Thoreau's Wildness Research Paper

An Exploration of Thoreau’s Wildness
The wildness is a belief in something greater than humans. This is not the spiritual belief in a god or some higher being but in the idea that wildness is at the center of life. In a way the wildness may become a focal point at the center of his or life. Thoreau’s focal practice was walking, but his focal point could be considered a belief in wildness. When he was living at Walden that became a focal thing to him, but Walden was a smaller point for the larger idea of wildness. Through walking Thoreau invites us to engage on a journey to obtain a similar belief in the wildness around us. Thoreau’s wildness calls him and us to become greater beings than what we were in the Old World. “If the heavens of America
“I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows. We require an infusion of hemlock spruce arbor vitae in our tea. There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony” (610). The belief in nature comes as a whisper into our minds. We are not forced into believing in the trees and meadows it simply is there. However, we do have to be involved to obtain this belief. If one is not out in the wild engaging in our focal practices, for example Thoreau in his waling, we do not reach the state of belief. In order for Thoreau to say he believes in the forest he has to have spent time in the forest. The forest becomes a type of focal point for him, and walking in the forest becomes a focal practice. As time progresses the forests and meadows, the wildness, has become Thoreau’s focal
“I have met with but one or two person I the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks – who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre,” to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a Sainte-Terrer,” a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander” (592. The Holy Land literally is the city Jerusalem. Thoreau is not talking about a literal walk to Jerusalem to obtain the wisdom and belief of the wildness, but to adopt the same principles the pilgrims use on their travels. Similar to the pilgrim’s devotion to wander around the country side, devotion to our focal practice in wildness can bring us closer to the belief in wildness. Pilgrims leave behind most everything to embark on a spiritual quest to develop a greater understanding of themselves and their religion. One needs to leave behind all personal problems to embark on a journey into the wildness. The lack of issues plaguing the individual means the individual can dwell on the