Who Is Thoreau Still Relevant Today?

In Walden, Henry D. Thoreau presented a radical and controversial perspective on society that was far beyond its time. In a period where growth both economically and territorially was seen as necessary for the development of a premature country, Thoreau felt the opposite. Thoreau was a man in search of growth within himself and was not concerned with outward improvements in him or society. In the chapter entitled "economy," he argued that people were too occupied with work to truly appreciate what life has to offer. He felt the root of this obsession with work was created through the misconstrued perception that material needs were a necessity, rather than a hindrance to true happiness and the

The essay by Henry David Thoreau, “Where I lived and What I Lived For” tells Thoreau beliefs of how society should live. He asks deep questions such as, “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” to encourage the reader to contemplate their lives and values. He said, “Our life is frittered away by detail.” and goes on to emphasize the value of, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” Thoreau states simplicity and self sufficiency are virtues society should live by; however, they potentially jeopardize the community and are consequently not viable today.

An account of Thoreau’s experiences in his cabin during his retreat to the wilderness from society. Thoreau believed the Market revolution to be degrading to the Americans values and the Natural environment and that Americans should pace a life more attuned to the rhythms of Nature. Freedom lied not in the amount of goods accumulated but within.

Found with McCandless’s remains was a copy of Thoreau’s Walden with McCandless’s comments. In particular, McCandless highlighted “rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” and wrote “TRUTH” on the page (Krakauer 117). Like Thoreau, McCandless was concerned with truthfulness and living on only necessities. Simplicity, was what both looked towards, and Thoreau repeats “simplicity” and “simplify” multiple times in Walden (Thoreau par. 17). Both denounced technology, as it was a distraction from reality. “I never received more than one or two letters in my life…that were worth the postage” expressing that people are occupied with nonessential news (Thoreau par.19). McCandless became embarrassed by his parent’s modest wealth believing that “wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil” (Krakauer 115) and ended up donating his savings to OXFAM America (Krakauer 20).

Thoreau lived as a minimalist to strip away the distractions of life. He wanted to live in the woods,

To Henry David Thoreau, nature serves as a reminder to take a break from the fast paced style of life. Thoreau is a transcendentalist writer who isolated himself from society to live a life at his own pace. The title of his work, Where I Lived and What I Lived For, presents the purpose of his writing. Thoreau expresses where he resided and his reasoning for living there. He successfully achieves his purpose through the use of aphorisms and paradox. He begins his essay with direct and simple vocabulary that clearly states his purpose. He “went to the woods” in order “to front only the essential facts of life”. His destination and intentions are clear. His diction represent his way of thought where details are not needed. His use of aphorisms

We practice the Thoreauvian principle of unnecessary possessions. Thoreau pointed out that the average Concord laborer worked ten or fifteen years of his life just to have a roof over his head (Skinner,

I confess, I all too well know that living in the digital age, I have hindered my opportunities to immerse myself in nature like Henry David Thoreau. There is rarely a day that passes by that I do not use my cell phone or computer. Too often I forget that the outside world is more enigmatic and dynamic than anything that can be found on the computer or in the concrete jungle I enter when I go back home. I crave the mesmerizing and reflective space that nature has always provided since the dawn of time. Nature allows me to feel alone, but also become a part of something at the very same time. Thoreau beautifully claims, “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Henry David Thoreau stood behind the fact that all change is a miracle that happens in every instant. World travel has the potential to introduce an individual to the various miracles that life has to offer through aspects like culture, scenery, and language. In fact, there is a psychological concept that goes by the name of the “Big Five.” The number five refers to the five most dominant characteristics of personality: openness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Meeting new people and exposing oneself with new culture is one of is an activity that is one of the main contributors to the openness factor of personality which in turn has a domino effect on the remaining four characteristics (“5 Ways…”). That being said, by travelling the world an individual is able to become more adventurous and well rounded.

These hypocritical lines make the tone appear to be jealous or that he's hard to please materialistically. The tone in these statements become more clear in the final paragraph when he says that his favorite "room" is the woods in his backyard. The tone becomes more clear that he was not jealous or hard to please, but he was quite the opposite. He didn't want any possessions, or larger rooms inside of his house. Thoreau wanted to be able to have a distant but close conversation in the comfort of his

Industriousness was heralded as a strong and virtuous quality in a man. 'Idle hands do the Devil's work' was a favorite saying of the hard working people at the time. Yet Thoreau saw this logic as flawed and actually an abomination of society. He stressed that one could be ascetic without being lazy. Reasonable necessity, not fashion, was the most important to Thoreau. Understanding the difference between what we want done and what must be done is a tremendous first step in Thoreau's mind. And this confronting our own

Henry David Thoreau wanted to get most of out of life and did so in the woods. He built a cabin in the woods and a lived a simplistic life. In “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Thoreau asserts that “I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… to put to rout all that was not life: and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau, 8). Conformity creates an uninspiring life full of thoughts of the mass.

Henry David Thoreau was american essayist and poet was a strong leader in the transcendentalist movement. One of Thoreau’s best pieces is “Where I Live and What I Live for,” which explains the simplicity of life and to live with only life’s absolute necessities to be able to truly enjoy life. There were many similarities connected with the works of Thoreau and McCandless and connection to the ideology of transcendentalism. “During his senior year at Emory, Chris lived off campus in his bare, spartan room furnished with milk crates and a mattress on the floor. Few of his friends ever say him outside of classes. A professor gave him a key for after-hours access to the library, where he spent much of his free time” (124). The actions that McCandless did connects and exemplifies Thoreau’s philosophy, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on a thumbnail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and the storms and quicksand and through sands and- one items to be allowed for” (Thoreau, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”). The first passage expresses how McCandless would not need excessive physical possessions in his life to live. This relates to Thoreau’s idea on how people of transcendentalism simply live their lives and avoid making matters more complex with

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.

Henry David Thoreau, author of “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, has become one of the most influential authors of all time in the eyes of many. Though some might be led to believe his essays and writings, including “Where I Lived, and What I lived For”, make him a down to earth and even rugged author, as he spent some of his life in the forest. However, his life in the woods was not one of heavy duty work and he often was supported with objects and material possessions, contrary to what many of his essays describe. Although some might think of him as a cheater or a liar, Thoreau’s conflicting lifestyles prove him to be a literary genius as he successfully dictates a lifestyle he himself does not take part in throughout paragraphs one