Emerson and Thoreau have similar view points on life, nature, and our soul. Both Emerson and Thoreau believe that you should live life rather then watch it. Emerson lived on Brook Farm and used his experiences there to enhance his essays. In Brook Farm, a story, Emerson talks about philosophy and explains that you have to work to receive what you want and that's how life is. Emerson argues that habit and tradition have become a way of living secondhand, by the ideas and truths of former times. With the past, Emerson states that you must live life in the present rather then living your past. Thoreau lives on Walden Pond and had his own independence day talks more of living closely with nature and becoming one with the elements around us. Thoreau reveils nature in his story called Walden, as he goes to the woods to contemplate life and to get in touch with his soul. Both of these writers use life, nature, and the past as a means of enhancing their work and providing their!
             audience with a sense of there moral impportance.
             These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others' ideas but to develop our own. Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all. Thoreau lives at Walden Pond to find the true meaning of life. He wants to experience things for himself. Valuing yourself over nature, understanding yourself is also understanding nature, and you need to be your own person and lead your own life are three main beliefs that were shown in the literature that we read. To value yourself over society you have to be able to have confidence in what others think of you, ands be able to say what you feel right. Nature is only as beautiful as you make it. You are only able to see in yourself as far as you can see into nature, so you have to get in touch with nature and accept it as a guide to your life. You have to...