Henry David Thoreau wrote in a time of change and ages past. Every era is opposed to the ones preceding and succeeding itself, but the Romantics were truly a group who hearkened to an old tune; one of integrated civilization and nature in medieval times. When he wrote Walden, Thoreau wrote about his own experiences in the natural world and how it changed him. In his writing, Thoreau explains why one should live deliberately. He actively argues to convince the reader to do so. Even today, Thoreau’s words still hold up, convincing more people every year that life has to be well lived, not just well supplied with expensive clothes and technology to entertain you, but valued for its worth as the dearest thing owned. In the end, only one thing can
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This essay will concern how Thoreau believes one should live, and what is stopping us from living this way.
Thoreau did not write Walden as a masterpiece of Romantic literature. He wrote to document his findings of life as it should be lived. This makes it a romantic masterpiece because Thoreau did not write this for the purpose of explaining to others, but instead to explain himself and to explain life. Enlightenment masterpieces like Candide lay out the rules of life and nature and how one should be. Thoreau says “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” (74). This is a popular passage because it reveals such reasoning behind his rambling, poetic journal. Thoreau’s point is that “to live deliberately” is not necessarily to go to the woods. His phrasing requires emphasis: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. He seems to ask, “Where would you go? What would you do?” He writes specifically to say such things on page 58 of Walden; “I would not anyone adopt my mode of living on any account.” …show more content…
Some people notice that their lives are more than a chain of actions and reactions, “but only one in a hundred million” (73) can understand that life is not complicated, it’s really simple. Thoreau decides to live life better. This doesn’t require the business and bustle everyone else has grown accustomed to, in fact Thoreau doesn’t even want any of the fancier things in life; a huge house, the most delicious delicacies, or anything of that rich nature. But that doesn’t prohibit others from not following his example, in fact he would rather they pursue this, if it is a better life for them. He says, “If there is any to whom it is no interruption to acquire [expensive things], and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish them to the pursuit.” Today, like yesterday, like yesteryear, and like three hundred years ago, we are busy. People have lifespans of about eighty years, with working lifespans of about forty five years. How many things can one person get done in less than half a century? Thoreau believes in the life of the ancients. He is delighted at how, when he began to live in his cabin, “both time and place had changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me”(71). He likes living alone or near to such, in order to live
This essay will concern how Thoreau believes one should live, and what is stopping us from living this way.
Thoreau did not write Walden as a masterpiece of Romantic literature. He wrote to document his findings of life as it should be lived. This makes it a romantic masterpiece because Thoreau did not write this for the purpose of explaining to others, but instead to explain himself and to explain life. Enlightenment masterpieces like Candide lay out the rules of life and nature and how one should be. Thoreau says “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” (74). This is a popular passage because it reveals such reasoning behind his rambling, poetic journal. Thoreau’s point is that “to live deliberately” is not necessarily to go to the woods. His phrasing requires emphasis: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. He seems to ask, “Where would you go? What would you do?” He writes specifically to say such things on page 58 of Walden; “I would not anyone adopt my mode of living on any account.” …show more content…
Some people notice that their lives are more than a chain of actions and reactions, “but only one in a hundred million” (73) can understand that life is not complicated, it’s really simple. Thoreau decides to live life better. This doesn’t require the business and bustle everyone else has grown accustomed to, in fact Thoreau doesn’t even want any of the fancier things in life; a huge house, the most delicious delicacies, or anything of that rich nature. But that doesn’t prohibit others from not following his example, in fact he would rather they pursue this, if it is a better life for them. He says, “If there is any to whom it is no interruption to acquire [expensive things], and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish them to the pursuit.” Today, like yesterday, like yesteryear, and like three hundred years ago, we are busy. People have lifespans of about eighty years, with working lifespans of about forty five years. How many things can one person get done in less than half a century? Thoreau believes in the life of the ancients. He is delighted at how, when he began to live in his cabin, “both time and place had changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me”(71). He likes living alone or near to such, in order to live