Perspectives

To have a broader perspective on the text “Nature and the City” by Eric Hoffer, we encourage you to link the essay with the time it was written, to reflect on its relevance today and on works that share a similar theme.

Periodical perspective and relevance today

Published in 1968, the essay “Nature and the City” offered a realistic perspective on the importance of cities for human civilization and for taming the hostile manifestations of nature on the American continent. While today we are confronted with environmental issues like global warming, species extinction, pollution, etc.,...

...

Societal perspective

Eric Hoffer’s essay targeted 1960s American society as the main receiver. In the text, the writer touches upon various categories of people from American society: the working class, the educated, the young, and environmental activists. Consequently, the essay hints at the social stratification in the US in the 1960s.

...

Thematic perspective

Some of the questions in your textbook ask you to compare Hoffer’s essay with three poems from the Romantic period that also deal with the theme of man and nature: “London” and “The Echoing Green” by William Blake, and “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth.

“The Echoing Green” (Wider Contexts, p. 202) was published in 1789. The three-stanza poem depicts a spring day from sunrise to sunset. The poem describes a group of children playing in nature supervised by old men and caring mothers.

While Hoffer’s essay describes some of the negative effects of being in nature, such as “scratches, bites, torn clothes and grime” (p. 211, ll. 8-9), Blake’s poem presents being in nature as an ideal way of spending one’s day. Hoffer’s essay suggests that being in nature is stressful, but Blake’s poem suggests that being in nature is relaxing and joyful.

...