"The Seasons"

Jackson Leung
Discussion 1B

Thomson’s The Seasons describes the envisioning of the northern lights, the aurora. The text falls under the topic of nature, but can be read as a piece that urges readers to discover the characteristics of the self. What Thomson attempts to do is show readers that what a person observes depends on who the person is; no two persons will have exactly identical interpretations of a phenomenon; i.e., the views of uneducated mobs differing from the views of philosophical men. Thomson uses The Seasons to iterate and relay the idea that a person’s perception matters much more than reality.