What Is Thoreau's Reasoning Behind The Decision To Live At Walden

Thoreau galvanizes his reader into living self-dependently and being their own individual. A few ways of living with Thoreau’s virtues are to dabble with your life, and live without

I believe the overall message of Henry David Thoreau´s “Solitude” is to differentiate solitude and loneliness which are totally different. It is more of a state of mind than something real. People around by other people would feel more loneliness than people who are physically alone. For Thoreau being in solitude is the best way to discover your mind and spirituality and is the best way to know yourself.

Thoreau was one of the many followers of Emerson but he acted upon his teaching most consistently. Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, had made an abiding impression on Thoreau. Towards the end of his essay, Emerson asserted, “It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.” Acting upon Emerson’s call for self-reliance, Thoreau went to Walden Lake in Concord, Massachusetts to learn to lead an independent life. It was an experiment, as he said, to lead a life without materialistic possessions, people, society and the government and his initial intentions to live isolated was development of his own spirit and soul.

An American Author, Transcendentalist and tax resister, Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts, and lived there most of his life.  He was opposed to many of the things that went on in our society and debated many issues in his life. Two of these major issues are , the Mexican American War and the implement of Slavery in our society. This was the reason for many of his writings include “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “Civil Disobedience” where he wrote about his principles and views against the U.S government and their involvement in the Mexican American War and the evil of Slavery. Thoreau opposed to these because they promote unjust government practices which he was strongly against.

“What you get by achieving goals is not as important as what you become by achieving goals.” Quote, Henry David Thoreau. An accomplishment is just another definition of a goal. They may take a long time to complete; however, just have faith and great things can come from it. Just like how Columbus never gave up to find the new world, even though he always thought that the world was flat. The world has always been a place of innovation and discovery. One of the many personal accomplishments I would like to have is to travel and learn about the world.

“Walden” is a mixture of arbitration upon nature, autobiography, and philosophy. In around 1845 Thoreau began his experience in “fundamental” living and studying the world and seeking certainty within himself. “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than ten fingers or in extreme case he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand; instead or a million count a half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail” (Thoreau 383). Thoreau’s antidote for chaotic, detail-crowded life is to keep problems and stress to a minimum. He states that simplicity is what life is about and having a simple life is a better life. Also when he says, “our life is frittered away by detail” it’s stating that society always looks at the details and material things and that's its okay to get away from that and have a simple life. “I left the woods for as good of reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves” (Thoreau 388). Thoreau’s reason for leaving the pond is that after a while he made a routine for

The world of Thoreau is the world of nature around us. Live around the trees, the clean fresh air, the sound of the river, and the birds singing. This is exactly what Thoreau talks in Walden Pond for example. Walden Pond is about nature, but it's not just about nature; it's also about man's relationship with nature as he saw in the world around him. In Walden, Thoreau wants to prove that anybody can live simple and easy and still enjoy life. Enjoy the nature around us without being consumed by things like debt and other problems that associate with life.

Henry David Thoreau was born in mid July of 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. Henry’s family was rather modest and his father was employed as a pencil maker. Henry David Thoreau was born with a legal name David Henry Thoreau, in memory of his recently deceased uncle, David Thoreau. Although Henry never legally petitioned to change his name, he began referring to himself as Henry after he had finished college.

Henry David Thoreau moved to Walden Pond in 1845, on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, author of “Self-Reliance.” Walden shows influence from Emerson, with whom Thoreau was affiliated, but with whom he also disagrees in some respects. A common method of Thoreau’s throughout Walden is the depiction of a place or an action compared to a relevant element of ancient mythology, followed by an explanation of Thoreau’s ideas. Using his own experiences and relevant mythology, Thoreau best conveys his message of self-reliance and Transcendentalist values in “Where I Live and What I Live For,” “Solitude,” and “Conclusion.” Thoreau utilizes his surroundings in Walden Pond in “Where I Live and What I Live For” to explain how valuable nature was to his self-growth.

In conclusion, “Walden” is more relevant than ever. Thoreau lived simple unmaterialistic existence as he stayed at Walden Pond, for he believed the material wealth lead to spiritual downfalls. The ideas of purposeful living and the living amongst nature is still prevalent to this day. Thoreau wrote of nature, and how he coexisted with it, learned from it.

Today, many people often consume themselves in the lives of others rather than focusing on their own paths. People are quick to settle for other’s opinions or beliefs, however Henry David Thoreau is someone who extensively advocated for the power of one’s own thoughts. Within the last chapter of his book Walden Thoreau states, “If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” This quote highlights how people should take pride in their own values rather than molding to those surrounding us. Like Henry David Thoreau once believed, it is important that people should listen to their own thoughts and goals rather than conforming

Henry David Thoreau was born July 1817 in Massachusetts. He grew up in Concord with two siblings and his parents; his father was a pencil maker. He began attending Harvard College in 1833 where he took courses in a wide range of subjects including math, French, and philosophy. He graduated from Harvard in the top half of his class in 1837. TEACHING YEARS

Thoreau makes use of the land and nature around him at Walden Pond. He plants two and a half acres of beans that he farms. This shows that Thoreau is adaptive and learns to work with nature. The rain that comes and goes helps his crops grow. Thoreau relies on the place he lives to sustain himself. He trades his beans with others for food, and makes a profit off of the land on which he lives. The place that he inhabits becomes his main concern and priority. This helps readers to understand why the place one lives and treats as one’s home has such an effect on one’s way of

For Thoreau, the escape from society was a way to deeply learn about himself and human nature. He writes, “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself” (Thoreau 72). This simple way of life allowed Thoreau to analyze himself and tendencies within society. He explains the effects of this solitary life on a person: “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness” (253). Thoreau was able to discover flaws in society. He states, “... men establish and conform their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on purely illusory foundations” (78). Unlike Hester and Sethe, the societal norms Thoreau experiences are not painful punishments or dehumanizing treatment. However, the “opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe … through poetry, philosophy and religion” (80), can still have a profound and often negative effect on individuals and society as a whole. Thoreau is able to overcome these societal norms because he separates himself from them. Thoreau explains of humankind, “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,-that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the

The summer of 1845 found Henry David Thoreau living in a rude shack on the banks of Walden Pond. The actual property was owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American philosopher. Emerson had earlier published the treatise entitled "Nature," and the young Thoreau was profoundly affected by its call for individuality and self-reliance. Thoreau planted a small garden, took pen and paper, and began to record the of life at Walden.