Thoreau´s View on Nature and Human Necessities

Discuss what Thoreau considered to be important in life?

Nature and the benefits of a simplified lifestyle were important to Thoreau. Thoreau makes the statement how “brute creation requires more than Food and Shelter. Even in a certain climate, Thoreau felt that a man’s necessities are Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel. He states how cats and dogs require the same second nature.

Liebig says, “ man’s body is a stove, and food is the fuel which keeps the internal combustion in the lungs. In cold weather we tend to eat more and in the summer, we eat less. The animal heat is a result of slow combustion, disease and death take place when this is too rapid from want of fuel.” Some may agree that in the winter we eat more and in the warm we eat less. Liebig’s analogy only proves one point that just as fuel is to the stove, so is food to our bodies. Thoreau believes that Nature overrides the intake of Food, meaning we can find other ways of nature to necessitate the warmth of our bodies. Clothing and shelter and our beds are examples of warmth. He finds all of this unnecessary if you seek for luxury and go beyond what you can afford.

Thoreau sought his necessities at Walden Pond, White Pond, Flints’ and Golden Pond. It was at these ponds that he was able to attain all of Nature’s resources. His description of the evening time, he calls it “delicious”. He feels at one with Nature, “a part of herself”. These are the simple things in life that turn Thoreau on. It is not the society of humans which he gravitates to, but it is the society of Nature. Even the sounds of the hooting owls, the sparrow chirps, and the midnight hags which are the nocturnal birds that brought satisfaction to Thoreau. It did not matter to him that ther...

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...rs. Capital and money was never a big deal to him. Perhaps, industry kept many people from mischief, or maybe they love the act of laboring, he stated. He released the pursuit. Thoreau understood and argued that a man’s possession required excessive labor and later the pursuit of purchasing. In other words, the more money gained, the more you desire to spend. Money is not a requirement nor necessity for the soul.

Materialism was not the ultimate thing for Thoreau. He preferred Nature and not hard labor or spending. For example, consumerism made men poor and always reliant. Thoreau proved to be self-reliant. Factories would constantly be industrializing as long as society will buy from their corporations. He built his own home, he had a wonderful farm near his cabin, and he produced and profit from his own labor. Nature was never ending for the visionary, Thoreau.