Henry David Thoreau And Walden Comparison Essay

Both novels, Walden by Henry David Thoreau and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, share a common theme of isolation. In Walden, Thoreau shares his story of the time he spends experimenting with philosophy and social criticism by voluntarily isolating himself to a simple, debt free life in the woods near Walden Pond. Lord of the Flies addresses the moral differences between law and chaos with a fictional story about a group of school-age children who crash land on a deserted island during a war. Unlike Walden, the children in Lord of the Flies do not have a choice in the matter of their isolation and are also in a group with conflicting opinions. Thoreau decides to spend two years isolated and living off the land. He’s committed to being debt free but borrows items from different people in town. He’s determined to discover and demonstrate the benefits of living a simpler lifestyle, as he states in chapter one: Economy. Thoreau often criticizes people saying in chapter three, Sounds and , that an owl voices the “unsatisfied thoughts which we all have”. In this Thoreau implies that the desire to have better things, or the availability of better items results in the unhappiness of human beings. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the protagonist, Ralph, is faced with the difficulty of establishing law and order as he tries his best to create a civil lifestyle on the island until

Unlike Walden, the isolation of these boys is not merely a social experiment and results in the death of many innocent children. Both books are similar in the fact that everyone is surprised to find how the other side lives. Piggy, Ralph, Simon, and Thoreau all wonder what makes people want more than they need. They all wonder why people would choose the hardest way of life when it can be self-sufficient and