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ther and so on. Above all, the ecological problems brought by the economic development cannot be underestimated. Co-existing and keeping balance might be the way to resolve it.In this situation, many men and women with high ideals give suggestions in order to improve the ecological environment, among whom are writers and scholars. Many scholars try to figure out the realistic significance of the literary works by analyzing the contexts. In the early period of industrialization, confronting with the changing between humans and the nature, Thoreau chose to move into the woods. There he acquired the achievement Walden and The Maine Woods. And so far, there have been so many studies with these great works. As a master of foreign linguistics and applied linguistics in the twenty-first century, the author thinks it is the author’s responsibility to make a contribution to improving China’s ecological environment. Therefore, the author chooses Thoreau’s essay The Maine Woods, making an analysis and giving interpretation to the text from the perspective of ecocriticism, and gets a conclusion from Thoreau’s ecological thought, in hope of offering help to improving the ecological environment.
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Chapter Two Literature Review on Thoreau and The Maine Woods

Known as one of the most famous writers and the leading transcendentalist, Thoreau has been studied by many scholars in the past decades. However, in his days he was generally dismissed as a minor writer. At that time, his only fame was perhaps being the faithful disciple of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was his best friend and a good teacher. After he died, more and more people found Thoreau’s ecological thought predictable and valuable. And more scholars began to study his works such as Walden and The Maine Woods. Both of them are Thoreau’s famous works. And Walden has already been studied by many scholars while The Maine Woods has not.

2.1 Studies Abroad
In the American literature history, Thoreau was a really complicated person because he had been criticized by people with different views. In the past, people made different comments on Thoreau.At first, the American writer J.R. Lowell and the British writer A.E. Stevenson criticized him severely. They considered him as an amateur naturalist and a wild idler. Some early scholars such as Mark Vari Doren and Norman Forester, affirmed Thoreau’s achievements of art and survey of truth and beauty. They believed that Thoreau had devoted all his life to pursue the truth, the kindness and the beauty of nature. However, they did not pay much attention on his thoughts because they thought that Thoreau’s hypothesis and experience didn’t result in great effect in terms of intelligence, morality or aesthetics. Instead, they considered his insight narrow and they thought he was too self-immersed.As the global environment crisis occurred there had been more and more various environment movements. During that time, Thoreau’s philosophy and simple life began to draw the public’s attention since he had depicted the beauty of nature and showed his concern about the relationship between