Ra Vs Walden

Thoreau by living in a cabin for two years near Walden Pond which is formally owned by Emerson wanted to create his own perception of society and nature. He focused on simple ways of living and self-sufficiency. He decided to direct his life in this way when he encountered Emerson’s works. He liked the idea, movement ‘transcendentalism’ and actually practiced it. Living with no money and alone, only with nature and understanding the society by this way was his main goal. He shared his experiences in his book Walden. He did not live in a wild environment as he mentioned also in his book, he lived near the town near a lake. He pragmatically wanted to see if living in this simplicity is really good or not.

A Comparison of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Beliefs concerning Simplicity, the Value and Potential of Our Soul, and Our Imagination.Henry David Thoreau tests Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas about nature by living at Walden Pond, where he discovers that simplicity in physical aspects brings deepness to our mind, our soul to its fullest potential, and our imagination to be uplifted to change our lives. These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others’ ideas but to develop our own. Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all.Thoreau lives at Walden Pond to find the true meaning of life. He wants to experience

Writer Henry David Thoreau wrote about his time spent alone with nature in the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, MA. His writing of his simplified, solitary life for two years, two months and two days is what earned him to be one of the famous Transcendentalist writers of the nineteenth-century. He started this journey with no personal material items and no money. Yes, he even began building his home with a borrowed axe. The materials he had to purchase were very minimal. Not needing much in materialistic items, he didn’t have a lot of furniture and he even made those. He did have three chairs because company may stop in and visit.

In the end, much of Henry David Thoreau’s motivation for coming to Walden Pond was for the betterment of the self. Indeed, this desire for personal betterment could be boiled down to what I’ve surmised to be the three things Thoreau valued more than anything else. Of course, these three values, self-discipline, self-reliance, and self-reflection are themselves a part of the man’s own view that everyone should try their hardest to live deliberately. Though his value system seems constrained and stiff, Thoreau spends almost the entirety of the book living out these values, and finding purpose and fulfillment in doing so.

Thoreau believed it was best to live a simple life claiming,’’I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life’’ (par. 1). He wanted to get the most out of life and make sure he was truly living. Although he lived in the woods he went to Harvard University’s library to check out books. Many people wonder how could you

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

“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

Living life in simplicity is a trend set by Thoreau as he goes to the woods to be free from society’s expectations. He desires for everyone to stop living their life so complicated as they’re being consumed by the want of materialistic things “Most of the luxuries… positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (Thoreau Walden “Economy”). As society

At the beginning of Economy, Thoreau shares some details concerning his time on Walden Pond, which we learn he stayed there for two years and two months then he went back to society. He tells us the concerns that others had upon learning of his living ‘experiment.’ Many people , he tells us, asked what he ate, if he felt lonely, or if was scared. Thoreau then goes on to write that a simplified life is preferable, and it is as if men are slaves to their possessions. He believes that men who inherited farms and houses are unfortunate. They can’t go out to the world to experience life they are stuck working the fields from when they are born to the day they die. He believes that by just living off of nature you can get everything you need, and be spiritually free. Thoreau believes that a life of luxuries hinders a person’s growth, and enslaves them. He states “The

“Simplicity in experience to Thoreau means learning to live without complication” (Martinez). Thoreau realized that people held themselves on a pedestal by how much they owned. A rich person believed he was better than a poor person. Thoreau tackles this idea by saying less is more. Someone could have very little, but does that mean that they are any less than a rich person? A poor person could be happier than a rich person and vice versa. Material objects don’t define you and Thoreau saw them as an obstacle. He realized that this is how people measured their worth, by unnecessary, material objects. He understood that this is no way to live your life. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!...Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society”

Thoreau didn’t want to spend money on the “normal” life that he was living in because he saw it as something unnecessary. He also wanted to have the spiritual awakening and develop a sense of self reliance. Clearly, the ability to depend on the self was ideal because it represents the recognition of who one is. By confronting life without the distractions and seeing it’s simplicity it is effortless to gain insight to the value it stores. Thoreau also wanted to get in touch with his psyche and live things for

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau remarks, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (61). Thoreau is a man who is known to simply live by restraining his necessities; in order to thrive on and live life to it’s utmost potential. Unsatisfied with his life, he comprehends that there is an extraordinary purpose to live on Earth. Merely abstracting himself from a urban society to seek out principles in which to live a refined life, he proceeds an odyssey inside of nature, in which he self-built and lived in a log cabin. In all respects, his two years of living nearby Walden Pond,

For this task he had to learn on his own about bricks and masonry therefore defining further his creativity (Thoreau 162-63). In the end, his self-built small cabin in the woods gave him the freedom to observe and connect with nature at his leisure.

Henry David Thoreau tries to get the reader to understand, that to obtain the path to success, one must live a stress free life. The idea of a stress free life is shown in Walden on multiple occasions. For example, when Thoreau describes his confusion with the different types of clothing people need, he touches on his point of “Simplify,Simplify,Simplify.” Another reason Walden is better for the youth is because simplifying is a necessary component of a juniors life. From the point of view of a junior in high school, a perfect criteria for college is all the most vigorous courses possible, sports, extracurricular and after-school activities that take up all their time.

Similarly, Thoreau is able to appreciate young children before businessmen and farmers. Unlike the working class, kids still make time to leave town temporarily, dunking themselves in the belittled spirituality of the forest. On the other hand, technological advances have forced farmers to worry less about the size of the crop and more about making the land productive. Significant evidence is found in this statement: “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after” (“Walden”). Also, Thoreau mentioned reformers as “the greatest bores of all” due to their false recommendations of the conditions in which they rely solely on logic and argument. In this case, individuals fall into a pattern of tradition, indicating insufficient awareness of higher truth. Yet, being the main character, Thoreau effectively explores life at Walden Pond to prove the advantages of rejecting materialism and embracing simplicity. In other words, a solid foundation wasn’t created until he searched for a broader understanding. By making the most of life, very little actually compares to the strength of nature. As shown, character considerably heightens the perception of