Walden by Henry Thoreau: Breaking Through Obstacles no Matter What
In this story, it focuses on the idea of poverty. By taking his own personal examples, the author shows how unnecessary luxury items can be and how different it is from what is needed.
As well as the anxiety that comes with coming from a poor background.“The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm, but unnaturally hot“ (Thoreau 2) Henry is pointing out the fact that they are using things that they simply do not need when others good be using some of it. He builds on this idea as the story goes one, discussing it in terms of food, clothing, and shelter.
Clothing wise he discusses the idea of having patches in one’s clothing to cover up holes. While queens and kings would only wear one suit only once and disregard it after. The idea that wardrobe is so important nowadays, that if you do not own this or that you are lame or labeled as “poor’. Thoreau focuses on this by talking about ‘The childish and savage taste of men and women for new pattern keeps how many shaking and squinting through kaleidoscopes that they may discover the particular figure which this generation requires today.”(Thoreau 3). The author strongly believes that clothing should be used solely to ‘retain the vital heat” and “to cover nakedness.”
Henry discusses how every animal has their shelter but “In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole.” (Thoreau 3). He points out that we can advance the way we build houses but we can advance a man in the same way. How there can be a palace but right behind it lies slums for those who could not afford to live in it. The author is trying to make the point that some of the people who are considered poor lack something as simple as a place to stay at night. Henry then tells a story of something he had experienced. He discusses how he built his own house, ending up costing him 28.121 dollars in all to be able to build it. He has found that this eventually became “rather out of proportion, to my income.” (Thoreau 4). He wrote of the different types of jobs he had considered in order to make his livelihood; picking huckleberries, trading, and teaching
The author uses his personal experience and the way people have lived in the past in order to convey his main thought; the idea of poverty. He goes through and discusses how noblemen and kings live with uncomfortable amounts of stuff, while the poor are left with little. He discusses this by talking about the idea of clothing and shelter. How there may be palaces for the kings, but then there are people living without any home at all. “I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain ones’ self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime…” (Thoreau 6) Everyone has to get through life, and many have it harder than others. He is trying to say that you gotta take the obstacles and over come them regardless of the situation.
