After reading Thoreau I could not shake this feeling that things would be so much easier if the world was simpler like Thoreau lived for those two years. The simplicity kind of life that he lives and little amount of money he uses is astounding. The sense of community that Thoreau is surrounded with helping him start out, is where I feel that in “Economy” he is expressing the need to get back to nature. Thoreau being able to draw off of his own experience, freely using “I” and describing nature so brilliantly.

“We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would have prevented some mistakes.” (10)

I really like this little quote because it shows the world works together. How everything is all connected and if we remembered that our lives would be a lot easier just like Thoreau’s life was simple when he was connected and surrounded by nature. Everything in his life was simpler. He had to work harder to get what he needed but he didn’t use more than what he needed to survive from nature.

          Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature is a very interesting environmental text. He uses writing techniques such as metaphor to describe the relationship between the human mind and Nature. From my understanding, he creates this idea of biocentrism. From Buell’s Glossary of Selected Terms, biocentrism is defined as “the view that all organisms, including humans, are part of a larger biotic web or network or community whose interests must constrain or direct or govern the human interest” (Buell, p.1). For me, this is the main point that Emerson was trying to make in his essay. Emerson’s idea of this connection between humanity and Nature, or the “Me” and the “Not Me”,  is discussed throughout the text and he creates a significant amount of mental imagery to explain how these two things are connected.

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The novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, was inspired by the life of Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a young man living in suburbia who was discontent with his way of life. After graduating from college, McCandless decided to travel to Alaska and experience the “Great Frontier”.  While in Alaska McCandless was ecstatic at first. For the first time in his life he feels as if he is connecting with nature and living a meaningful life. One of McCandless favorite pass times was to read transcendental writers such as Emerson and Thoreau. McCandless was interested in how these authors wrote about their connection with nature. His trip to Alaska was driven by the transcendental spirit instilled in him by such authors.

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