In his essay “Walking”, Thoreau discusses the special relationship between
civilisation and wilderness. He takes a more metaphysical approach to the issue of
nature than Cronon or the others do, and Thoreau instead focuses on our connection
with the wild as civilised beings.
He uses the idea of walking as a basis to explore this relationship, because the way
we orient ourselves in nature reveals its effect on us. He gives as an example the fact
that he almost always seems to walk southwest; he believes this is where the earth is
"more unexhausted and richer," and is heading toward wildness and freedom. The east
leads to the past — the history, art, and literature of the Old World; the west to the forest
and to the future, to enterprise and the adventure of the New World.
Thoreau also develops the view that civilisation has drawn strength from the wild,
and that it is an essential component of our identity. He therefore argues in favour of
its preservation, because man needs “wild and dusky knowledge” more than
academic learning.
I think this essay would be great for a conversation essay because Thoreau’s
approach is very different from Cronon, Waller and McKibben’s. He analyses nature
in a very metaphysical sense, as an important factor in human development and in
social structure.