Posthumously published in 1864, "The Maine Woods" depicts Henry David Thoreau s experiences in the forests of Maine, and expands on the author s transcendental theories on the relation of humanity to Nature. On Mount Katahdin, he faces a primal, untamed Nature. Katahdin is a place not even scarred by man, but it was a specimen of what God saw fit to make this world. In Maine he comes in contact with rocks, trees, wind and solid earth as though he were witness to the creation itself. Of equal importance, "The Maine Woods" depicts Thoreau s contact with the American Indians and depicts his...

In the fall of 1850 Henry Thoreau embarked upon an excursion into the French-Canadian province of Quebec, with stops in Montreal and Quebec City. His reactions to the foreign country are mixed and ambivalent: he is critical of Canada s Old World Catholicism, feudalism, and an alien British military presence while most of his references to America and Americans are favorable. But if one looks closely, positive reactions to Canadian society and negative reactions to American society do exist within the essay. A YANKEE IN CANADA is a study in paradox, the paradox being due to a man stunned by...

In the fall of 1850 Henry Thoreau embarked upon an excursion into the French-Canadian province of Quebec, with stops in Montreal and Quebec City. His reactions to the foreign country are mixed and ambivalent: he is critical of Canada s Old World Catholicism, feudalism, and an alien British military presence while most of his references to America and Americans are favorable. But if one looks closely, positive reactions to Canadian society and negative reactions to American society do exist within the essay. A YANKEE IN CANADA is a study in paradox, the paradox being due to a man stunned by...