In Harmony with Nature: Difference between revisions

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This, simply, is a character or a society who, either by training or by intuition, understands the resources and rhythms of nature exceptionally well, and lives accordingly. They may be able survive in, or travel through, an apparently forbidding wilderness with ease. If they're not an actual [[Nature Hero]], they'll probably be a virtually self-sufficient farmer or gardener, able to coax [[Call to Agriculture|glorious harvests out of the ground]] with a single trowel and love (and certainly never with pesticides) and will pontificate about the ancient [[Arcadia|wisdom of the soil]]. At the very least, they'll be able to experience a simple jaunt through the [[Ghibli Hills|countryside]] on a deeper level to any more urban-minded people around them.
 
In more [[Anvilicious]] works, this overlaps with [[Friend to All Living Things]]. Usually, however, living [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] requires you to kill the occasional creature, and even if you never take more than you need and have immense respect for the little critters you're roasting over the campfire, this does tends to deter them from gathering around you adoringly while you sing.
 
When confined to cities, characters who are [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] will often become [[Country Mouse|distressed]] and wonder how the other characters can bear to live in such choking sterile surroundings. Characters [[Raised Byby Wolves]] will almost inevitably be like this, as will the [[Magical Native American]] and the [[Noble Savage]]. Often a characteristic of a [[Mary Suetopia]].
 
See also [[Harmony Versus Discipline]], this trope being Harmony.
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== [[Film]] ==
* This trope is almost the entire point of [[Disney|Disney's]] ''[[Pocahontas]]''.
* The Na'vi in ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' live in the midst of a jungle, and actually communicate with other animals directly. [[Fantastic Aesop|Which makes it really easy to accomplish, compared to us humans]].
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Lord of the Rings]]''. Partly by virtue of the quasi-medieval setting, many of the societies and individuals included are depicted [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] in one way or another:
** The hobbits, especially Sam, in that farmerly-wisdom, son-of-the-soil sort of way.
** The elves in the spiritual "The trees are talking to me" way.
*** After Tolkien's depiction of elves as this in ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'', pretty much [[Our Elves Are Better|all elves]] [[Follow the Leader|in any fantasy work]] [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|ever]] are like this.
** Aragorn in the "I can tell you the entire life story of who walked through that hedge and bent that twig" way.
* The elves in ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'' are even more [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] than even Tolkien's elves, to the point that they are a bunch of pompous [[Veganopia|vegans]] who use magic to bend nature to their will.
** As a vegetarian I think it's cool that there are vegan characters...I just take offence to the fact that the elves are [[Mary Sue|ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS RIGHT]]. Seriously. The main character converts to vegetarianism solely ''because the elves tell him to'', while having no problem with slaughtering hundreds of people in battle.
* In ''[[How I Live Now]]'', nine-year-old Piper is like this.
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{{quote| "She learns from the skies and the wild marsh-tiggets, not out o' books."<br />
"How trying," observed Flora. }}
* In ''Adiamante'', a science fiction novel by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., the future people of Earth are [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] because they '''have''' to be. The environmental damage of the past has so damaged the planet that even the most "minor" disruptions would have big consequences.
* In the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]], the Kazarites and Irriol are two races like this. The Kazarites have telepathic and empathic links with animals, and accordingly have a culture greatly concerned with preserving natural eco-systems. This empathy extends to animals beyond Kazar itself, allowing them to aid in the restoration of other, more damaged planets. In [[Star Trek Mere Anarchy]], their "ecopaths" play a role in the terraforming of central planet Mestiko, which has been heavily damaged by a pulsar. The Irriol are even more [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]], to the point where they are willing to sacrifice their lives to predators if they sense that the ecosphere is better served by their deaths.
* Parodied in ''[[Discworld]]''; the wizards expected Mustrum Ridcully to be a "roams the forests with [[Friend to All Living Things|every beast his brother]]" type, who talked to birds, because he was a wizard who lived in the countryside. He turned out to be a [[Great White Hunter]] who ''shouted'' at birds ("Winged yer, yer bastard!"), but he's still more in harmony with nature than the other wizards, who never leave the city if they can avoid it.
** Magrat seems to ''expect'' witches to embody this trope, even though she's seen enough of them to know they're more farm-oriented than wilderness-oriented. Witches ''were'' generally depicted as more [[In Harmony Withwith Nature]] than bookish wizards, at least until ''[[Discworld (Literature)/I Shall Wear Midnight|I Shall Wear Midnight]]'' pointed out that urban witches are entirely possible.
* Dickon in ''[[The Secret Garden]]'' astounds even his family with how happy he is on the moors and how well he gets along with animals. He teaches Mary, Colin, and even Ben Weatherstaff to do the same, though his knack is always the best.
* In ''[[Heidi (Literature)|Heidi]]'', Alm-Uncle has many elements of this trope (with the comeuppance that he is not a people person.) Heidi manages to live in harmony with the goats ''and'' [[Friend to All Living Things|charm everyone around her]]. She also suffers in city environments.
* In ''[[The Blue Castle]],'' Barney lives this way, and when Valancy comes along to live with him she takes to it like a fish to water.
* In fact, the vast majority of [[LML. M. Montgomery]] heroines possess this trope. [[Anne of Green Gables|Anne asserts that]] she could never be happy someplace that didn't have trees. ''[[Jane of Lantern Hill (Literature)|Jane of Lantern Hill]]'' blossoms when she moves out to the countryside, is a great gardener, and even before then, had an affinity for the moon. Marigold (from ''Magic for Marigold'') loves nothing better than to roam the hills and shore of Prince Edward Island.
 
 
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* In the Camping Episode of [[The Simpsons]], Marge and Lisa were separated from the rest of their family. With nothing, they managed to have a nice fire and a comfortable place to rest. Marge was even seen sweeping out the hut and arranging the living animals in a row. Homer and Bart, on the other hand, were not so lucky...
* The ponies, in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', aren't so much in harmony with nature as crucial to its functioning. They clean up the winter snow, change the seasons and the weather, tend the 'wild' animals, and nurture the plants. One character even speaks of the Everfree Forest as a horrific place because the plants grow on their own and the animals take care of themselves.
* The fairies in ''[[Fern Gully]]'' are like this, as guardians of a rainforest.
* The [[Paper Master|Wood Forgers]] seen in the ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "The Forest of Magi Oar" think they are this, being the Forest's self-proclaimed guardians. {{spoiler|They're not. Their desire for power is ''harming'' the forest (through a paper mill), so much so that Viragor, the ''true'' guardian of the Forest, wants to evict them.}}
 
== [[Real Life]] ==