Rousseau's Essay: Search For Happiness In Nature And Solitude.

Write an essay responding to it. You do not need to research and use secondary material, but you may if you wish – BUT only as explained below. There is no inherent advantage or additional marks for choosing to research and use secondary material, but it may help you write a better response.

The secondary research texts you may use are limited to those placed in the Essay Research Folder, which is in the Assessment folder on vUWS. No other research materials are allowed for this essay. You should reference and list in a bibliography any research material you use.

You do need to show evidence of your reading and understanding of the primary text mentioned in the topic. Reference quotations and paraphrasing properly. List the text at the end of the essay For these essays, the two primary texts are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ‘Fifth Walk’ and Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto. Both are in the unit Reader. Do not over-quote in order to fill up the essay. No more than about a quarter of your essay should be quotations, but probably much less.

See the criteria as listed in the unit Learning guide if you want more details about what is important for the essay, but, the essential task for this assignment is to show comprehension of the primary material, and then your own argument (or ‘thesis’) in response to the topic. Note how the topics ask for what you think. You must state your argument in a sentence or two (no more) in your essay introduction, and then support that argument through the essay.

1. Rousseau is at home in nature, since being at home is when we are surrounded with things that reinforce who we really are. Either agree or disagreewith this statement and explain.

Discussion

The fine section of the Fifth walk by Rousseau illustrates his life of exile at St. Peter’s island located in Lake Brenna, Switzerland. He defines that it was the best part of his life that left him no regrets. In this book, he asserts that the place is an extremely pleasant and wonderful place that is full of happiness for a man who likes to live within specific limits. The essay here outlines an argument based on the statement that Rousseau is at home, since being at home, individuals are able to reinforce about themselves. Similar to this statement, the study here illustrates the two months tenure of Rousseau exile at St. Peter’s, where he lived quietly with the help of local tax collectors, his wife and their servants. The duration of his stay at that place helped him to find the happiest time of his life.

In the Fifth Walk Rousseau expresses a great ideal of the solitary findings of human being that is incomparable solace and happiness through an emotional connection with the natural surroundings. The context of the solitary walker is an idea that has been accepted and established in an enthusiastic way in the piece. However, in this section, he describes an interest for nature that is mostly infused with botany. This element in the passages, Rousseau outlines the ecstatic discovery that emerges from his possessed passing times where is eulogises the gratification it brings.

This type of feelings is natural when an individual spends their time staying at home under closed doors for long hours. At these periods, the individual moves further to compare their inner revelation to god-like state. Similar to this, Rousseau moves further until his reveries permit to release this ecstatic pleasure even after he was removed from the scene. It has been seen the literary piece that the effect of romantic landscape works addictively on his senses, driving the agitation from his heart.

Rousseau quotes saying that it is the happiest time of his life, so happy that have satisfied him for his whole existence without the wish for another state taking place for a single instant in his soul. In this period, Rousseau found ultimate solace in nature that never tends to lie. Nature was for him and therefore, the ultimate achievement and contentment for his seeking soul. He admitted that he could have spent in the island for two years or two while centuries without having being bored even though the only company he had there was the tax collector steward and his wife and the servants. This mostly due to the facts that it was not possible for him to leave the pace without any help, wherein the only possibility of communication was through the people present around a home.  

Rousseau's Experience of Solitude in Nature

After coming to this place, he started living there with his most preserved companions, including his books, few belongings. Rousseau left his books and effects unavailable so that he could live all the moments until the end in solitude. He had a heartfelt conversation with the people nearby, long hours of walks in the forest as well fields that gave him the moment of utmost self-revelation and a complete feeling contentment while allowing him to revive an interest in botany and nature. He was able to drift in a boat on the lake that reminded him one of Chuang Tzu’s justification.

