Nature surrounds us, influencing the decisions we make each and every day. Perhaps we aren’t conscious of this when we grab a raincoat, a wool hat, or sunscreen on our way out the door or stop to snap a picture of some stunning autumn foliage, but nature is an omnipresent force, and we all view it differently. Some have no opinion on the natural world and view it as neither good nor bad, but “just there.” Some see nature as a negative force, always grumbling about the weather, while others, including Henry David Thoreau, a 19th century philosopher, are fascinated by it. The natural world may affect all of us, but it manifests itself in different ways to different people. Thoreau held three beliefs about nature that differed from those of Margaret in the “Mild Attack of Locusts” and TJ in “Antaeus” and were similar to those of Klausner in the “Sound Machine.”
Thoreau believes nature elevates one’s life. He describes his time spent in nature as “not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance” (Thoreau 72). Nature provides Thoreau a unique source of enrichment and encourages him to live thoroughly and deliberately by supplying a slow and tranquil environment, disconnected from the diversions of the developed world. According to Thoreau, it is only away from the bustle of towns and cities that one is separated from these time-wasting distractions and can truly extract “all of the marrow of life,” as the Spartans did (Thoreau 59). Thoreau comments on how in bustling towns and cities, individuals meet and speak briefly of their days, never acquiring any new information about themselves. They rush from place to place, attending events they are pressured into attending, forgetting to stop and think about their actions or their lives. Thoreau implies that being so caught up in these narrow and inessential conversations and affairs leads to a lack of clarity when it comes to the bigger picture, regarding how to spend this valuable life. Again, how can one elevate one’s life if they never pause to reflect on improving it? Still, in Thoreau’s eyes, nature does more than provide a peaceful environment, conducive to valuable contemplation and simple living; nature itself is an example of the simplicity and innocence he strives to find within his life. He notes how every morning is a “cheerful invitation to make [his] life of equal simplicity….with nature herself” (Thoreau 58). In other words, being surrounded by nature inspired Thoreau and improved his life. He writes that even though he would be viewed by a passing stranger as lackadaisical and indolent, he rapidly grew in that first summer in the woods. Thoreau emphasizes that sitting outside, admiring nature was a pastime “far better than any work of the hands would have been” (Thoreau 73). He too neglected any form of literature, theatre or art throughout the summer, finding that observing nature, with its ability to engage one’s senses, quenched his thirst for both knowledge and entertainment. Thoreau thus believes nature is a constructive force.
Margaret believes that nature can be a harmful force. The swarm of locusts that wreak havoc across her homestead in the Zambezi escarpment, are referred to as an “army,” a word that in it of itself conveys disorder and chaos. Unfortunately, this term is an accurate representation of the locusts. When they are first spotted, descending over mountain towards their fields of maize one afternoon, everything on the homestead instantaneously speeds up. Margaret’s husband, Richard, and Margaret’s father-in-law, Stephen, direct the workers with a list of commands, urgently ordering him to hurry. In less than minutes after these dangerous creatures are first seen, farmers across the escarpment begin to light fires with the hope that the flames would kill and the pungent smell would divert them from their piece of land. For Thoreau, spending time among nature allows him to slow his life, whereas these natural creatures force Margaret to rush through her day. As we learn more about Margaret’s plight, we realize that the life of a farmer, spending time among nature essentially all day, everyday, isn’t relaxing, calming, or particularly introspective. Having your salary contingent upon an uncontrollable force is stressful and nerve-racking; farmers never know if or when their crops will be threatened. As the cluster nears, swallowing the once clear sky, Margaret experiences a rollercoaster of negative emotions. At first, she is disgusted by the creatures, holding her breath when she braves the outdoors, hardly able to bear inhaling the same air as these greedy beings. But when, in a mere couple of hours after their landing, Stephen reports that all of the crops are finished, this disgust turns to fear. Having grown up in a city, free from locusts and the frequent scares of farm life, the hopelessness of the locust attack is so overwhelming that she bursts into tears. By no means does nature appear to be a friend or an acquaintance, as it is to Thoreau, nor does Margaret feel a strongly positive connection to nature, for she had just learned first hand how it can be unforgivably devastating. When there is plenty of rain and sun and, for once, nature looks to be on her side, the locusts come and consume the entirety of the well-grown crops. If it isn’t locusts, it is a bad season, veldt fires, or other unpredictable natural forces that make nature appear to be opposing her. One is helpless in the face of an outside force so powerful, and this, to Margaret, is infuriating and unfair. Coming face to face with natural elements does not elevate Margaret’s life, but rather, loses her a year’s worth of money and provokes stress, helplessness, disorder and fear. Nature, for Margaret, is a destructive force.
