Henry-David-Thoreau-大卫梭罗

1. Henry David Thoreau (2)
1. Henry David Thoreau (3)
He was born in Concord, Massachusetts. From 1841 to 1843 Thoreau lived in the home
of American essayist and transcendental philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1845 Thoreau moved to a crude hut on the shores of Walden Pond, where he devoted his time to studying nature, meditating on philosophical problems, reading classic literature, and holding long conversations with his neighbors.
Reading Assignments
1. Henry David Thoreau (1)
1817-1862, American writer, philosopher, and naturalist, whose work demonstrates how the abstract ideals of libertarianism and individualism can be effectively instilled in a person”s life.
1. Henry David Thoreau (6)
Studies on Thoreau 王光林：《美国的梭罗争论》，《华东师
范大学学报》〔哲学社会科学版〕，2023 年第6期，第99-103+117页。 陈爱华：《梭罗在中国：1949至2023》， 《四川外语学院学报》，2023年第2期，第 42-45页。
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is the narrative of a boating trip that Thoreau took with his brother in 1839.
In Walden, his most enduring and popular work, Thoreau explains his motives for living apart from society and devoting himself to a simple lifestyle and to the observation of nature.
3. Nathaniel Hawthorne (2)
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts. After the failure of his first novel Fanshawe (1828), several of his stories were published in Twice-Told Tales (1837), which established Hawthorne as a leading writer. These early works are largely historical sketches and symbolic and allegorical tales dealing with the effects of Puritanism on colonial New England.
Nature shows the omnipresence of God. Nature is the plantations of God. Through nature, man returns to reason and faith.
Both nature and man are created by God and reflect God’s presence.
3. Nathaniel Hawthorne (3)
In 1841 he briefly joined the experimental communal society at Brook Farm near Boston. In 1842 he married Sophia Amelia Peabody and settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where he wrote a number of tales that were later published as Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). They include “Rappaccini”s Daughter,” and “Young Goodman Brown,” tales in which Hawthorne”s preoccupation with the effects of pride, guilt, sin, and secrecy are explored through symbolism and allegory.
Thus, there is “an occult relation between man and the vegetable”, and they can understand each other well.
But it is only in man, or in a harmony of nature and man, that God’s power is fully revealed.
3. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
1804-1864), American novelist, whose works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement.
American Puritanism stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God’s grace. Such Puritan thoughts can be easily found in the writings of John Winthrop and John Cotton.
2. Comments on Assignments (1)
1. How did Puritanism influence the literature of colonial America? Cite examples to illustrate your points of view.
Most of the well-known authors during this period were Puritans. Their writings showed clear influences of Puritanism both in their contents and styles.
Henry David Thoreau Nathaniel Hawthorne
October 13, 2023
Agenda
1. Thoreau: Brief Introduction and a Summary of Related Researches
2. Comments on Previous Assignments 3. Hawthorne: Brief Introduction and
1. Henry David Thoreau (4)
Only two of Thoreau”s works were published during his lifetime: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854).
1. Henry David Thoreau (5)
In 1846 Thoreau chose to go to jail rather than to support the Mexican War (18461848) by paying his poll tax.
He clarified his position in his essay, “Civil Disobedience” (1849), in which he also discussed passive resistance, a method of protest that later was adopted by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi, and by civil rights activists in the United States.
With regard to the style of their writings, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, which can be traced to the direct influence of the Bible. This were obvious reflections of the Puritan life sis another example. Her most deeply felt poetry also concerned the arduous life of the early settlers. She used her poetry to examine her religious struggles. “The Flesh and the Spirit” (1678) describes the conflict she felt between living a pleasant life and living a Christian life, and “Meditations Divine and Moral” (written 1669?; published 1867) recounts to her children her doubts about Puritanism.
2. Comments on Assignments (2)
2. According to your understanding of the text, what is nature to man? What are the similarities and differences between nature and man? How do you understand the “occult relation between man and the vegetable”?
2. Comments on Assignments (3)
3. How do you understand “I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all”? How does it happen?
Completely immersed in nature, man will feel oneself as part or particle of God, and acquire God’s eyes, which can see all. In the meantime, as God is invisible and transparent, man also become “nothing”, which is invisible to physical eyes and visible and sensible to mental eyes only.