Summary:
About romantic writing.
Romantic Ideas and Elements:
There Affect Then and Now
Despite the fact that Romantic Authors wrote over 200 years ago, many of the ideas they believed in and elements the used are still found in every day life today. The ideas of the importance of nature, self-reliance, and imagination have had a huge influence on my life and on many other people in society today, just as it did on the romantic writers.
The theme of nature importance in romantic literature is a huge one. Many of the stories and poems of this time period talk about nature as being a way to get in touch with God or talk about nature being pure. Some books, like Walden, are based on these ideas. Emerson talks about this in his essay "From Nature" when he says, "To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature." This quote shows how many people don't appreciate nature enough, and how some are too corrupted by society to see nature itself. The importance of nature has always been a huge part of my life, just like it was a big part of the Romantic writers. I go on about twenty backpacking trips every year to explore nature and to help me appreciate it better. I have been on hikes all across the country, including trips in New Mexico, Montana, Florida, Minnesota, and New York. From all of the time I spend in nature I think that I have a good understanding of why these writers treasured and respected it so much.
The idea of self-reliance was another aspect of life that many romantic writers chose to write about. A lot of the romantic writers believed that it was very important to be self-reliant and to not have to depend on society for support. There believes on this topic may have been due to there views on the corruption of society. This idea of self-reliance was another topic in Thoreau's Walden. Thoreau explains this in the fallowing lines, "...I lived alone, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and I earned my living by the labor of my hands only." This quote shows the extreme self-reliance of the main character. Being self-reliant is another important lesson that I have learned through taking backpacking trips and through Boy Scouts. On the backpacking trips I have to leave behind almost all of my material possession behind and most of the daily conveniences every one has grown so accustom to. Also, even though Boy Scouts is an organization to help teach boys how to lead, there is also much learning done on how to survive by your self. This is incase you get split up with your group for some reason.
The element of imagination is used throughout romantic writings. All of the fictional stories that we read clearly had a lot of imagination go into them when the writers came up with plot, setting, and characters. In particular Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle" was full of imagination. The story had Dwarves, supernatural occurrences and entertaining characters. Imagination has a huge effect on my life for many reasons. It allows me to come up with interesting and productive uses of my time, ways to enrich my life, and gives me ideas for things that can be done or can be explored. For example in my computer programming class it allows me to come up with ideas for new and interesting programs.
The ideas and elements of romantic literature are still affecting the lives of every one. A human with out at least some respect for nature, self-reliance and imagination would not be solid individual. This makes it important for people to study the ideals of the romantic authors.
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