Thoreau Walden Analysis

In “Walden”, Thoreau talks about his experience living at Walden pond for what he said was two years, two months and two days where he for the most part, isolated himself from civilization and supported himself with the help of no one else.

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

The excerpt Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is a piece that explores the purpose of life, especially if it isn 't lived to the fullest. Thoreau starts by sharing the meaning and value of life. His idea of his personal achievement was to live life and die with a sense of peace and knowledge that he did not waste a single moment. He wanted to live life while being true to himself regardless of whether he would find life to be cruel or a wonderful place, and this was a risk he was willing to take. In a modern sense we are intrigued by technology. Although those in favor of technology may say that the new devices and applications do not affect human interaction and our way of living we are, are unable to see that, even in a room filled with people, there is an isolation barrier and an inability to live life to the fullest.

In the book Walden and Resistance to Civil Government the author Henry D. Thoreau uses rhetorical strategies to convey his attitude towards life. In the last part of the chapter, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” Thoreau uses logos, pathos, and ethos rhetorical strategies to give the reader his opinion. Thoreau’s opinion is that we should live freely and deliberately like Nature, avoid conformity and not be any more busy than what is necessary.

Ancient Greek Philosophers, such as Aristotle and Socrates, were renown for challenging societal norms and striving for individual achievement. Similarly, Henry David Thoreau endeavored to experience a fulfilling life, while also questioning the contemporary values of the nineteenth century. In 2015, Kathryn Schulz, a staff writer at The New Yorker, wrote “Pond Scum,” a fiery indictment against Thoreau and his novel Walden. Schulz uses her prodigious talent for wordplay and literary deconstruction to make her case that Thoreau was a hypocrite and a misanthrope. Yet, Schulz’s argument falls flat by focusing heavily on oversimplification. “Pond Scum” provides a fresh opportunity to replace the common idea of Thoreau as a wilderness hermit, with an image of a more complex and contradictory person to be admired. Thoreau should be praised for attempting to balance his transcendental beliefs with the joys of living, and finding a way to live a richer life.

is able to improve his state of content, self-reliance and independence by a vast degree. It can be said that in a piece of literature such as “Walden”otherwise known as “Life in the Woods”, that there are numerous universal truths about removing oneself from the vortex of everyday monotonous societal living, and instead rather becoming part of something that is embedded in the natural state of living. Humans are beings brought about of nature, in that, at the very basic core of human essence and character, Thoreau’s argument concerning the state of affairs in which humans participate in, is heavily societally constructed. The truth of the matter is humans are primates, with natural organic origins, operating with simply a higher state of thinking than other primates. It is because of this, that humans are able to form complex communities, centers of trade and finance, houses of religion, amongst many other socially constructed institutions.

His rhetorical devices of hypophora, parallelism, and allusion are hollow and contrived throughout the essay, and give little to no appeal. How one who is hailed as one of America’s great writers cannot put together a simple and concise argument is confounding. As Thoreau himself pointed out, “to be awake is to be alive”. However, he misses the most fundamentally obvious facet of being awake, for only then can one truly form a bond with his fellow man, and cherish some of the most essential aspects of life, the aspects of voluntary communication and harmonization with other individuals. At this point only can man consider himself truly alive, for what is life, without the influences, both positive and negative, of all those around you? Thoreau, through his own misguided experiences, has utterly failed in determining that for himself, yet claims the title of an individualist, all while attempting to pass his own collectivized view of society as all-encompassing. The hypocrisy is noted; noted and

1. “For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, where it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” P.383 What is the “it” that Thoreau is referring to when he says people are in a strange uncertainty about “it” AND what does the rest of the quote in mean?

     Henry David Thoreau was man of simplicity, and if he were to experience life in Cary, he would not only be surprised, but disappointed in humanity itself. Thoreau believed in the necessities of life, nothing more, and the people of Cary live lives exactly the opposite. Cary residents live lives of material possessions, business, and over-complexity. These traits of society are precisely opposite of Thoreau’s

In Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, a problem is presented in the way in which we live our lives. Thoreau sees this problem and goes to Walden Pond to find the solution. Yet his solution is controversial in that it seems to propose actions that go against human nature. Thoreau's prescription for American desperation cannot be accepted by the masses for it is rooted in anti-socialism when humans are essentially social in nature. However, this conclusion is not entirely accurate, as one needs to explore Thoreau's entire solution and the intent of what he is saying in this work.

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.

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

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 chapter entitled “Conclusion” is a fitting and compelling final chapter to Thoreau’s Walden. Throughout Walden, Thoreau delves into his surroundings, the very specifics of nature, and what he was thinking about, without employing any metaphors and including none of his poignant aphorisms. However, placed among these at-times tedious sections, come spectacular and wholly enjoyable interludes of great and profound thought from a writer that has become extremely popular in modern America. His growth of popularity over such contemporary favorites as Emerson in our modern era stems from the fact that Thoreau calls for an “ideological revolution to simplification” in our lives. This

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