Thoreau is a philosophical man that believes in individualism, freedom, and the love for nature. Many people of Concord and other travelers portray him as a person with strong beliefs that guide his lifestyle. He settled in Walden pond where he built his own house out of the nearby-standing trees surrounding his plot of land. By following his beliefs, Thoreau chopped down the trees, utilized the availability of the land to his disposal, and the most important factor; manages all of his expenses and revenue. To many wandering eyes, they identify Thoreau as a strong belief person that lives the life of simplicity, utilizing the limited amount of money he has and his resourceful mind to obtain the maximum usage of each item. In the novel Walden, …show more content…
Therefore, Thoreau compares how he travels versus how the working man travels to places. His financial belief relates to his philosophical reasoning by stating that walking to places using one’s own feet, he/she can arrive quicker and at the same time save a day’s work of pay, instead of a person who works a whole day and has to spend all his income to arrive at the same place. The paradox explains two distinctly different style of people. On one side, there are the working men who would spend a whole day’s worth of pay, only to pay a fare to be taken to a destination that can be reached by walking. On the other side there are men, like Thoreau, who choose to walk to their destination, arrive quicker than their working counterparts, and at the same time save their hard earned money on other necessities. That concludes that most working men only look at one route in traveling, unlike Thoreau, he looks at the bigger picture. Although Thoreau philosophical claim to many people seems outrageous, he provides ample examples and evidence to support his view that by living simply, yet poor, one can be richer than most working …show more content…
In Walden, Thoreau’s philosophical claim interprets that by spending money on valuable projects that have meaning, not only men but the states can save money on communication. He claims that man invents newer and more efficient means to communicate. But, the big picture he states is that by inventing new tools they are, “improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York.” By Thoreau’s reasoning, the improve means of communication waste money because the people or the states may not have anything to communicate about. Therefore, he believes that communication should only be implemented where there is information that’s important or benefits others. In other words, although people build lines for the sake of communicating, Thoreau’s philosophical reasoning ask people to thoroughly think the means and expenses for building unnecessary projects when the money can be transferred into a project that’s needed to save money for both the states and
In this passage from the famous text Walden, the author Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist and transcendentalist, gives an account of his experience while living in isolation at Walden pond for two years of his life. While in isolation, he sought to enjoy life away from the hustle and bustle of society and live more simplistically without concern of the small things in life.
His desire to escape from what he entered imbibed in him an acute sense of the dangers posed by the dispassionate being that nature is. Meanwhile, Thoreau voluntarily went to Walden Pond to determine whether he is capable of earning his “living by the labor of [his] hand only” (“Economy”, par. 1). He was trying to prove his ideas on self-reliance to be correct and applicable in the real world. Thus, he had an incentive to focus on the positive aspects of being alone with the surrounding
Thoreau believed that labor was not only the activity that could bring material profits, but also a play which made 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.
Henry David Thoreau pens his book Walden during a revolutionary period of time known as American Romanticism. The literary movement of American Romanticism began roughly between the years of 1830 and 1860. It is believed to be a chapter of time in which those who had been dissatisfied by the Age of Reason were revolting through works of literature. All elements of Romanticism are in sharp, abrupt contrast to those types of ideas such as empirical observation and rationality. An online article describes American Romanticism in the following manner, “They celebrated imagination/intuition versus reason/calculation, spontaneity versus control, subjectivity and metaphysical musing versus objective fact, revolutionary energy versus tradition, individualism versus social conformity, democracy versus monarchy, and so on” (Strickland). In 1845 during that period of time, Thoreau decides to spend two years of his life in an experiment with Mother Nature in a cabin at Walden Pond. He tells exquisite tales of life in natural surroundings in his book, Walden, through a most primitive organic style. Walden is a key work of American Romanticism because of its embedded ideas of solitude, individualism, pantheism and intuition.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
Fender, Stephen. Introduction. Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Print.
Throughout Thoreau's “Walden”, he lays out many suggestions that some may take as significant or just senseless. Thoreau brings forth many concepts such as necessity, news, and labor which would benefit modern society. Yet, his views on isolation and moderation are unattainable in a technology-driven society. Even though the ideas that could benefit society may not be totally agreeable, the main reasoning for them are valid. Those ideas of isolation and moderation are clearly not possible in a world where people crave to be social and live to obtain any and everything they want.
