walden . Here the paper attempts to illuminate Thoreau’s life philosophy from three perspectives: returning to simplicity, eco-centric equality and pursuit of spiritual independence, which points out that Thoreau’s idea of a good life is to live a simple, free life and to live with nature harmoniously. Thus, it provides a good way for people to get rid of spirit crises and to deal with nature correctly. Key Words: Thoreau;

　Walden ; simplicity; equality; spiritual independence

　摘要 面对生态危机日益严重以及人们只顾追求物质利益忽视心灵需求的现实，探讨梭罗《瓦尔登湖》中所蕴含的对待生命的态度具有重要的教育意义。本文通过回归简单，万物平等，精神独立三个方面阐述梭罗的哲学人生观，指出梭罗所追求的理想生活是简单自由，与自然和谐共处的生活，这为当代人摆脱精神危机, 正确处理好人与自然的关系指明了道路。

　关键词：梭罗；《瓦尔登湖》；简单；平等；精神独立

　Table of Contents

　 Acknowledgements ............................................................ i Abstract ................................................................... ii 摘要 ...................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................ 1 Chapter One Henry David Thoreau and Walden

　.................................. 3 1.1 Thoreau’s Life Experience ............................................ 3 1. 2 A Brief Introduction to Walden

　....................................... 4 Chapter Two Thoreau’s Views of Life ........................................ 6 2.1 Returning to Simplicity ............................................... 6 2.2 Eco-centric Equality .................................................. 8 2.3 Pursuit of Spiritual Independence .................................... 10 Chapter Three The Legacy of Walden

　......................................... 13 3.1 Influences on Ecological Literature .................................. 13 3.2 Influences on People’s Life Concept ................................. 15 Conclusion ................................................................. 18 Works Cited ................................................................ 19

　Introduction Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is an outstanding American nature writer, philosopher, and environmental scientist. His masterpiece, Walden , depicts the beauty of nature and is not only a personal experiment with a natural life but also a holistic philosophy of the relationship between man and nature. At present, the ecological crisis is becoming more and more serious and it is a fact that people are chasing material wealth blindly with no attention to the needs from heart; therefore, it is of great educational significance to explore Thoreau’s attitudes toward life embodied in his

　Walden .

　After the mid-1990s, some important research monographs on ecocriticism were published in America, such as, Rebecca Stefoff’s The American Environmental Movement , Lawrence Buell’s The Environmental Imagination : Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture

　and

　The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology

　collaborated by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm and Jonathan Bate’s Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and Environmental Tradition , Christopher Belshaw’s Environmental Philosophy: Reason, Nature and Human Concern

　, Which points out that Thoreau is today considered as the first major interpreter of nature in American literary history, and the first American environmentalist saint. The research development on ecocriticism in England could be represented by Laurence Coupe’s The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to Ecocriticism . And recent critical work includes David M. Robinson’s Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism

　(2004) and Greg Garrard’s Ecocriticism

　and David Mazel’s A Century of Early Ecocriticism . Not until 1949 was Walden

　introduced into China. Its first Chinese version was translated by the famous Chinese writer Xu Chi, who regarded it as both a book full of life wisdom and a book embodied with

　vivid and beautiful description about nature. Thoreauvian study in China mainly focus on Thoreau’s idea about nature, highly praising his respect for nature and further affirming his important role in eco-literature such as Chen Kai’s The Ecological Ideology: Thoreau’s View on Nature , and Guan Chunhua’s Thoreau and Nature: Reflections on

　Thoreau’s Walden Pound . The first monograph on Euro-American Ecological Literature in China by Wang Nuo was published in 2003 by Beijing Press University. However, up to now, most of the studies are just focus on the interpretation of Thoreau’s works on ecology but do not make deep exploration concerning the life philosophy in his Walden , which can give people direction of the way of living in which people should take in the future and how to respect humans’ life and nature, So, the present paper will specifically analyze this point in Walden . This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction. Chapter Two deals with the general knowledge of Thoreau and his Walden . Chapter Three is mainly about Thoreau’s life philosophy from three aspects: returning to simplicity, eco-centric equality and pursuit of spiritual independence. Chapter Four is an analysis of the legacy of Walden . The last chapter is the conclusion of the thesis.

