For Johnson, Thoreau's ecological perspective emerges in the writer's "observation and knowledge of the literal, physical world" in the work of his last decade that moves beyond his own (and not just Emerson's) use of metaphor to describe the physical world. (5) Lance Newman argues further that the "irreducibly material environment" of Concord that Thoreau records so palpably in his journals and unpublished natural history projects transforms his "writing and even his consciousness." ... The underlying problem concerns a misleading division drawn between the literal (understood ...

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