The book Walden was written by Henry D. Thoreau an American surveyor, poet, philosopher, essayist, tax resister, naturalist, and historian in 1854. He is also known as the first environmentalist or ecologist. Thoreau is categorize as a transcendentalist writer, Walden is one of the informative works of this particular philosophical/literary movement. Thoreau is one of the only human characters in Walden, he is both the subject of this text as well as the author. In almost all literary work, we watch how a character develops as the result of her or his experiences. Thoreau positions himself in the entire story from beginning to end.
Thoreau wrote of his experiences in his two-year experiment of “self reliance “ on the northern shore of Walden Pond located near Concord, Massachusetts. His recording/ journal of journey made this pond famous. He decided to move to Walden Pond to evaluate and see what life has to offer him. Thoreau wanted to “simplify” his life while living in the woods. He believed that many people’s lives were a waste of time because of the many details. Being bombarded with all the trials of everyday living wasn’t for Thoreau, he enjoyed simple living. Thoreau believed that all needed to find a way to make their lives simple, by doing so they may enjoy a better quality of life like he had.
Walden was written so that Thoreau could answer the many questions as to why he choose this path. He wanted the world to know that everything doesn’t have to be complicated to have meaning and be satisfying. Being happy and satisfied didn’t cost Thoreau a thing.
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Thoreau grew his own food such as beans, he caught fish (he played his flute while doing so), he build a cabin to live in and enjoyed divine experiences. It was used to examine the basic elements of identity. His vision of simplicity is displayed throughout this work, ranting through many ideas. He believes he can do this best when he doesn’t deal with the normal worldly concerns, like material goods and human society. In spite of his isolation, the presence of society surrounded him. As the Fitchburg Railroad rushed past Walden Pond it interrupted his daydreaming and forced him to observe the power of technology.
Thoreau looked forward to every season, no matter how hot or how cold, he gave lots of attention to nature, and the creatures with which he shares the woods. Walden begins and ends with the theme of Thoreau continuously pushing the idea of opening your eyes to see how beautiful nature was to the world. Nature was like candy to a baby to Thoreau, sweet and soothing. Thoreau gave dreamy accounts of how life was living on the pond. His accounts opened people’s eyes to see the world as well as opened them to read. Enjoying the land, and the animals was the only thing Thoreau spent time doing, he spent time criticizing the average newspaper, reader, who reads about sensational incidents like never thinking for a moment like a man losing his eyes.
Out of all things mud inspired Thoreau, yes mud. Watching mud melt infuses his reflections on the interconnectedness of everything in life, from mud to the most fortunate towering ideas. The mud makes an usual web pattern as it melts. The melting makes the mud look like leaves, which makes him think about how certain unique recur in nature. To Thoreau the patterns were nothing less than “living Poetry”.
Thoreau’s belief was confirmed by the sight of this pattern. The natural beauty corresponds with human spiritual truths. “The earth is not a mere fragment of dead History, stratum upon stratum like the Leaves of a book, to be studied by Geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but Living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which Precede flowers and fruit-not a fossil Earth, but a living earth; compared with Whose great central life all animal and Vegetable life is merely parasitic. (Spring 9) Thoreau refers the wilderness as if it were a “antidepressant.” “Our village life would stagnate if it were not For the unexplored forests and meadows Which surround it. We need the tonic of wilderness (Spring 25)
Thoreau uses his knowledge of science as he observes the occurrence of nature. Great detail is used in his recording as he identifies the different plants and animals. He uses their scientific names, as well as the color and purity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and details the melting and freezing of the pond, and recounts the measurements, the shape and depth of the bottom of the supposedly “bottomless” Walden Pond. While becoming more acquainted with the pond and neighboring ponds.
Thoreau decided to map their layouts and measure their depths. During his research he found that Walden Pond was more than a hundred feet deep, thereby disproving that Walden Pond was “bottomless”.
Preparing for the season to change, the leaves stop falling and the birds began to fly south. Signaling the start of winter. Thoreau prepares his walls using a muddy substance/sealer to shut out the wind, while listening to the beautiful sounds of nature. With the upcoming winter months Thoreau welcomed the birds and other animals with open arms to the cabin to escape the cold. He looks at the pond as a symbol of infinity that is needed in people’s lives. Thoreau describes the pond as it seems during the winter. He says the sounds are deep and are located in an underground outlet. Then he depicts how 100 laborers came to cut great blocks of ice from the pond, the ice to be shipped to the Carolinas.
The changing of seasons had come again, winter gives away to spring. The days and nights went from being cold to blossoming flowers and beautiful butterflies. He said the coming of spring is a “vast transformation of the face of the world, a time when all sins are forgiven.”
Thoreau regularly refuses to be in “need” of the company of others. Even though he realizes its importance, he thinks it is unnecessary to always be in search of it. To him, “self reliance” is economic as well as social and is a principle that in terms of financial and interpersonal relations is more treasured than anything.
The last chapter is the most intense and urgent than its predecessors. This chapter criticizes conformity. ”if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away”, by doing so men could find self- fulfillment and happiness. Walden puts an emphasis on the importance of solitude, contemplation, as well as closeness in nature in transcending the “desperate” existence that, he argues,is the lot of most people. This book isn’t just a criticism of society, but also an attempt to engage creativity with the better aspects of present day culture, is urged by both Thoreau’s closeness to Concord society and by his admiration for classical literature.
Thoreau explains why he left to live in the woods in the end. “I left the woods for as good reason as I went there… Thoreau never intended to live in the woods permanently, and after two in Walden Woods he thought it was time to return to society and have other experiences.
