Through these conflicting issues, the links between American writers Lewis and Thoreau are even clearer. ... Lewis's character of George Babbitt and Henry David Thoreau actually represent opposite extremes of an individual living in American society. ... Many people in America conform to the government's standards, and follow the rules that are imposed upon them even if they believe that it is wrong. ... Due to Babbitt's ardency to become the ideal citizen, he engages in the campaigning for Lucas Prout over the idealistic Seneca Doane, and conforms to the American view that a...

• Word Count: 3576
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: High School

Johnson locates a more ecologically minded Thoreau only when the naturalist can move beyond Emersonian metaphor in his later work, and therefore initiate (along with Susan Fennimore Cooper) an empirical "counteraesthetics" to the dominant paradigm in American environmental aesthetics codified in Emerson's line from his 1836 Nature: "The world is emblematic. ...

• Word Count: 9971
• Approx Pages: 40
• Grade Level: Undergraduate