　C C hapter One

　Henry David Thoreau and Walden

　1 1 .1 Thoreau ’ s Life Experience Henry Davie Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817, in what he thought “the most estimable place in the world, and in the very nick of time, too.”(Harding, 1982:3) Concord, some twenty miles northwest of Boston, is located on the plains surrounding the juncture of the Assayed and Sudbury Rivers which forms the Concord Rivers, one of the principal tributaries of the Merrimack. In 1817, it was a quite little town of two thousand, devoted chiefly to agriculture. The town’s citizens knew neither great wealth nor extreme poverty and the town was essentially a democracy, no man felt the need of kneeling to his neighbors. Thoreau grew up very close with his older brother, John, Jr., who first show an interest in ornithology and Thoreau later learned much of his bird from John’s notebooks. They opened a private school with the principle of “learning by doing” and devoted a considerable part of its program to field trips, which proved successful. Because of John’s poor health, the school was brought to an abrupt close on April 1, 1841.the worst thing is that John died because of lockjaw in his brother’s arms in January 1842. Soon after John’s death, Thoreau returned to live with Emerson, and eventually he resumed his normal pattern of life, Thoreau lived there for more than two years. He tutored Emerson’s children, kept Emerson’s garden and also contributed to The Dial , an important magazine. Inspired by Emerson, he began to write his journal. In 1845, he moved to a cabin built by him on the shore of Walden Pound and stayed there for more than two years. He lived a very simple life in it and enjoyed the greatest happiness in spirit. He devoted most of his time to reading, writing and he kept a detailed journal of his observations of nature, activities and thoughts. Yet he was quite enjoying that life and solitude.

　And there, he finished his most famous book Walden or Life in the Woods , which was commonly regarded as his masterpiece. Thoreau loved nature very much. He enjoyed walking in the woods and studied various birds, animals, trees and flowers. He collected various interesting things in nature, which was sent to his mother and young sister Sophia. In his late life, he made several journeys to Maine Woods and Cape Cod. He admired Indian and liked oriental philosophy very much. He died of tuberculosis in 1862, at the age of 44, after his death, he and his book got a profound understanding and widely attention. He left ten books, numerous essays and a huge journal, published later in 20 volumes. 1 1 . 2 A Brief Introducti on to Walden

　Walden , written by Henry David Thoreau, was published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s sojourn in a cabin beside Walden Pound where he lived for more than two years, but

　Walden

　was written so that the stay appears to be a year, with expressed seasonal divisions. Walden

　consists of 18 chapters. Chapter one is an attack on the American lifestyle along with Thoreau’s alternative solution. He does this, he says, in order to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle and he easily supplies the four necessities of life food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. In Chapter two and three, Thoreau describes his cabin’s location and discusses books and what he felt that people should be reading. In Chapter four, Thoreau continued his description of his life in the wood and describes the sounds of nature around his home and describes his solitude in the woods and ends with his recipe for good health in Chapter five. In Chapter six and seven, Thoreau writes about the visitors to his cabin and explains his work in the bean-field in detail. In Chapter eight, Thoreau visits the small town of Concord every day or two to hear the news, which he finds “as refreshing in its way as the rustle of the leaves.” In Chapter nine, in autumn, Thoreau rambles about the countryside and

　writes down his observations about the geography of Walden Pond. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors in Chapter ten and discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is good in Chapter eleven. In Chapter twelve, Thoreau provides a short spoof of his and his neighbors’ behavior and then describes some animals living around the Pound. In Chapter thirteen, after picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau bestirs himself to add a chimney and plaster the walls of his hut in order to stave off the cold of the oncoming winter. In Chapter fourteen, Thoreau relates the stories of people who formerly lived in the vicinity of Walden Pond. Chapter fifteen is about Thoreau’s amusement in watching wildlife during the winter. In Chapter sixteen, Thoreau describes the winter fish men, his survey of the pound and the harvest of ice on the pound. In Chapter seventeen, Thoreau describes spring coming to Walden Pound with details suggestive of recreation and summarizes his most important message to his readers in the last chapter.

　The book is not a traditional autobiography, but partly declaration of independence, partly social experiment, partly voyage of spiritual discovery and manual for self-reliance. Much of the book is devoted to stirring up awareness of how one’s life is lived, materially and otherwise, and how one might choose to live it more deliberately.

　C C hapter T T wo

　Thoreau" s Views of Life 2 2 .1 Returning to Simplicity To live a simple life is the central point of

