Unintentional yet Strikingly Identical: Henry David Thoreau and Douglas Coupland

July 12, 1817, a man by the name of Henry David Thoreau entered the world. His father was a manufacturer of lead pencils, and Thoreau made it a personal goal to make the best pencil possible. After accomplishing the feat of developing a better lead pencil, he swore to never make another pencil again (Emerson 654). Stating, “Why should I? I would not do again what I have done once” (Emerson 654). This led to his life studies involving nature, and his never-ending pursuit of personal perfection.

In pursuit of self-perfection, H. D. Thoreau isolated himself from the world around him. He did this in Walden Woods surrounding Walden Pond. His goal was self-perfection through self-culture. He adamantly avoided society and social institutions. Thoreau saw society as capitalists making profits on consumerism, meaning everything in society revolved around material items. By separating himself from all social institutions involving material items, profits, and consumerism, Thoreau thought that his closeness to Nature, and his self-reliance, would lead him to become the perfect individual. Th...