A Brief Introduction To Thoreau's Walden

1.2. A Brief Introduction to Walden

Walden details Thoreau’s experiences over the two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, a midst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. He recounts his daily life in the woods and celebrates nature.

Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. Along with his critique of the civilized world, Thoreau examines other issues afflicting man in society, ranging from economy (the first chapter of the book) and reading to solitude and higher laws. He also takes time to talk about the experience at Walden Pond itself,

In China, Thoreau did not receive attention during his lifetime; however, Thoreau has caught Chinese scholars’ attention since 1920s. In early 1920s, there appeared a brief introduction to him. In 1949, Xu Chi, translated Thoreau’s Walden. In 1982, the Shanghai Translation Publishing House published the second edition of Xu Chi’s translation of Walden. Professor Chen Kai translated the Thoreau set into Chinese. Chen Long Fang, a Taiwan scholar, also published a monograph; Thoreau and China .

2. Reasons for Thoreau’s Thought of Nature

American literature on nature related closely with nature because of the century’s statues as a new content for immigrates. In the 17th century, when the first European settlers set foot on the land, they found a sharp contrast between the old civilized world and the new wild continent. It is because of this special background that Thoreau has unusual feelings about the nature like other Americans.

2.1. The Historical

Man Should Stop Exploiting Nature Thoreau finds, as the trees and branches has been cut, the grass has been destroyed, the original verdant forest becomes undulating wasteland, the beach continues to expand, and the corpses of the black tiger whales are seen here and there in some seashore. Local people rely on arresting whales, the blubber is removed, and the whales head was cut off. On the beach, the stench is around the heaven. The air within dozens of miles t is contaminated, however, no organization take any measures to stop those harmful behaviors. Thoreau called on man protect the forests, grassland, ecology, and the environment.

3.3. Man Should Return to Nature

Thoreau lived in the period when industry developed fast in America, when most of his contemporaries were enjoying the profits brought by industrial development, Thoreau is aware of the inherent evils in industrialism. He strongly objects to man’s ruthless exploitation of nature in the name of industrialization. He loathes any kind of environmental destruction in the name of progress of civilization.

4. The Significance of Thoreau’s Natural Thought

4.1. Its Significance for the