　Walden . It is an ideal way of living that Thoreau appreciated. One of his purposes to enter the woods was to conduct an experiment on such a life. James C. McKusick said, “as a parable of human experience, it ( Walden ) offers an extended meditation on the value of a simple lifestyle.” (McKusick, 2000:142) Thoreau wrote, “if then, we would indeed restore mankind by truly Indian, botanic, magnetic, or natural means, let us first be as simple and well as nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world” (Sayre, 1985:384). The simplicity that Thoreau advocated has two aspects. On one hand, it urges people to get rid of their greedy requirement for materials. On the other hand, it encourages people to pursuit rich spiritual enjoyment. This idea permeates the whole book. Simplicity is the first rule that Thoreau emphasizes most because he believes that it is an effective remedy to get oneself out of both material and spiritual fetter, thus which provides opportunity for self-cultivation. Strongly denounced the materialism and complacency of his compatriots and luxurious life, Thoreau is known for his call to simplify life. His stay at Walden is in itself an experiment of a

　simplified lifestyle. As a matter of fact, what Thoreau preaches is not just a way of living, but an attitude man should adopt towards nature and human’s life. We can see his expression of simplicity in the opening chapter“Economy” explicitly. In “Economy,” Thoreau reveals to us the world full of limitless snatching and consuming that, in fact, traps humans in endless labor and deprive them of authentic living. The misfortunes of humans in Concord is “to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are easily acquired than got rid of” (Cramer, 2004: 3). Such “inheritance encumbrances” force the farmers to forge “their own golden or silver fetters” (Cramer, 2004: 16). During his stay at Walden pound, his food is simple and plain. “Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion” (Cramer, 2004: 89). His “necessaries of life” is quite similar to the term “vital needs” put forward by Naess in Deep Ecology, which mainly refers to the simple physical needs. Naess (2002) argues that humans have no right to exploit the earth for their need of excessive consumption when vital needs have already been satisfied, and he expressed his idea in one of his books, and the name is: Life’s Philosophy Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World . Thoreau arrives at a conclusion through his own experience that human may use as simple as the animals, and yet retain health and strength. He voluntarily chooses to live a simple life of least wants, most of which are produced by his own, and he believes that his experiment concerning food simplicity is successful and he mocks at the stupidity of others who makes life more complicated by demanding more delicate food Thoreau writes:

　One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones

　with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle (Cramer, 2004: 9).

　With regard to shelter, Thoreau contends that “a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three wide” will do for the purpose of getting sheltered, which is by no means “a despicable alternative”(Cramer, 2004: 8). He deplores that his townsmen endeavors to build beautiful and luxurious houses to live originally, but to enslave themselves virtually.

　What Thoreau tries to reveal is that we are often “imprisoned rather than “housed” in humans own houses. In contrast, Thoreau prefers the Indians way of setting up shelter. In America, the native Indians set up wigwams just before sunset because it is cheaper and offers more opportunity to keep contact with nature and over-soul. Naturally, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity” is Thoreau’s choice of life motto. We can not say that Thoreau’s idea of simplicity is the best or perfect, but at least it gets people to know that life can be simple, and it is simple in itself, consequently, it would not hard for people to realize that everybody should not chase “complexity” blindly with ignorance of “simplicity.” 2 2 .2 Eco- - centric Equality The notion of eco-centric Equality is that all things in the ecosphere have an equal right to self-realization. This basic notion advocates that all organisms and entities in the ecosphere, as part of the interrelated whole, are equal in intrinsic worth. His concept on bio-centric equality is contrary to western traditional philosophy of anthropocentrism, which holds that human should be fundamentally

　separate from the rest of nature and be superior to the rest of creation. Thoreau believes that as an equal member in nature, human can never dominate over nature and should never expect to tame nature for economic use, human will never succeed ultimately in conquering. Controlling or remarking nature according to humans’ limitless desires. In Walden , he conveys his dissatisfaction for humans making interruption and destruction to nature. He expresses his affection and intimacy towards trees by writing that “Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me , even in scenes which we are accustomed to call wild and dreary, and also that the nearest of food to me and humanist was not a person nor a villager, that I thought no place could ever be strange me again” (Cramer, 2004: 128). His pure love for woods permeates in Walden . After he left Walden, a large number of trees like pine, spruce and cedar were deforested by people for money. The destructed woods concerned him so much that he could not help questioning “How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down”? (Cramer, 2004: 86) This thought-provoking question reveals that Thoreau has realized the disastrous impact caused by humans’ deforestation not only rendered birds homeless but also severely disrupted the balance and harmony of nature. What’s more, in response to humans self-centered and irresponsible attitude toward nature, he never spares any sarcastic remarks to convey his disgust, which can be seen from his vivid account in ironic tone that some guests of Walden broke the ice for farming in chapter sixteen, He writes:

　In the winter of 46-7, there came a hundred men of Hyperborean extraction swoop down on to our pound one morning, with many carloads of ungainly-looking farming of ungainly-looking farming tools, plows, drill-barrows, turf-knives, spades, saws, rakes, and

　each man was armed with a double-pointed pike-staff,…They said that gentle man farmer, who was behind the scenes, wanted to double his money, which as I understood, amounted to half a million already; but in order to discover each one of his dollars with another, he took off the only coat, ay. (Cramer, 2004: 284).

