Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

“Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighborhood.”

The sentence employs parallelism, creating a balanced structure that contrasts two entities: “television” and “nature.” This parallel structure helps emphasize the differing effects of each on a child’s perception of time and well-being. The contrast is further amplified through the use of semicolons, which serve to separate yet link closely related independent clauses.

“Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion.”

Louv employs metaphor when discussing how a child will “wash” confusion “in the creek,” implying that nature has a cleansing, purifying effect on the complexities and problems one might carry. This isn’t a literal washing, but the comparison makes the abstract idea of emotional or psychological cleansing palpable.

“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”

When Louv describes the woods as “my Ritalin,” a medication commonly used to treat ADHD, he uses a metaphor to encapsulate the therapeutic effect of nature. This metaphor underscores the emotional and psychological benefits of spending time in the woods, juxtaposing it against a pharmaceutical treatment. Louv also uses antithesis in “calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses,” a construction that places seemingly opposite effects side by side.