Emerson - Nature

Mauricio Berrios
ENGL 227-500
Midterm Essay
Man v. Wild! In this day and age we live in an era where hunting is done for sport, where we depend on others for our nourishment, where we find it necessary to complain about simple remedial tasks, and where we find it necessary to stay as far away as possible from the great outdoors. Our current generation in America has become one of the laziest in the history of humanity, not in the matter of being lazy to do work but in the manner of not fighting for our own survival; instead we depend on others to do the surviving for us. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature,” presents ideas on how humans should live in harmony with nature to truly become one with nature itself, by not only connect physically but spiritually; at the rate in which we are separating ourselves from nature, we as humans are no longer evolving but instead digressing back into the crude protoplasm creatures that we started as – mindless and simply meant to die. For this reason Emerson’s ideal must live in to this day and even past our time. The ideals which Emerson presents are that “the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul, (493)” meaning that we have the potential to be connected spiritually to everything. In the world we live in now, the closest that we become connected to nature is either by watching the television show “Man v. Wild” or by simply reading books such as “Into the Wild” instead of experiencing the world first hand. When coming to this subject, Emerson’s ideas have lost full relevance because of shows such as Man v. Wild; “But isn’t the main character of that show out in the wilderness?” Yes and no, he is out in the wilderness braving against Mother Nature and putting his own life at risk but for all the wrong reasons - for entertainment and money. Connecting with nature is supposed to be done in a spiritual way, where he can isolate himself within his own mind and focus on all the natural beauty of life, “in their eternal calm, he finds himself. (Emerson 496)” Only when we find peace within ourselves, will we be able to find peace in the world. The topic of evolution brings us to Emerson’s next ideal which is that anything that started off as a thought is considered nature because there is nothing “so grand as that of… the human mind (493).” The world is coming to the point in which “nature” is being destroyed by tearing down trees and by getting rid of natural habitats in order to make room for industrialization and for cities, but according to the Emerson ideal this isn’t the destruction of nature but instead the evolution of it. Due to the fact that, anything which started off as a pure thought can be considered nature supports the destruction of plants and trees but with that being said, Emerson still wouldn’t approve of the society we have come to construct. Although, all this destruction falls under the category of his beliefs, there was another way in which it would have made a much better contribution to nature; instead of tearing down these plants and trees, they should have been kept in harmony with the newly constructed, manmade structures, “in the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature (494).” To support the claim that he would approve of this society would be that “it is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter from the tree of the poet, (494)” meaning that art is in the eye of the beholder. A poet would look at a tree the same way in which an architect would look at a building; both would think highly of the item in their thought patterns but for perfect harmony for all both creations of nature must be kept as part of the world. Therefore, if trees and buildings would be kept as part of one another instead of one being replaced by the other, Emerson would agree that this world was becoming a bit more connected with nature and soul when simply looking at this ideal for reference. The world and nature are much like the human body, in the way that every single part benefits the other, “the wind sows the seeds; the sun evaporates the sea; the wind blows the vapor to the field… (495). With this being a premise behind Emerson’s love of nature it’s safe to say that in this perspective Emerson would approve of the current world because of the peak of industrialization. Like a well-oiled machine, our society has become one of efficiency. We have become a society which depends on other sections of society to function, such as nature does with the constant natural cycles. Every single thing in this world has purpose and meaning, such as each job is designed to keep our society running; without having the cycle of nature as our model, our society would still be in the dark ages without a clear future.
Our society has also achieved a point to where even without nature being in our backyards, we have the technology to travel and see the pure beauty of nature which has yet to be tainted by the hands of machines and humans. Going back to the previous ideal of human ideas being the purest of thoughts, traveling can also be interpreted as harnessing the powers of nature in order to benefit us in a much more efficient way, this could be argued by Emerson who would believe this was a true form of becoming one with nature - by harnessing technology and the human mind, “the imagination may be defined to be, the use which the Reason makes of the material world. (510)” Science started off as a pure form of studying nature “but the end is lost sight of in attention to the means. (517)” Science has taken a path which focuses more on the prevention of thought; the era of the machine is upon us. Even thinking with our own minds has become a painful task for our society, which needs to change because thinking is what got us so far advanced in the first place, which means regression is occurring in our evolutionary track.
According to Emerson, who takes an exert from section 9 of Aristotle’s Poetics, ‘poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history’ (517). Nature in itself is still as beautiful as it has ever been, with more opportunities to view the glories of the heaven in much different manner, or to capture images so well that you can practically feel nature from simple pictures. Nature is still one of the main topics of art, and just as states in “Nature,” “there is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful.” (496) The bright lights of the night, which have been artificially made by humans, can never replace natural light which makes everything appear so full of life and simply gorgeous. This world has become dependent on electricity to light up our homes and cities, but due to this we have lost sight of the heavens, of the stars, and the planets. Light pollution is a sin against man because it deprives man the connection between soul and nature in every form; “if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars,” this simple thought is now irrelevant unless you plan on taking a 6 hour drive into the mountains, where it is virtually untouched by the foul hands of man. Our world is far too advanced to simply allow something as simple as nature to entertain us, which is plain wrong because nature has been here far longer than any human ever will and will remain here far after we are gone. Instead of trying to push nature out of our homes and our lives we should be glad we still have such a marvelous creature still around from the beginning of time. According to Emerson, we must embrace everything about this world and merge it all together to get all aspects of the “me” and the “not me.”
Emerson’s ideas do still hold relevance in this modern world but not to everyone; there are some that believe that straying away from the savagery of nature is the perfect form of advancement but evolution has always been about the survival of the fittest. Without truly becoming part of nature as Emerson would have hoped future generations would do, we have digressed into infant creatures which depend on caregivers for nourishment. Not all humans are doomed though, because we do have strong believers in Emerson’s ideal, even though some might not even know it. Nature is as old as the planet itself and it has also gone through a mass amount of change but one thing is for certain, we must learn to live in harmony in order to continue surviving in this cruel world full of “attraction which draws men to science (517)” because single thing that’s part of this world can still be considered nature, therefore nature is always and will always remain above us, under us, in our homes, in our yard, and even inside ourselves.

Work Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Volume 1. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. 492-519. Print

Cited: Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Volume 1. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. 492-519. Print