　In Thoreau’s mind, this action has disrupted the peace and tranquility of the lake-virtually the incarnation of nature-only because a greedy well-off gentlemen farmer wanted to occupy more material wealth through the exploitation of lake, which explicitly conveys his idea that every matter in nature should enjoy equal right in ecosphere on account of their intrinsic value, and humans are not entitled to take everything in nature as their tools to live and exploit nature for their exclusive use.

　And this case expresses Thoreau’s reverence for water and employs water as a symbol for spiritual exploration and of the highest goodness in universe. 2 2 .3 Pursuit of Spiritual Independence

　Since it is apparent that life is simple in itself and everything in the ecosphere is equal in living, and people cannot live at the expense of nature, therefore, what people should pay attention to is his or her inner world. As an active transcendentalist, Thoreau placed stress on individuality. He wrote, “I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; But I would have each one be very careful to find out pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead”(Sayre, 1985: 378). However, this kind of individuality does not mean the peculiarities on the surface, but the spiritual independence. He likes every one to be a Columbus to whole new continents and within himself, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. But too much of involvement of social activities in people’s life brought about the spiritual waste land , for business destroyed the

　beauty and poetic significance of life, and the true meaning of it. Thoreau refuses to work very hard like a machine without any freedom, his solitude at Walden is just a voyage to explore his inner world. Solitude can help people to erase the strains on their mind, and then provide an opportunity to listen to the faithful sound from heart and soul, which is the basic and the most important needs of people’s real living. When we say that a man is living, it does not only mean that he is alive physically but what is mostly pointed is that he is “alive” spiritually.

　One reading of Walden

　gives readers an assumption that it is a myth of retreat, a myth of returning to Eden, a myth of stasis, and it is a very appealing myth to a postindustrial society faced with overwhelming change and a myth of Thoreau as the hermit sitting meditatively by Walden Pound. However, a close reading of Walden reveals a Thoreau who is often less interested in stasis than in change, less interested in meditation than in a journey of spiritual exploration. Thoreau spent a great deal of his adult life away from the city and civilization in the out of doors, the woods and wilderness of New England. Walden

　well reflected his interest in itself in the wood. Wilderness, the opposite part against that of human civilization was what Thoreau heatedly called for most, and was the arresting theme in his Nature. In Chapter eleven, he analyzed the dual characteristics in him, saying though he was always seeking for a spiritual life, he had at the same time another instinct toward “a primitive rank and savage one,” and he revered them both, “I love the wild not less than the good.” Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexpected forests and meadows which surround it,” he thought that life consisted with wildness, and the most alive was the wildest. “We need the tonic of wilderness” called he, “we must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coat with its wreck, the wilderness with its living and

　its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets” ( Walden

　300-305). Thoreau emphasizes the value of nature in the pursuit of spiritual independence, and he thought that the fallen people in a material society could be redeemed by going to nature to recover their lost innocence. As manifestation of vigorous nature and of God’s work, Walden

　is eternal. It transcends time and change. Thoreau writes in chapter nine:

　Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and, this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroads has infringed on its border, and the ice -men have skimmed it once, and it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me….it is perennially young….why, here is Walden. The same woodland lake that I discovered so many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever; the sane thought is welling up to its surface that was then; it is the same liquid joy and happiness to itself and its Maker, ay, and it may be to me. It is the work of a brave man surely….

　Thoreau lived alone at Walden, away from the civilized town, to spiritualize himself. He believes that the degree, to which an individual may spiritualize, may comprehend divinity, depends on his ability to differentiate between permanent and transient values and his persistence in seeking the permanent, the absolute and ideal. For all the phenomena he experienced and observed, Thoreau perceived something higher, something beneath them. The facts he depicts manifested his spiritual cultivation. His spiritual journey in Walden provides one example of his striving toward the absolute. From the above, we can make a conclusion that he is seeking the original freedom and independence of human life, the most natural part of it, which

　can be seen clearly from a quotation

　from the Zhuang Zi: “Non-action does not mean dong nothing and keeping silent. Let everything be allowed to do with what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.”

　 Chapter Three

　The Legacy of Walden

　3 3 .1 Influences on Ecological Literature Thoreau was mocked by the literary leaders of Boston and virtually unknown to the rest of the United States in his time. Walden , which is generally acknowledged to be Thoreau’s masterpiece, did not sell 2000 copies during his short lifetime and was almost completely ignored by critics in the united states. It would wait for later generations of readers to establish its importance in the American literature. The only significant artist to review Walden

　within a year and a half of its publication was the England novelist George Eliot, who, in a brief notice appearing in the Westminster review

　(January 1856), admired the “deep poetic sensibility” that that informed the natural description in the book and defended its “unworldliness”:

　 It [Walden ] is a part of pure American life (not the go-head species, but its opposite pole) animated by that energetic, yet calm spirit of innovation, that practical as well as theoretical independence of formulae, which is peculiar to some of the finer American minds (qtd. in Meyer “ Introduction to

　Walden and Civil Disobedience ”).

