Liberty now is also mixed with the environment; his freedom comes from nature and thus his gender is affirmed and changed. His meaning in life is found differently and achieved for his own sense of character.“Grow wild according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will never become English hay.” (Thoreau 1128) The primitive side to men of the time was in stark contrast to the nobility and higher classes that remained in the cities. But the wild men flourished in the unexplored lands of The Americas. The idea of what it was to be a man changed, to be a man meant to risk your life and recognize yourself within the wilds. Much like Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond it was a solitary idea. No longer fully about camaraderie found with others; the wilderness became a place to lose ones self and achieve a new …show more content…
What arose was an American design of men. Thoreau’s own experience is that of solitude, society is found only later from nature itself: “In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantage of human neighborhood insignificant.” (Thoreau 1050) The description is similar to modern ideas about men’s idea of turning outwards, away from others, for meaning and inspiration. To find identity as a man in novels and movies even now; turn to the same methods