Walden Tone

Thoreau implies that if one is to live happily they must let go of all their obligations and responsibilities in favor of a simple life. For the most part, his suggestions are for one’s own happiness instead of others’ happiness. He does not take into account if the “accounts” that people have are for others instead of themselves. Thoreau assumes that everyone is living a life where they have no dependents and all the obligations they have taken upon themselves are for their own

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.

Thoreau argues that many are incapable of achieving that goal because they live in a world full of details that takes focus away from living life. Moreover, we have so much on our plates, that it takes time away from reflecting on the personal self. Throughout the excerpt, Thoreau uses metaphors to approach the obstacles faced when living life in a world where everything must be done. Thoreau states that the competition for resources create a world where we are often cruel and compete with one another. In order to achieve the goal of living life fully, Thoreau proposes solutions that allow us to find our true purpose, take inconsideration nature and

However, if they were to be complacent and stay home, there would be no need to build railroads or expand industry. These different views reflect the contradiction in society and in an individual’s mind. People think that they always have to be moving and building and instituting some new technology that will somehow make us great and earn a spot in heaven. However, people end up hurting themselves with this mindset because they are selling themselves short of the full potential of life, which, according to Thoreau, is to live fully and deliberately. Thoreau is exposing that humans strive for superficial success through their complicated and expeditive routines of their everyday lives, but true success comes by improving one’s own life. Later in the metaphor, Thoreau uses the train to point out oppression and manipulation done by society. He states, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the

One of the central ideas in the excerpt is about the chopping seas. Walden says “chopping sea of civilized life” which is calling the civilized life a ‘chopping sea.’ He also says, “clouds and storms and quicksands” are the things that humans have to suffer through their everyday lives. My reaction to this quote is that he seems really depressed. Not everyone is always having a bad day.

Also in from Where I Lived and What I Lived For one can find how Thoreau shows his appreciation for the wisdom of the past and a dislike for progress. In his last couple phrases he describes the railroads, which can be seen as a symbol for technology or advancement, these he talks about with great antipathy as he implies that no outward improvement will bring the inner peace and contentment that men seek. He suggests that the freedom that railroads are thought to represent truly bring about a type of servitude in the respect that one must conform to the train’s schedules and routes. In conclusion he states, “We do not ride the railroad, it rides upon us.”

The point of the essay is to encourage the reader to act upon their opinions. Thoreau believes that simply having an opinion or casting a vote doesn’t cause change in the world, so it is important that people take the necessary steps to fix the problems they face as a society.

Thoreau conducted his experiment to understand what it meant to lead a simple life. He wanted to grasp and live a life free of all unnecessary comforts and material attachments. He sought to understand what it meant to take hold of life on a daily basis and experience what it means to be truly alive without any of the conveniences that we take for granted. The “it” that Thoreau refers to is life. He comes to the conclusion that men in reality have no understanding of what “life” is really about or what it is to really live. In stating that men are “in a strange uncertainty about it…”, Thoreau reiterates his conviction that men lead lives on a day-to-day basis and accept good fortune and misfortune without any comprehension of how to truly experience life. Life is rarely uniform, but has ups and downs and is interspersed with evil and good. This uncertainty about our daily lives can lead men to question their circumstances. Depending on their state of mind and their convictions, men attempt to rationalize these uncertainties. Thoreau states that although men

     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

To begin, the main points of Thoreau’s essay must be analysed. Thoreau began by advocating a life that is simple and slow. This is summarized by the phrase from his book, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.” A philosophy such as this may be appealing, especially when one is overwhelmed by the problems presented by society. However, maintaining this simplicity in a community context requires ignorance of the needs and wants of other people. Many of society’s complicated demands, such as tax payment and jury duty, are necessary for the betterment of other citizen’s lives. In his essay, Thoreau dismissed the importance of community problems by claiming that they were a complete illusion, adding, “Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousands stitches today to save nine tomorrow. As for work, we haven’t any of any

In Walden, he questions the lifestyles that people choose. He makes his readers wonder if they have been chosen the kind of life that will really offer them happiness. Are they merely living a career or some other narrowly routine or is a worthwhile life being lived. Thoreau wonders if the truly valuable elements of life are being taken advantage of if a person is not living simply. If a person is so caught up in working or never having enough in life, one wonders, and satisfaction are difficult to obtain. As he states in the beginning Walden, "most men, even in this comparatively free country, though mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that is finer fruits cannot be plucked by them" (Thoreau 6). This means that people care more about the finer things in life and easier work instead of nature's gifts and hard work. Thoreau draws a parallel between others preoccupation with money and his own enjoyment of non-monetary wealth.

Thoreau's main concern is that the accumulation of wealth, and the desire to obtain it, distracts humans from recognizing their true essence, which is spirituality. In the chapter "Economy," he urges us to learn to live life by ourselves, without the pressures of monetary consumption, and reevaluate ourselves in order to obtain its true necessities. He states, "It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what the gross necessaries of life are and what methods have been taken to obtain them" (9). Thoreau reduces the necessaries of life to four things: food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. Anything beyond these four necessities serves as a wall dividing physical from spiritual realities.

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

I also think, through a lot of the writing, that he makes us out to be robotic go about your day in a monotonous way. And he's pretty much correct in that sense. We all have our own routines that we follow throughout our week that we hate to change. The only thing I didn't understand completely was his talk of trains, sleepers, and people that line the track, or buried under the track. "…if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon". What I think he is trying to say, due to the time period when this was written (1854), was that there are those who are better off and wealthy enough to ride on the new trains and the new tracks that are traveling all over the country, and there are those who can't afford it, and have to walk or ride their horses to their destination with is more of a hardship in those times compared to a fast comfortable train ride, and those who can't venture into the expanding west and have to stay put in their lives. But I don't know the relationship between this and simplifying your life, so maybe I still do not understand what Thoreau was trying to