　 However, Thoreau’s reputation has been rising steadily through the twentieth century and his Walden

　is acclaimed as one of the greatest

　books that has shaped American mind. As a holy Bible of green literature, Walden

　has become the permanent source offering solace to modern people who are pressed by the consumerism and careerism. To cite but one example: a California company selling books recorded on cassette tapes for people to listen to as they commute to and from work reports that one of the most popular selections is Thoreau’s Walden . This chapter intends to study the legacy Walden

　has left for us.

　 With the advent of industrialization, humankind has been regarding nature as an object of conquest. Human beings have reclaimed the land, but a vast territory of forest have disappeared; humans hear more the roaring of machines, but less the singing of birds; humans have the efficiency and convenience of highly developed science and technology, but the damage of ozonosphere and the “mushroom cloud” are menacing human existence. Human beings have been exploiting nature in order to accumulate wealth and seek pleasure and luxury in life at the price of ravaging nature. As a result, mankind is faced with numerous problems that cannot be solved easily: the deficiency of resources, the diminishing of the species, etc. The late nineteenth century saw the beginning of ecological movement in America and these movements came to a full swing in the 1970s. Today contemporary environmentalism is developing globally. The call to reconsider the relationship between nature and humanity has come stronger and stronger in the west as well as in China. Many literary critics began to study the environmental oriented literary works probed and probe into the ecological implications reflected in them. It is in this context that Walden has become the green Bible for modern people and that for Thoreau’s Walden experiment is regarded as a model of man’s coexistence and harmony with nature, although to his contemporaries Thoreau’s life there was just a transcendentalist’s eccentricity.

　Thoreau’s Walden

　is treated as a work of epoch-making significance in that it contains profound ecological and spiritual implication rather than purely describe the natural beauty of landscapes as the works of nature writing before. It shared a new tradition of ecological literature, whose influence could be found in many ecological literary writers such as Edward Abbey (1927-1989). The twentieth-century ecological writers such as Annie Dillard, is also debts to Thoreau. Edward Abbey, the most eminent spokesman for nature liberation in America in the 1970s and 1980s, wrote a ten-day journal on his river trip called “ Down the River with Henry Thoreau ”, in which he said “Thoreau’s mind has been haunting mine for most of my life”, so “it seems proper to re-read him.” He continued, “There could be no better place to read Walden

　than on his golden river called the Green.” He wished that Thoreau could be with him on the trip and he believed that “he is”. For Abbey, “wherever there are deer and hawks, wherever there is risk and liberty, wherever there is wilderness, Henry Thoreau will find his home.” Annie Dillard is another disciple. As a contemporary ecological writer, she is often compared with Thoreau. Dillard lives a relatively solitary life close to nature, and keeps contact with natural beings. Her description of the dying frogs, snakes, trees and creek in pilgrim at tinker creek (1974) reminds most readers of chapters in Walden, where the lake, trees, ants and rats are vividly depicted. 3 3 .2 Influences on People ’ s Life Concept Through the close analysis of Walden , people can see that one of the main themes of Walden

　is on the necessity of going to nature as a means to counteract the alienating power of industrial society and as away to modern people and increasingly proves to be of great significance today. Most of modern people live a day-to-day existence bounded by homes,

　works, and material and physical needs. Therefore, most of them are far too limited in outlook, far too limited in thoughtful activities, and so on. According to Thoreau, people do not live in what can be said a true life. Also, many of people are so deadened to what does not seem to concern them directly that it seems so irrelevant to their life to know and understand nature. Nature has become increasingly unfamiliar to people.

　If people use a well-know Chinese fable as a comparison, then, can a frog at the bottom of a well comprehend the sky? To know the broad expanse of the sky in any serious way, the frog would have to jump out of the well. And in a similar way, for human beings to attempt to comprehend the society and life of which people are a part, people have to lift themselves out of the mundane life and go to nature. Only by going to nature can people come to realize how trivial and mean their daily life is in front of the beauty and grandeur of nature, thus understanding life better. People

　will not only discover in Walden

　an ideal example of man’s union with nature, but come to realize that man and nature are an indispensable whole. Thoreau records his profound thought on nature, man-nature relationship and the essence of l...