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Henry david thoreau major thoughts and life essay
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In “Life without Principle" Thoreau argues that work should be something we love in order to lead a life worth living, not simply a make a living.
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get "a good job," but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
Thoreau is able to get his readers to agree with him because he appeals to our idealistic notions of how nice it would be to love every minute of life, including work. However, Thoreau does not take into account people living in poverty, worrying about things such as paying rent and finding money for children's clothes or school supplies. It is almost naive to conclude that in order to live a fulfilled life we must pursue our own path in finding what it is we truly love, and then work doing that. How can he forget there are people who do not have such freedom and must take a job because it comes with a paycheck?
I as a university student what can I think and believe about a world without any profit if I am paying to the university or after finish to the government if you received a loan, for sure I am studying what I want and I think I will love to do it for the rest of my life but this is me, my opinion, my situation. In my case I want to run my own engineering business, be “the man in charge” that’s what I would love to do but I am pretty sure that I will not be doing what I want or what I love since the first day after leaving the university. Life is about sacrifices and...
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... clearly it is nice to think about the possibility of live doing what we love to do but it is not an universal possibility although Thoreau talks about industrial workers, he doesn’t seem to understand them, is it hard for a wealthy person or even a normal person to imagine what impoverished people have to do and what do they sacrifice because of his conditions and that they have to work, work and work because if they don’t, they will starve. I am not wealthy but I am not poor but I have seen at close range what impoverished people suffer and how if we see people with degrees claiming for the lack of jobs let just imagine all those who doesn’t have any degree, did Thoreau forgot there are people who do not have such freedom and must take a job because it comes with a paycheck? I really think he did although is a good principle but it cannot be a universal principle.
Thoreau talks about the politics, power and civil disobedience in his works. He believed that when many thought alike, the power was stronger within that minority. I think that Thoreau's intention was to point out that those people who dare to go against what seems to be unjust and go against the majority, and stand erect, are the people who transform society as a whole.
In Thoreau’s view, he felt that the government was insufficient. He didn’t need the laws to be just, he used his conscious and morality. He was compelled to do what morally was right, rather than it being based on government issued laws such as the complacent society there is today. People seem to care about justice, yet are immoral. This was the message Thoreau was trying to get across.
He didn 't believe that the world should stop work and live off the land, on the contrary, he believed, “The human dignity, wild life force and freedom were preserved within such a working process. Thoreau believed that labor was not only the activity that could bring material profits, but also a play which make man complete and developed simultaneously” (Ma 384). Thoreau 's work was experiencing nature and living transcendentally in order to share the quality of life that nature provides. We see Thoreau in many aspects of today 's society whether it 's Lisa from The Simpsons, a means of transportation, or political protests, they all follow a Thoreauvian idea of looking at the bigger picture and seeing what really matters. This way of thinking was created because one man decided that society was too mainstream and he moved off to the edge of town and reflected; people these days that do that are referred to as “hipsters” but the influence had to come from somewhere, and that was Henry David Thoreau. A closer reading of Thoreau 's works can put a new perspective on a common thing and provide a new outlook on life. Thoreau was not one to preach rather do something about it, not for the money or the fame but because of his “love of life— reverence for all the life in the
One way that Thoreau urges his readers to find their true selves is making one's self the most important aspect of one's life. He does this by disregarding public opinion in favor of private opinion. He says, "Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate (110)." In other words, soci...
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
An American Author, Transcendentalist and tax resister, Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts, and lived there most of his life. He was opposed to many of the things that went on in our society and debated many issues in his life. Two of these major issues are , the Mexican American War and the implement of Slavery in our society. This was the reason for many of his writings include “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “Civil Disobedience” where he wrote about his principles and views against the U.S government and their involvement in the Mexican American War and the evil of Slavery. Thoreau opposed to these because they promote unjust government practices which he was strongly against.
Rather, he should always protest for his autonomy. Thoreau expands on this subject in Civil Disobedience. After expressing his desires for a small government, he questions the idea of government itself: “Must the citizen ever for a moment...resign his conscience to the legislator?...[W]e should be men first, and subjects afterwards” (Civil Disobedience 171). Placing the individual over the government, Thoreau shows his passion for the self. That person’s actions may go awry, but, at least, the person still has the right to learn from his or her wrongs. Thoreau likens a meaningful existence with unyielding trust in a person’s inner voice. Without nurturing this voice, an individual loses his or her personhood. Such unwavering loyalty to the self best characterizes the transcendental ideal life, where one only needs to follow intuition to be
Have you ever woke up in the morning and asked yourself, “Why am I living this life?” Throughout the book of Walden, Henry David Thoreau questions the lifestyles that people choose; he makes his readers wonder if they have chosen the kind of lifestyle that give them the greatest amount of happiness. Thoreau stated, “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them().” This quote is important because most of society these days are so caught up in work and trying to make ends meet that they lose the values in life. Thoreau was forced to change his life when he found himself unhappy after a purchase for a farm fell through. On Thoreau’s journey he moves to Walden and builds a house and life from nothing but hard work, symbolizes many different objects.
The worker comes to believe that the maintenance of individual existence is thus the single and solitary goal of their life activity.” He believes that if a worker works only for the wage then he deprives himself of purpose in life. In turn, he implies that labor is the only way to affirm one’s purpose in life. Life is about the mindset each person carries. It is possible that one could work a job simply for the wage. However, that does not to mean that they have to lack self-actualization. One could be working a job that they don’t completely enjoy but realize they have found purpose in providing for their family. To be able to provide for their family and create happiness within them, is all it takes for some. The means of production in a capitalist economy does not inevitably lead to alienation. Others may work a job solely for the wage but find purpose in non-economic activities. For example, people could find their purpose in the church, playing a sport, tutoring children, and more. Your job doesn’t have to define your meaning in
In this essay I discuss Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience. I took a counterargument approach. I found his argument to be flawed and his character lacking. I do not think there is any one answer to the big questions of the day, but advice is hard to follow from a man who lived like a hermit and did not appear to contribute to society during his time. What is amazing is that his writings did inspire some great moments in history. Martin Luther King and Gandhi both effectively used his philosophy to affect some profound changes in our society. For that we owe the man a debt of gratitude. Writing is a form of art, and the art he left behind is something people will always appreciate, even if we do not agree with the man himself.
Pathos is prevalent throughout Thoreau’s essay. He uses pathos in an attempt to persuade his readers into making a logical and ethical choice. The essay as a whole is an attempt to anger the reader into taking action against what Thoreau sees as an unjust government. When he refers to “the mass of men” who are in service to the country, the soldiers, as being the “same worth only as horse and dogs” and of serving “the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines...
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
Many people who happen to fall into the cultural norms find Thoreau's statement to be intimidating. The way they view the world is extremely sheltered they do not choose this, it is jus t the way they are. They have always viewed the world through a screen that filters what they see. This screen is different for each individual depending on his or her cultural background and/or home environment. These factors along with many others create the screen by which they see the world.
...y, considering citizenship and working for the benefit of society, while Henry Thoreau emphasizes the illusory nature and imperfection of the state and sees individual freedom in unity with nature and rejection of pseudo-needs enslaving people.
He did not consider studying and readins as being “work”. He states: “Men like to work`.” (Lodge 126)