It was that duration of time, that helped him to go in search of his happiness and a complete desire to make the period last for eternity that is beyond the flux of time and change without having any feeling of lethargy. The passage represented the glimpses of the quality that were the results of the life present on the solitary island. Rousseau illustration of dreaminess and imagination the blurriness of reality and fiction have been completely described in the passage.

The passage helps to explore the natural surroundings through the author's experience of the heavenly forfeiture of integrity about the self-present in an individual's consciousness. In this, ‘self” is the part of all encompassed completely. Nature I this writing author presents a recognition of the self with nature as a basis, which can be now defined as the deep environmental way of being in the world. It can be argued that Rousseau demonstration of the union with nature is not definitely estranged in a normative sense. He has expressed it numerous time in the passage the nothing could be more incredible than the happiness and ecstasy that he feels every time he observed the structure and organisation of the botanical components of the plants. However, it can be argued from the statement above that Rousseau in this passage draws increased attention to the normative form of words as a quality for the good and authentic feeling of an individual.

The word nature has been often used in a way that is similar to the ecological authors and Rousseau. There are obvious problems in the passage as it assumes and consistency and normal value that is not possible to establish in a definite way. It can be argued that a consistent state of being trapped within a place full of nature cannot give rise to a feeling of happiness all the time. It can be argued that the typical approach of his self-consciousness offers a key for understanding the character of writing and the limitation that is always present within them.

Rousseau's Idea of Happiness in Nature

On the contrary, facts within the passage can be supported stating that it is his personal experience at that period which forced him to look different through his understanding of happiness. In this context, it can be said that the highest forms of happiness can be obtained through an act of will that Rousseau has done by experimenting with nature by exercising the freedom. By activating through morality, Roseau has participated in a spiritual way ruling the universes in a whole. All the elements in the passage denote the conception of happiness while staying in solitude in a different way.  This statement can be supported by stating that Roseau has a complicated understanding of the nature of being happy, but at the end of a passage, he clearly outlines the essential importance of moderation and contented life for the sake of happiness.

Rousseau says that at times when the lake would be rough he was able to go out in a boat, though, which he was able, spend his afternoon crisscrossing over the island and by gathering plants of his choice. From this statement, it could be commented that he found a state of happiness in leisure solitude where he could enjoy the ecstatic view of the lake and nearby lake that aroused his inner emotions. The natural environment that kept his soul transfixed consistent movement through at a happy place. It was a psychological interpretation of the impulses present in nature, which an individual is usually unaware of when they are not in solitude.   

However, it is seen from the passage that more sense a sol is, the more the individual gives himself up to the feeling of ecstatic that this feeling of harmony arouses in them. It is a sweet and deep feeling that take possession in the individual soul through tempting into0xification of the movements. Rousseau gives the idea in the passage that nature has the ability to get into greater while and has even the capability to transcend the realm where one can find the ultimate happiness. It can be argued from the passage on the context of Rousseau’s depiction of nature and happiness that deepest truths of life can be identified through a process of intuition through facts of reason and it is nature that offers an empowering way to generate those intuitions.

Therefore, it can be said that Rousseau throughout the passage focuses on the continuous flux of the earth by which he signifies that individual’s feelings and affections are unstable as it fluctuates between different thoughts. However, happiness is not made up flowing thoughts rather it is uncomplicated and permanent stated which is intense in itself that increases with the increasing duration of time. It can be said that an individual can find happiness when things that reinforce happiness in them surround them.

Conclusion:

Therefore, from the above passage, it can be agreed upon that staying at home in nature can arouse feelings of happiness and contentment. Nature plays a central role in shaping an individual soul, as Rousseau’s period of exile; it is the necessary ingredient, which helped him to identify the examining temptation and consequences of his soul. It helped him to understand the type of man he naturally is. Throughout the entire passage, he consistently serves mirror for find the consequence of self-inspection that acts as a prompt to further understanding. The time spends on the island provides him with a harmonious ambience for delving into the root of nature and its beauty into a more powerful emotion that allows him to extract the insights of happiness.

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