In chapter two of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, entitled "Where I Lived, and What I Lived for", there are two themes that run throughout the narrative. The key theme that emerges continually is that of simplicity with the additional theme being that of freedom. Thoreau finds himself surrounded by a world that has no true freedom or simplified ways, with people committed to the world that surrounds them rather than being committed to their own true self within nature.
Henry David Thoreau wanted to express his thoughts to the world. He did so by writing Walden a book that gives insights on the world from Thoreau’s point of view. “Walden” gives valuable advice in all types of fields. It shows aspects of Thoreau’s personality and how he views the world. To the best of my knowledge, Henry has many characteristics that he expressed in this book. Most of what he wrote was impressive. Honestly, I was extremely enthusiastic about reading this. Initially, I thought it would be a book like Great Expectations. But my expectations were wrong. I did not think I would actually learn things. Surprisingly, it sparked motivation in me. I wanted to be more in touch with nature. It seemed like Henry David Thoreau had everything figured out. He was calm and thoughtful and he seemed to look at life in a different way. Being in solitude in nature must really get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to look at your flaws and look at your talents. I was greatly intrigued by every page of Walden.
Thoreau conveys many points in his writing and a large recurring one is the state of society. As stated before, he believed that people are too focused on physical gain and modernization which leads them into desperation. He adds on to this belief later in the book asking that above all else whether it be money or fame he be given honesty (Thoreau 246). To Thoreau, the truth is more important than anything measurable in status. Thoreau believes that a minimalist lifestyle is a good lifestyle, similar to Mccandless. He speaks of how it is good that he can put all of his belonging in one pile in his yard because it removes the clutter from his life (Thoreau 85). He also says that his best quality in life is to want very little, because it keeps himself true to himself and keeps him from distraction. Thoreau also believes that every man should be one in himself not oppressed by the government. He says that everyone should be able to be themselves whether is is in accord with the government or not (Thoreau 240). He is essentially saying that the government should not be a part of people's life decisions only to maintain the
He pointed out everything he thought was wrong with the new world we live in saying we “live too fast” and “our life is frittered away by detail” (Thoreau 181). He ended his piece by saying “Why should we live with such a hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” (Thoreau 183). He believed that our lives were becoming unnecessarily complicated and he promoted “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Thoreau 182). He even used a metaphor of the railroad to show that in our need for increased transportation, the mistreatment and death of laborers was occurring in the U.S. saying, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides up on us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them.” (Thoreau
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.
Thoreau after graduating from Harvard College began to keep a journal that he filled with the many thoughts and observations that came to him on his daily walks about Concord (Richardson 7). These Journals would spawn into the many books that he wrote, the most prominent being Walden. Thoreau was a self-taught naturalist, who spent much of his time systematically studying the natural phenomena almost exclusively around Concord (Witherell and Dubrulle). His Journal contains these careful observations, such as the cycles of plants, of local water levels, and many other natural phenomena (Witherell and Dubrulle). These Journals help to impress the love that he held for nature. It is this feeling that has propelled him to be considered by many to be the leader of the environmental movement (Buell 171).
According to the statement, “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,” Thoreau believes that the basis for the success of any person is his/her own individual opinion of himself/herself. Thoreau is the perfect example of his own opinion, based on his time spent living a simple life at Walden Pond. The public had varied opinions of Thoreau’s lifestyle, and Thoreau even addresses some critics in his essay. However, Thoreau himself was very content with his lifestyle, and he believed that his simple lifestyle was far superior compared to the seemingly luxurious lifestyle of men, who actually are in debt and bound to a la...
When thinking about the transcendental period and/or about individuals reaching out and submerging themselves in nature, Henry David Thoreau and his book, Walden, are the first things that come to mind. Unknown to many, there are plenty of people who have braved the environment and called it their home during the past twenty years, for example: Chris McCandless and Richard Proenneke. Before diving into who the “modern Thoreaus” are, one must venture back and explore the footprint created by Henry Thoreau.