【正确答案】正确答案：Since the 19th century the desire to escape from society and return to nature has become a permanent convention of American literature. With the founding of the American independent government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nations did not have; the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with the Indians, the frontiersmen"s life, and the Wild West. Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper"s Leatherstocking Tales, which is a legendary presentation of the frontier life that fosters individualism and love of nature. This desire can also be found in American transcendentalism, which is a liberal philosophy favoring nature over formal religious structure and human instinct over social convention. It is a reaction against the direction that a mechanized, capitalist America is taking, against the popular tendency to get ahead in world affairs. Being dissatisfied with the materialistic-oriented society and eagering to save soul with a doctrine of the mind, writers of the transcendentalism see nature as a symbol of the Spirit of God. Thoreau"s Walden, for example, is deceptively casual and reads like a diary of a nature lover. It contains essays of a semi-philosophical character, expanding the spiritual life by simplifying material needs.