Makenzie Mcfall. Mrs. South. Language Arts 11 . 2 February

He had three siblings, a younger sister, Sophia, and two older siblings,John and Helen. He grew up in Concord, Massachusetts and remained there for a great deal of his life. Thoreau received two educations in Concord, one being his study of the local environment, which he gained an interest for through his mother’s interest in nature. This education gave rise to his passion in writing about the nature of certain subjects. In preparation for his study at Harvard University, Thoreau gained his second education at Concord Academy. He enrolled in Harvard in 1833 and did well there. Thoreau dropped out of Harvard for several months due to financial and health reasons, but he eventually returned and graduated in 1837 in the top half of his class. The year he He began a journal the same year that he graduated and he would later look back to it for his lectures and published work throughout his life. During this time, he also inverted his first and middle name and began to call himself Henry David (“Henry David Thoreau”).

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 born on July 12, 1817, and passed on May 6, 1862. He was an American philosopher, abolitionist and leading transcendentalist. He attended Harvard College between 1833-1837 and studied rhetoric classics, philosophy, mathematics and science. Thoreau was against slavery and actively supported the abolitionist movement. Thoreau was a proponent of government and individualism had faith that mankind could have a much superior government through self-betterment. He obtains ideas, not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life relationships. Also, he was very popular for his

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12th, in Concord Massachusetts. Thoreau was many things, not simply just a writer; but he was one of the most influential writers America knows today. Early on in his life he grew up in a simple home with hard-working parents, and an abundance of siblings. His father and mother both had worked as teachers as well as investing in many other trades to get by. Henry started developing his talent for writing early on, by age ten he had written his first piece of writing, “The Seasons,” as well as many other academic achievements for somebody his age. He was articulate and mature beyond his years, these things developed into key traits that brought him to, instead of listening in on lectures at the Concord Lyceum- being the one leading the lectures in the later years of his life. He came back to Concord after graduating from Harvard University, starting to work at a public school he’d attended as a child. He was a man with morals; known to look at things in a more progressive way than many in his life. After being asked to conduct corporal punishment on a student he left the school he was teaching at to expand his studies and find further employment. His talents broadened further than essays and poetry, he gave himself away to a life of helping others, sheltering runaway slaves on their journey to freedom. He was a man of nature, not as much an adventurer, but he took two years to emerge himself into the depths of nature and not

He did not want all of the material things such as trains and other technology. He had said that materialism had a negative effect because he had said it ruined our life experience. He wanted a simpler life and did not remove himself completely from society compared to McCandless. The one thing that's in common with both of these men in the category is that they both went into the woods for self-discovery. But Thoreau stayed for 2 years while McCandless stayed out there for a couple months.

Thoreau a man of conscience. He fought for what he believed in. Thoreau has seen that even though the majority wanted certain things this didn’t mean that it was the right thing. So, what did he do? He became a civil disobedient.

Henry Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts to a successful pencil manufacturer John Thoreau and a strong-willed, quick-witted mother,

Henry obtained his education from Cord Academy, Harvard University and Harvard College, while at Harvard he became a well-known scholar and a careful reader of

Avoiding the daily struggles of city life is key to Thoreau’s lifestyle. He prefers to be alone and one with nature. “Man and his affairs, church and state and school, trade and commerce, and manufactures and agriculture even politics, the most alarming of them all—I am pleased to see how little space they occupy in the

A significant philosopher of the pre-Civil War era of the United States, Henry David Thoreau appeared to be above the standard with his philosophically driven life style. He wrote detailed accounts of his life in his book titled Walden, in which he expressed his desire to escape the confining pressures of human society. His second chapter lauded the concepts of individualism and self-sufficiency, yet he never took into account the potential harm of his mentality, for it could hurt individuals as well as communities, and modern life simply cannot support his ideals.

Henry David Thoreau's life began on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. At a young age he began to show an interest in writing. In 1833, at the age of sixteen, Thoreau was accepted to Harvard University. Although his parents could not afford the cost of tuition, his family offered to help with the funds, and in August he entered Harvard. In 1837 he graduated and applied for a teaching position at a public school in Concord. However, he refused to flog children as punishment. He choose instead to deliver moral lectures. The community looked down upon this, and a committee was asked to review the situation. They decided that the lectures were not ample punishment, so they ordered Thoreau to

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

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.

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

As a background, Thoreau had lived alone in the woods by Walden Pond for two years and two months, in Concord, Massachusetts. A lot of people had asked him how his daily life was when he was there, and this book, Walden, is an attempt to answer that question. In his writing, he uses the first person view which he states that he knows his self best and aims to give a what he call a “simple and sincere account of his own life.” When Thoreau removed himself from society and chose solitude at Walden Pond and wrote this book is a proof of which he can communicate his ideas well to the readers.