The Romantic Point of View in Walden, Life in the Woods Essay

Thoreau was very doubtful of the ideas that outward improvements could bring improvements to one's inner peace. One clear illustration of Thoreau's resistance to progress can be found in the chapter, "Sounds," where he voiced his criticism on technological advancements. At first he was annoyed with the sound created by the passing trains which hindered his ability to hear the chirping of the birds. As he stated, " The whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer's yard, informing me that many restless city merchants are arriving within the circle of the town..."(78). Trains also reminded him of the businessman and tradesman involved in manipulation and profits. Thoreau believed that a technological advancement such as the train would give people a false impression of heightened freedom, for trains were able to travel to areas never before imagined and in a time that was thought impossible. He was worried that people would prefer to take the train than "the road less traveled." By taking trains, people missed out on the beauty of nature. Then he realized that the trains had transported people to many different areas and that it had enabled the people to experience new things.

Romanticism is the involvement of emotion, fantasy, and intuition in a story. It happens to be the opposite of rationalism which involves logic, reason, and rationality in a story. There happens to be five romantic elements to choose from. They include: dissatisfaction with city life, desire to connect with nature, concern of individualism, nostalgia for the past, and supernatural interest. Of the six stories we could choose from all of them have some part of romanticism in them in one way or another. I chose to express a desire to connect with nature in “Rip Van Winkle”, “Thanatopsis”, and Walden.

The Romanticism art movement praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and literature over science. The Romanticism artists were known for replacing the classical 18th century literature heroes with much more complex and passionate characters. Romanticism focuses on self-expression and individual uniqueness that does not lend itself to be defined nor controlled by society. The landscape on Romanticism was commonly displayed in cool rich colors and untamed peaceful surroundings. In Romanticism, nature was used to represent the extension of the human personality, the capability of feeling love, serenity, and sympathy.

The first strategy used by Thoreau is imagery that makes an ethos appeal, meant to plead to the reader’s conscience, ethics, morals, standards, and values. In this passage, Thoreau relates life to how free and undeterred Nature can be. He wants humans to live life without fearing the small things and just thrive inside the big picture. This passage uses Thoreau’s ability to persuade to appeal to the reader’s conscience, “Let us spend one day as

What Kind of person does Henry David Thoreau seem to be? How would you characterize his state of mind and emotion as he composed “Civil Disobedience”?

Thoreau is a hugely influential character in the history of America, helping to define American thought and continue to inspire our modern ideas and authors. “Countless contemporary nature

A main reason why Walden is a representative of Romanticism is because it contains examples of mystery within nature. Thoreau mentions, “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.” If the narrator did not follow his own intuition and lessons learned from within the woods, then he is not doing was he is intended to do.

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

Thoreau was a character that seemed to not care to fit social conformity. At times, it seems that he actually went out of his way to not do as society did. Thoreau thought of himself as seeing the world in a manner that was better for all of humanity. If Thoreau's experiment had been carried out in today's society, many people would have scrutinized it in many different ways. He could have been seen as reclusive, radical, disillusioned, revolutionary, or even just crazy.

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

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau describes the events and the thoughts that came to Thoreau all through his time living at Walden Pond in the eighteenth century. Henry David Thoreau was a poet and a theorist who experienced a life of ease so that he could create a relationship between nature, people, and God. His narrative in Walden depicted many themes, for example the significance of the natural world, the implication of development, the meaning of detail, and the connection between the body and mind. He also urbanized many theoretical ideas about living a simple and natural life, and

Thoreau wished to open the minds of many revealing the importance of nature “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails” (Thoreau II). In the quote, Thoreau discusses how he learned to live deliberately in nature encouraging other members of society to do the same. He has learned that it can lead to harmonization with oneself, to

Again in Walden, Thoreau wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately” [1854]. It is quite strange that Thoreau had chosen to live in woods purposely. Perhaps one reason can be that he is a transcendentalist but one must not forget that he had discovered about the Walden Pond when he was deliberately living in the woods. However, another possible explanation can be that woods are not dominated or are controlled by anyone, nature lives freely in world. Therefore, a reader can

All throughout the story, Thoreau applies transcendentalism as his main philosophy. He often described nature and how it relates

Henry David Thoreau writes a series of excerpts in “Walden”, which describes his thoughts and experiences in the woods. He explains why he chose to live in the woods, along with what he observed from nature. He composed these essays to show his ideas through his personal experiences and awakenings. He then reveals the reason for embarking on these experiences in the final excerpt, “Conclusion”. The transcendental beliefs of solitude and awakening are the main themes. Thoreau encourages individuals to strive for their own ideals, to live for themselves, and to live simply.