Henry David Thoreau's Accomplishments

Henry David Thoreau, a Transcendentalist born on July 12, in 1817 was an essayist, poet, and philosopher. Thoreau had many famous essays, including “Life Without principle”, “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “Civil Disobedience”. He often disagreed with the government and its unjust laws. Much like Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist Minister born on January 29 1929, famous for leading the American Rights movement, also disagreed with

Henry David Thoreau was one of the most famous philosophical writers of the nineteenth century. His piece entitled Walden, dated 1910, is one of his most well-known works. In it, Thoreau exalts the human privilege of life through a number of literary techniques such as metaphor.

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

Henry David Thoreau was an individualist and believed in individual self-reliance. To test this out, he spent three years in isolation living in a cabin at Walden Pond, Concord. During this time, he wrote a book called Walden, which is about his time spent in isolation. After his isolation, he spoke to others about what freedom really is. To him freedom was “absolute freedom which is found by rejecting market society and retreating into the wilderness”. Doing this, he said, “…is the only way to preserve both individual independence and the natural environment”, as stated in Liberty of Freedom. Later on in his life, he was incarcerated in 1846 for refusing to pay taxes. After he was released from prison, he said, “…under a government that imprisons unjustly, the true place of a just man is also prison.” Thoreau even made a speech called “Resistance to Civil Government”. He truly believed that the government was the one making freedom and liberty hard to reach.

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

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.

Thoreau was a versatile writer, gifted of communicating unambiguous reality in strong language and of conveying delicate detail and subtle nuance. His work is characterized both by directness of style and by the proposal of far more than appears on the surface. He efficiently employed a variation of techniques, paradox, exaggeration, and irony, for example, to create a penetrating prose. He brought substantial abilities and resources to his art — breadth of vision, closely examined personal experience, wide and deep reading, imagination, originality, a strong vocabulary and a facility for manipulating words (and even sometimes for minting new words to suit his purposes), an alertness to symbolic correspondences, and an aptitude for the figurative

Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher who believed that things should be simple. Therefore, simplicity is one of the many keys of life.. He was a man who preferred things that were not luxurious because he would see them as unnecessary and distracting. To him, buying a new outfit was perceived as not simplifying your lifestyle and waste of money. Throughout the chapters in the story, Thoreau undergoes an experiment where he learns the meaning of life and where he belongs in the universe. But he also learns more about nature and himself at Walden pond.

One of his most famous poems shows what he thinks and why he thinks that way. Thoreau showed his thoughts and feelings through his poetry, and I think he wrote what other people could agree with. And that is why he is/was so popular. Thoreau inspires me to dream big; nothing is out of your reach if you follow your dreams. He most likely inspired people of his own era for the same things.

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He was also raised there for most of his childhood. After graduating from Harvard College he worked in his family’s pencil-making business. Later, he became a schoolteacher but he resigned after two weeks. He became acquainted with Ralph Waldo Emerson to edit the Transcendentalist magazine, The Dial, and from there, their friendship grew. They bounced political and ethical opinions off of one another despite their very different outlooks on various topics. Eventually, Thoreau took to philosophical writing, his ultimate passion.

Henry David Thoreau will go down in history as one of the greatest influential writer’s and philosophers in American history. Not only was he a smart and intelligent man, but he had such wisdom and determination when he looked at every aspect of life. Thoreau was just an ordinary individual from Concord, which helped the readers relate to him on a more personal level when they read his work. In Thoreau’s Walden, he wanted the reader to understand that you should live life more simple, connect with nature so you can connect with God, and live your life working hard so you do not have to solely rely on anyone.

Henry David Thoreau was, in many ways, ahead of his time in his political beliefs. During his brief life, he lectured occasionally and struggled to get his writings published. Gaining very little recognition during his lifetime, his death in 1862 went virtually unnoticed, and his true genius as a social philosopher and writer was not fully recognized until the twentieth century. Ironically, "Civil Disobedience," the anti-war, anti-slavery essay for which he is probably best known, has become a manual for social protest by giving support to the passive resistance of Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other conscientious objectors (Paul 233).

Henry David Thoreau, he assumed that people should be self-sufficient and live a carefree lifestyle. He believed that people should stand up for their civil rights, but he did not think it was necessary to use forcefulness to encourage opinions or protests. Because of his personal faith in independence leads him to his journey to isolation in the woods.

Henry David Thoreau is remembered for his naturalist writings and is considered a leading transcendentalist. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts and began writing nature poetry in 1840. Thoreau would later spend 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days living on Walden Pond in search of a simpler life, where he would gain understanding and a great appreciation for the world around him and write about his experiences. The writings of Thoreau can easily be compared to many of the other authors that we have studied over this course, for example: the works of Drayton, William Bradford, the biography of Olaudah Equiano, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allen Poe, and even in the film The New World by Terence Malick.

Thoreau seems to be a very educated political thinker. He can be very stubborn but humble when it comes to his beliefs, “I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods -- though both will serve the same purpose -- because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt state… ”(Thoreau 24. 218). Thoreau has lived in the woods for over six years, without paying state taxes. When the police officer asked him to pay, the non-violently compiled and spent a day in jail. Thoreau did not want to fund the Mexican American war through taxes and believed that people shouldn't be forced to do what they don't think is right. He is also a very optimistic person and believes that the people themselves should be good people, live good lives and therefore we wouldn't need as many laws, “when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.” (1. 210). Thoreau believes that the government is doing the best when doing the least, “I heartily accept the motto, -- “That government is best which governs least” …” (1. 210). Although Thoreau might have an unpopular opinion, he sticks with his beliefs throughout this essay. As he presents his opinion, he does it in the most classy yet confident arguments. He had the thought of the people in mind while writing, showing his good intentions of improving our government.