Ideas Of Living In Walden By Henry David Thoreau

“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist, is about the events of his time living at Walden Pond in the1800’s. Thoreau, who lives a life of simplicity, tries to make a connection between people, God, and Nature. He relates nature and his experiences within it to his personal self rather than to society as a whole. Thoreau presents tohis audience a simple and inspirational guide to living. “Walden” inspires its readers to not follow normal traditions, or normally imposed expectations, but to find truth and self in nature.

First off, Thoreau analyzes how his life changes. Venturing “to the woods” because he desires “to live deliberately,” Thoreau implies he lives with purpose and thought; he wishes to face “only the essential facts of life,” indicating that he focuses on important basic aspects of life. On his death bed, he hopes not to “discover that” he does not livelife fully. He wants to reveal its lessons. “To live and suck all the marrowout of life” indicates how he desires to delve into the meaning of life and forcefully take in the sweetest, healthiest aspects of life. Thoreau intends“to drive life into a corner” and control it; he commands life to give him what he wants. To “live what is not life,” Thoreau is saying that he is not livinglife to the fullest, and tries to change that by living how he wants to. People live “like ants,” Thoreau illustrates how people and he live crazy, franticlives, and how he attempts to live a simpler life. As he goes through life, he does “not stop and appreciate things in life. ” He realizes this when he isolder that he has not been thankful for everything in life, and life itself. Intending to live life freely, simply, kind, “and without perturbation,” Thoreau attempts to change the way he has been living his life up to this point. Examining andgoing into further detail, about the fact that everything around him does “not change,” he considers that he is what changes.

Next, Thoreau analyzes how he lives his life. Rather than following “a particular route”, Thoreau believes that people need to make changes in their own lives. Thoreau states that “the right of tradition and conformity” stop new ideas from growing. This shows how he wants to break free from societal expectations, and find his own way of living. If someone follows their “dreams,” and “lives their lives” the way they want to, Thoreau thinks they will be met “with success,” and become happy. If someone does not “keep pace with” norms and their peers, they will live by their own standards in life. His life is very unpleasant, and is filled with many hardships, thus he does “not shun it” or run away from it. Instead, he tries to embrace his life, and change it for the better. Thoreau explains that people will see and respect others success, or “heavenly lights” as he puts it, aslong as they are humble and kind to everyone. Saying that “money is not required,” illustrates that Thoreau sees that the best things in life are priceless and do not cost any money. One way that Thoreau urges his readers to find their true selves is making one’s self the most important aspect of one’slife. He does this by disregarding public opinion in favor of private opinion. He says that, ‘public opinion is a weak tyrant” as to everyone’s own opinion.

Finally, Thoreau explains how Nature affects his life. In the story, Thoreau goes to “live deliberately” in thewoods. In doing so, this illustrates how Nature can provide an example for howto do so. Indicating that most people do not know whether it is for good or forbad, but simply follow in the idea “to glorify God,” which is mans sole purpose in life. Time is not set, but is like a “stream,” it is continuously moving anddoes not stop. Thoreau implies that time does not stop, and will never stop, itis continuous. He makes a bold statement in saying that, “Earth” is but a minorpiece of a large, vast universe; thus hinting that no matter how big peoplethink they actually are, they are but “a point in space” or a speck of dust inthis world. Many people are “big-headed” or think that they are very important and deserve special treatment, care, or etcetera; but in reality, they mean the same thing to the world as everybody else, everyone is equal. Heaven is in theskies “over their heads,” and also in the ground “under their feet. ” Infact, Heaven is here, there, and all around us and it is nowhere that God does not exist.

In conclusion, “Walden,” gives a guide to living in that which includes that Thoreau himself shows how he is changing his life for the better. This essay is a physical example of how Thoreau presents to his audience how he lives life, and how people should try to live their lives. Thoreau connects life to people and people to God in this story, also shows how people themselves can make the connections. Walden is viewed not only as a philosophical treatise on labor, leisure, self-reliance, and individualism but also as an influential piece of nature writing. Thoreau’s description of the physical act of living day by day at Walden Pond gives the book authority, while his command of an elegant style helps raise the work to the level of a literary classic. And finally, this story is a great impact onto people’s lives, and helps shape the way they should live.

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