Thoreau Individualism Essay

Thoreau, under the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s philosophy, moves to Walden Pond to live amongst nature and exercise his self-reliance. He sought an individual and almost rebellious stance on everything, looking for truth in himself not social conventions. Thoreau lives at Walden Pond for two years and two days before moving back to “civilized society”- indicating that this was an experiment and not a life choice. Thoreau states the purpose of his experiment is to show the benefit of a simple lifestyle. Thoreau emphasizes self-reliance, both economically and socially in Walden Pond: independence is more valuable than neediness. Thoreau parallels his building of his cabin to God’s creation of the world. He relates these too not to seem
Thoreau emphasizes his contentment in his solitude by finding joy in the march of the ants rather than the balls, marketplaces, and salons of the civilized world. He refuses to need human society. It is through this experience that Thoreau comes in touch with his spirituality. He follows in Emerson’s footstep as he explores higher dimensions of individualism. In transcendentalist belief, the self is the center of
For McKibben the end of nature would be the end of life as it should be and the beginning of an artificial existence. For Thoreau the end of nature would signify the death of his spirituality. Thoreau idealization of nature provides a stronger campaign for the preservation of nature than does McKibben’s call to action. These two writers both see the importance of nature but it very different light. Thorau accepts the railroad as contributing to his inspiration at Walden. Analogues to the railroad for McKibben in ‘The End of Nature’ would be all of the modern inventions and industries that contribute to carbon pollution, mainly automobiles and power plants. Although McKibben doesn’t mention trains, he would likely welcome them even more enthusiastically than Thoreau does because they pollute much less than cars and trucks and have become ironically in contrast to Thoreau’s times when steam engines were a new invention, an outdated and underused means of transportation today. While Thoreau tries hard to integrate the railroad into the natural environment McKibben tries equally as hard to condemn their modern counterparts as fundamentally hostile to nature and hastening its