Answer one or more of the following:
- What different or complementary image of New England (from Hawthorne's in "Young Goodman Brown") is projected in this essay?
- Is there a thought on race and ethnicity embedded in Thoreau's essay? How might one interpret it?
- Choose a striking passage that you might relate with concepts of cultural geography or of the Antrhopocene and Ecopoetics discussed in class, and comment on it.
Is there a thought on race and ethnicity embedded in Thoreau's essay? How might one interpret it?
ReplyDeleteIn his essay, Walking, Thoreau describes the nature that surrounds him. He talks about the beauty of it, and how most people do not take the time to notice it. His description of the nature and the ways in which he sees it, however, tell us a lot about his views on race and ethnicity.
In his writings, Thoureau often compares North America to Europe. He says the nature of this newly found land is much more wild than the cultivated Europe. He sees America as another land that the Europeans have discovered and now have the right to claim it as their own. The land is in some places compared to Africa, claimed by the colonizers, or “The Holy Land”, claimed by the Christian church. There is little mention of the Native Americans, and when he does write about them, he sees them as less civilized, sometimes comparing them to savages, and “explaining” that they simply have not yet “fully developed” (like the people in Europe). His writing is at times (quite often) patronizing, it seems like he admires the connection the Native Americans have with nature, but he continues with comments that say that the reason Europeans are not connected with nature is because they are so civilized.
From his writings it is apparent that Thoureau is a Christian. There are numerous mentions of it throughout the text. He makes mentions about how the nature in North America seems like it is somehow closer to Heaven (the stars and the moon seem bigger and brighter). He sees that as a sign that when the Native Americans “finally” embrace Christianity, they will experience it more intensely as the Europeans have before them, and that will allow their minds to open up to philosophy and poetry. Here he once again reveals his belief of superiority of Christians over non-Christians.
Thoreau's essay, Walking, describes the nature of North America as he sees it. He sees the wonderful mountains, bright stars and beautiful sunsets. But beneath all the beauty, he sees a land waiting to be cultivated, as was the land in Europe before that. He sees (North) America as a land waiting to be conquered by the Europeans.