Final answer:
Washington Irving and Cullen Bryant both celebrate the beauty of nature, with Irving giving it a mysterious aura and Bryant seeing it as a divine force.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the writings of Washington Irving, Cullen Bryant, and Henry David Thoreau, nature is a prevalent theme, though each author approaches it differently. Irving, known for stories like 'Rip Van Winkle,' often used nature as a backdrop for his tales, infusing the American landscape with a sense of the magical and mysterious.
Henry David Thoreau, arguably the most focused on nature among the three, viewed it as essential to individualism and spiritual discovery. His works, Walden and 'Civil Disobedience', advocate for a life integrated with nature, emphasizing simplicity and self-sufficiency. Thoreau's ecocritical perspective highlights the importance of personal freedom.
Both in protest against government and societal expectations, and in the choice to live close to nature. While Irving and Bryant took more traditional literary paths in evoking nature's beauty and sublimity, Thoreau embodied the transcendentalist movement's principles by living the philosophies he wrote about.