Thoreau believes the natural world is more similar to humanity than one might think. Many separate the two worlds in their minds; Thoreau’s writing reveals his contrary thinking. For instance, when he’s describing conflict between ants, he compares them to humans in battle, dissolving any distinction between humans and animals in combat. Thoreau animalizes human combatants, trivializing their motives behind war and he humanizes ants by implying that the wars they initiate are just as frivolous as those of the humans. Thoreau also anthropomorphizes Walden lake, by describing it as “Earth’s eye,” the surrounding trees as “slender eyelashes,” and the hills and cliffs as “overhanging brows” (Thoreau 121). Here, again, Thoreau is attributing human traits to a natural, non-human entity and in the process, drawing the natural world and humanity closer together. Additionally, although Thoreau does not entirely oppose eating animals or other organisms of the natural world, explicitly stating how he feels no pity for fish reeled onto land and going as far as to encourage boys to learn to fire a gun, his awareness of the similarities between the worlds contributes to his reluctance to hunt or fish. He writes: “No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature, which holds its life by the same tenure that he does. The hare in its extremity cries” (Thoreau 138). In other words, although Thoreau’s views on vegetarianism are complex, he feels it is wrong to consume animals because perhaps there’s a little human in the hare, who has genuine feelings and who cries when it’s threatened. Thoreau also brings together the worlds by proposing that one need not remain distant from nature to express one’s true humanity. We can learn from the values animals possess. Thoreau writes that he enjoys spending his day as animals do because an animal’s routine is simpler than a human’s routine (Thoreau 136). Animals don’t read the newspaper; they don’t send letters or cook dinner on a stove. Instead, they build shelters, hunt, eat, walk, and sleep. In this case, he’s animalizing himself, while noting that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Finally, Thoreau describes fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, farmers and others, including himself, who spend significant time in the fields and woods as “a part of Nature themselves” (Thoreau 136). By animalizing humans and humanizing animals (and other natural creations), Thoreau is drawing a link between the natural world and humanity that many fail to see.
Klausner in the “Sound Machine,” much like Thoreau, believes the natural world is closely related to humanity. Impelled by his desire to learn if plants and animals of the natural world emit sounds that are imperceptible to the human ear, Klausner develops a sound machine and brings it outside to test. Eventually, Klausner concludes that organisms of the natural world have feelings when, through this inconspicuous box of wire, he hears a shriek at the exact moment that his neighbor cuts a rose stem. Later, he experiments again, by swinging at a tree with an axe, intent on confirming his findings. One normally doesn’t commiserate with a fallen tree, but Klausner does, feeling great sorrow that it had experienced pain because of him. Klausner even calls his doctor and forces him to care for the tree “wound,” begging him to stitch through the wood and paint the cut with iodine, as he would do with a human patient. Klausner projects these human-like feelings onto the tree and feels sympathy for it as a result. Klausner also goes as far as to put himself in the tree’s shoes, wondering what it would it would be like to helplessly stand anchored to the ground and watch someone cut you down. What’s more, in order to apply himself to these newfound morals, Klausner decides to alter his diet, choosing which plants would be acceptable to eat based on how they are cultivated and harvested. Klausner figures that, seeing as plants are similar to humans, it would be immoral to eat them (just as Thoreau figures, seeing as animals are similar to humans, it would be immoral to hunt them). By claiming that species of the natural world have feelings, he’s limiting the variance and emphasizing the similarity between the two worlds. Much like Thoreau, he goes beyond thinking of the natural world and humanity as distinct, unfamiliar realms. Instead, Klausner, throughout the story, as he becomes convinced that natural beings have feelings, grows to merge the two.
