Essay on Where I Lived and What I Lived for

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 galvanizes his reader into living self-dependently and being their own individual. A few ways of living with Thoreau’s virtues are to dabble with your life, and live without

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

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.

Thoreau begins the second paragraph by writing, “Still we live meanly like ants…” comparing our lives to ants considering ants like to work hard for food just as we work hard to afford all the pretentious possessions which are unnecessary. An additional analogy Thoreau exploits compares our life to German Confederacy when saying, “Our life is like a German Confederacy…” Thoreau states how we are “made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating…” During this time period Germany was becoming a country and was trying to improve so to we try to improve with technology such as

Instead, Thoreau built a simple but efficient cabin and furnished it with the basic necessity of a bed, table, chairs and desk. He also didn't waste his time and energy trying to keep up with the latest fashions; he wore comfortable and long lasting clothes. Thoreau explained to his readers that this simplistic way of life decreased the dreariness of every day life and left more time to explore one's meaning of life and his role in the world. Freeing oneself from the economic race, Thoreau argued, allowed for individual to be inspired by nature and focus on the genuine concerns of life.

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.”

In Thoreau’s book Walden, the author lets us know how he views happiness. And what obstacles he believes we must get through to achieve this happiness. He explains what his views are on happiness throughout some of his readings. Readings such as Where I Lived and What For, Reading, Solitude, and Conclusions. Throughout various text, Thoreau will prove to the readers what happiness looks like to him.

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

Thoreau uses straightforward language to express his point. He states directly, ?Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!? (16). He believes that we should have no more than one or two affairs at a time. Thoreau jokingly writes about man?s need to build a railroad to make our lives simpler. He asks, ?And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads?? (16). Many believe that by building railroads we will simplify traveling, but in truth the work it takes to upkeep the railroads has only further complicated our lives. I love Thoreau?s assertion that if everyone agrees to slow down, our lives would be much simpler. This is true today too, in that a when four-lane highway becomes congested, it is turned into a six or eight lane highway. This, however, rarely eases the congestion. In this way, Thoreau?s assertion remains true.

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

Thoreau, while living off a plot on Emerson’s land, forms a Transcendentalist philosophy that guides his spiritual experiences. Through those experiences, Thoreau launches critical thoughts on the purposes of institutions and progress in societal and individualistic affairs. While the expansion of technological innovation, like the railroad, fascinates Thoreau, he criticizes the application of these advances if they are to destroy man and nature for a grander capitalist greed. In “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Thoreau poses a striking accusation when he states, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us” (Thoreau 5). Thoreau further develops the claim in his antithesis when he compares the “sleepers” laid on railroad tracks to the “Irish-man” or “Yankee man” that laid the sleepers and died as a result. Throughout the extended metaphor, Thoreau gives the reader a sense that the preservation of man is for the greater good rather than turning a blind eye to the damages that progress brings to humanity. That society cannot allow for institutions, especially industry, to usurp total control of society, eliminating the individualistic spiritual aspects of man, aspects that are fundamental to Transcendentalism and Thoreau himself. Earlier in the chapter, Thoreau mounts an attack against the pettiness of institution, which he expresses through the critique of the German Confederacy. Thoreau describes

He felt “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul” (Thoreau, 917). Thoreau believed in living passionately, with goals and values in mind, and sucking at the marrow of life. To Thoreau, living in the woods was life, because it was vibrant, and fulfilling, and everything he did was important and purposeful. unlike most of us today, who live only in the “ruts of tradition and conformity.” (Thoreau, ), which can lead to falling victim to our nation epidemic of depression.

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

In the literature "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" Thoreau argues that we need to simplify our lives and to experience it to the fullest. “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." (1) Thoreau went to the woods to live there because he wants to be away from society and wants to experience life to the fullest. He wants to see the “essential facts of life” with his own eyes. He wanted to absorb everything life had to offer. “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” (1) Thoreau did not want to die knowing he did not live life or die not knowing what life was about; he wanted to die knowing that he lived what life was meant to be. “An honest man has hardly needed to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his