Analysis Of Henry David Thoreau 's ' Walden '

Henry David Thoreau was a great American writer, philosopher, and naturalist of the 1800’s who’s writings have influenced many famous leaders in the 20th century, as well as in his own lifetime. Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817, where he was later educated at Harvard University. Thoreau was a transcendentalist writer, which means that he believed that intuition and the individual conscience “transcend” experience and are better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason (Prentice Hall 1174). Thoreau is well known for writing Walden Pond, Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada. In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay

The excerpt Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is a piece that explores the purpose of life, especially if it isn 't lived to the fullest. Thoreau starts by sharing the meaning and value of life. His idea of his personal achievement was to live life and die with a sense of peace and knowledge that he did not waste a single moment. He wanted to live life while being true to himself regardless of whether he would find life to be cruel or a wonderful place, and this was a risk he was willing to take. In a modern sense we are intrigued by technology. Although those in favor of technology may say that the new devices and applications do not affect human interaction and our way of living we are, are unable to see that, even in a room filled with people, there is an isolation barrier and an inability to live life to the fullest.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…to suck the marrow out of life…and not when I came to die, discover that I have not lived.” Thoreau, Walden. Thoreau was not just a radical yet respected thinker for his time, but now as well. Thoreau has a very important lesson and idea to teach through the workings of a pen. Thoreau’s works have greatly influenced our culture for over a hundred years. Thoreau’s ideas have definitely influenced contemporary ideas, but we have also developed our own separate ideas in the past century and a half.

He has deeper thoughts. Like Emerson, Thoreau also wanted to live a simple life, in order to find deeper meaning in life.

1. “For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, where it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” P.383 What is the “it” that Thoreau is referring to when he says people are in a strange uncertainty about “it” AND what does the rest of the quote in mean?

Henry David Thoreau, a name heard endlessly by American Literature students, has contributed his outrageous views to society even after his death. Lectures and texts let his perceptions live on through teachers and professors that are all agreed on the significance of his writing to the transcendentalistic period. Definitely worth the merit he receives for his contributions, Henry Thoreau's views are nonconformist and thought provoking. "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away" (Thoreau, 14). Thoreau himself marched to a different drummer, and it is this aspect of all great men that

Schulz clearly states her belief that Thoreau was not only “narcissistic, and fanatical about self control,” but a hypocrite. She relies on common cliches of the “mile” walk back to Concord where Thoreau would feast on his mom’s homemade “cookies.” Contradictions that Thoreau himself commented on in Walden. Thoreau mentions in the book’s first sentence that he is but “a mile” from the village of Concord, the author seemingly self aware of his situation. Schultz criticism is overly literal, arguing that “Thoreau’s retreat at Walden was a desperate compromise.” The problem is that Walden is not a desperate attempt by a narcissistic misanthrope to distance himself from society, but rather an attempt by Thoreau to balance his own

Life started out normal enough for Thoreau. His father operated a pencil factory locally while his mother remained at home. Although, she did rent out parts of their house to boarders

Though the reasons for their pilgrimages were different, transcendentalists emphasized journeys into nature. Henry David Thoreau, perhaps the most famous transcendentalist, wrote Walden on his time spent in the wilderness of Walden pond. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Nature on his walks into the woods. Much of Emerson’s works were on intuition and self-reliance. Jeremiah Johnson is a modern movie that seemingly adopts the ideas of these transcendentalist authors into a narrative about a man who leaves civilisation for the mountain. All three characters had different stated motivations. Thoreau left to “live simply” (Thoreau). Emerson left for solitude. Though it never was stated directly, Jeremiah Johnson left to “Leave his troubles far behind”, with later hints to him being a deserter of the Mexican American War. But why is nature a staple of transcendentalism? Transcendentalism, unlike rationalism or empiricism, is founded on the belief that one can “transcend the data that we intake via our senses” using intuition (Dwinell). For Transcendentalists, nature is the path to truth, because it is there intuition rules above all.

The chapter entitled “Conclusion” is a fitting and compelling final chapter to Thoreau’s Walden. Throughout Walden, Thoreau delves into his surroundings, the very specifics of nature, and what he was thinking about, without employing any metaphors and including none of his poignant aphorisms. However, placed among these at-times tedious sections, come spectacular and wholly enjoyable interludes of great and profound thought from a writer that has become extremely popular in modern America. His growth of popularity over such contemporary favorites as Emerson in our modern era stems from the fact that Thoreau calls for an “ideological revolution to simplification” in our lives. This

Writers Style Two of the most important writers of their time were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The two of them really set the tone for the Transcendentalism movement and what it was about. In the excerpt Walden by Thoreau, he talks about his time that he spent in the woods trying to find himself and to just be away from society. Everything in Walden is about how he interacts with nature and how nature can influence everyday life of humans. The excerpt Nature by Emerson has the same concepts as Walden but Emerson actually speaks to nature and describes how nature speaks back to them.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American philosopher, author, poet, abolitionist, and naturalist. He was famous for his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, and his book, Walden. He believed in individual conscience and nonviolent acts of political resistance to protest unfair laws. Moreover, he valued the importance of observing nature, being individual, and living in a simple life by his own values. His writings later influenced the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, he advocated individual nonviolent resistance to the unjust state and reflected his simple living in the nature.

Therefore, Thoreau was ahead of his time as historians place the golden age of free thought from 1875 to 1914. This idea of personal freedom was not popular at the time “Walden” was only a marginal success. Afterward, in the Civil Rights moment the “Walden” became very popular with young Americans. The “Walden” inspired theses’ Americans to obtain real freedom with many examples. “I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of.” At the time most, parents expected their sons to take over the farm after the father became feeble. Therefore, most men were forced to work the farm instead of pursuing what they wanted. Instead a man becomes a machine that has no freedom. Therefore, have a feeling that his only function was to replace the old machine before him. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” Technologies today give us the illusion of heightened freedom. In the United States, we can obtain every material item we desire. Even though we still have the highest rate of anxiety disorders and depression in the world. Thoreau explains “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” To have true freedom and happiness you must face your demons. As material earnings can’t cover up your inner truth. Many Americans can’t handle the truth and this why we live a life of desperation. Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, author of “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, has become one of the most influential authors of all time in the eyes of many. Though some might be led to believe his essays and writings, including “Where I Lived, and What I lived For”, make him a down to earth and even rugged author, as he spent some of his life in the forest. However, his life in the woods was not one of heavy duty work and he often was supported with objects and material possessions, contrary to what many of his essays describe. Although some might think of him as a cheater or a liar, Thoreau’s conflicting lifestyles prove him to be a literary genius as he successfully dictates a lifestyle he himself does not take part in throughout paragraphs one

The Journey from Enslavement to Freedom, from Society to Nature: A Cross-Examination of Themes in Thoreau’s Walden and “Slavery in Massachusetts”