Thoreau seeks out nature, believing nature to be a liberating escape from his conventional society. In his eyes, nature is instrumental in freeing oneself from one’s society. In going to the woods, Thoreau pushes aside any previous connections, deeming all that links him to the developed world fruitless, including “unnecessary” post-office communication and “superficial” newspapers (Thoreau 61). News is merely gossip, according to Thoreau; once you’re familiar with an event, you don’t need a hundred more examples or instances. Of course, one would think cutting loose from connections and moving to the woods results in loneliness, and Thoreau does not hide this, remembering how, for the first couple of weeks, he thought being alone to be lonesome, how he second-guessed his hiatus. Yet, he also writes of how he soon realized how insane he was to think such things. Amidst a gentle rain, he was at once aware of the “sweet and beneficent society in Nature” (Thoreau 86). As long as he stayed in the woods, he would never truly be alone: nature was his forever companion. Thoreau even speaks of the pine needles befriending him. Nature helped him successfully isolate himself from conventional society, freeing him from the newspapers, the post offices, the connections he found infuriating back home, without causing him to grow lonely. While Thoreau does not shun those who visit him (and accepts the woodchopper and pauper), he still wishes to remain distant from anyone who stays with him. As quoted, “Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them…” (Thoreau 91). He may not terribly mind sharing his experiences and home with others, but his main motive for settling in the woods was to follow his own path, not the path taken by others. If more individuals moved to the woods and settled down near to Thoreau, that track would become beaten, perhaps even paved by the footsteps of others, as much of the developed world already is. His place of retreat would become more like the society he left in the first place and no longer would he feel such liberation. In the end, Thoreau uses the friendship and the isolated area nature provides as a tool to disconnect himself from conventional society.
TJ, on the other hand, seeks out nature, inspired by his desire to stay connected to his home in the South and to share a little piece of his home with others. For TJ, nature is instrumental in reconnecting him to his conventional society. When TJ arrives in the North, he is surprised to find that, much unlike the South, there are no fields to raise crops. This doesn’t seem normal. Yet, unlike Thoreau, he doesn’t much appreciate being apart from familiar surroundings. Feeling disconnected, he begins to reminisce about the crops he raised back at home, speaking with great pride about his own acre of cotton and corn. Finally it comes to a point where TJ suggests that he could cultivate a garden on the roof, wishing to connect to the home he feels isolated from. When the boys initially disagree, he continues to suggest ideas, trying to convince the other boys to help so he could share the nature with others too. As the boys become more accepting of the idea, we can see TJ physically grow more excited. He speaks more quickly and even grins in a way that is unusual for someone who has resettled miles away from their home. This is another point of contrast between TJ and Thoreau: Thoreau isn’t particularly keen on sharing his experience with nature with anyone else, while TJ is set on the idea of getting the other boys involved. When he speaks of his gardening plan of action, he always says “we,” never “I.” and he carefully demonstrates to the boys how to prepare the earth and shape it into mounds, even though we assume that he, having gardened before, could have done it faster if he hadn’t made the planting process into a tutorial. All the while, throughout the period of time that the garden is developing, TJ doesn’t reminisce about his home in Marion County as much nor does he try to escape. From these small details, one can infer TJ feels more connected because of this garden: he has no reason to leave the North. On the other hand, when the men who own the factory building see what the boys are doing and force them to immediately shovel the garden off, TJ grows angry and heads home. Without this seemingly insignificant patch of land, TJ couldn’t bear to stay in this unfamiliar place and so he flees homeward. This escape demonstrates just how powerful nature was as a means of connection for TJ, before it was obliterated.
In summary, Thoreau held three beliefs about nature that differed from those of Margaret in the “Mild Attack of Locusts” and TJ in “Antaeus” and were similar to those of Klausner in the “Sound Machine.” As humans, we are capable of interpreting everything we see slightly differently. Yet, there’s no one “right” or “wrong” perspective on the natural world. Rather, the varying beliefs of Thoreau, Margaret, TJ and Klausner all contribute to a well-rounded, multifaceted view of the natural world that encompasses us.