StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Henry David Thoreau insists, in his chapter entitled “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” in Walden, that the only way to live deliberately is to distance oneself completely from the rest of the world as a means of finding an internal alarm clock that would wake him up to…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.1% of users find it useful
Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For"

Where I Lived and What I Lived For Henry David Thoreau insists, in his chapter en d “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” in Walden, that the only way to live deliberately is to distance oneself completely from the rest of the world as a means of finding an internal alarm clock that would wake him up to really live life as it was meant to be experienced. The essential concept behind this idea was that in living in places such as cities and towns, becoming regulated not by his own choices but by the necessity of earning food and board, most men tend to sleepwalk through life, only being awake in a physical sense while remaining woefully somnolent in the spiritual sense.

“The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.” According to Thoreau, life has become so busy with the rushing railroad and the preoccupation with commerce and other such non-essential aspects of life that the average man has completely lost sight of his own worth and the true realities of life.In detailing the costs associated with building his home, including such notes as the use of refuse shingles for the roof and sides and the purchase of two second hand windows, he rails against the inflated prices and costs of living found within the town or city as a part of the capitalistic process.

“I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually.” Having rejected the concept of ownership in the form of deeds and fences as well as condemned the process of ownership in which prices become inflated well higher than they had to be, Thoreau then moves to describe the false impressions of living space to which most people in the commercial world seem to cling. Recognizing the smallness of his home, Thoreau first indicates the unnecessary extravagance of the homes of others: “Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to be extravagantly large for their inhabitants.

  They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.” However, he also begins to indicate how the appropriate living space isn’t just the empty rooms and built spaces of human creation, but should include the shared spaces of the outdoors, the connection with nature and the consideration of the ultimate creation.While I find I agree with Thoreau regarding the busy-ness of life, especially as it has increased significantly in speed even since Thoreau’s time, I cannot agree with him that it is necessary to completely remove oneself from the center of life in order to discover what the realities are.

Reading poetry such as Emerson and the writings of Thoreau himself makes it clear that life should not be about the material gains one makes but should instead be focused upon spiritual pursuits. This is not to say one should faithfully follow a particular religious persuasion, but instead that one should be focused upon developing relationships with the world around him. This cannot be accomplished if one is living in a small shack in the middle of uninhabited territory. While it is easy to become too wrapped up in modern living, taking time out occasionally, perhaps as often as once a day, to evaluate one’s goals and objectives may be all that’s necessary to wake up that portion of a man’s soul that Thoreau seems to feel is forever asleep.

Works CitedThoreau, Henry David. Walden. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1993.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549892-henry-david-thoreau-where-i-lived-and-what-i-lived-for
(Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For Essay)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549892-henry-david-thoreau-where-i-lived-and-what-i-lived-for.
“Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549892-henry-david-thoreau-where-i-lived-and-what-i-lived-for.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For

Henry David Thoreau: Walden

Name: Course: Instructor: Date: henry david thoreau: Walden Emerson lists several qualities of being a poet.... In trying to prove that the poet is representative, the work Walden by henry david thoreau shall be relied upon.... I have settled on henry david thoreau and his work Walden.... From the outset, it is a bit too obvious that henry david thoreau was an extremely unselfish poet.... henry david thoreau details his reasons for going into the woods as follows....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Henry Thoreaus View on the Economy

Henry thoreau had been an influential personality whose ideology led to various revolutionary ideologies in the famous personalities in Martin Luther King Jr.... … thoreau had been an intellectual personality whose specialty had been in philosophy, history, theology and literature studies.... thoreau led a comfortable lifestyle with the advantage offered in applying readily available materials.... He explained that though people saw him to be alone, he did not feel abandoned and gained satisfaction from the space created (thoreau and Blake 40)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Idea of Self-Reliance in Henry David Thoreaus Writings

One specific introduction of self-reliance is seen in “where i lived and what i lived for”, and another bright illustration can be seen in “Civil Disobedience”.... Henry David Thoreau's “where i lived and what i lived for” is an example of a writing with a romantic and transcendentalist attitude which can be noticed not only in the subject of the writing, but also in the language which shows direct interaction with the reader....  In his writing ‘where i lived and what i lived for” he shows his own example of purchasing a farm and moving into the small shack in this spot in order to be separated from the society as he understood it and move to quiet simplicity with more chances of observing himself....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Henry David Thoreau: Walden

henry david thoreau built a rough cabin in the wilderness of Walden Pond, which served as a Nature Retreat for the inhabitants of Concorde in the 1840's.... Thoreau states the purpose of this experiment: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Chapter 2, para.... hellip; thoreau demonstrates in Walden “Transcendentalism's preoccupation with the details of nature, which seemed to encapsulate divine glory in microcosmic form” (Finseth, 15)....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Picture of Dorian Gray and Henry David Thoreau's Economy: Comparison and Contrast

The novel Picture of Dorian Gray and the thesis “Economy,” from henry david thoreau's Walden have completely different ways of presenting the same thesis – that materialism is generally bad, and leads to a shallow and unfulfilling life.... henry david thoreau makes the same claim in “Economy,” but makes it in a totally different way.... As noted below, Wilde also portrayed this desperation of the rich by Lord Henry, who made the point that society is like Dorian – society is what knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, and this is what makes society susceptible to Dorian's charms, while also being a corruptive influence on young Dorian Gray....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Henry David Thoreau

Abstract This paper aims to identify how a Merlin Hawk symbolizes the behavior and to some extent the person henry david thoreau himself.... To write this paper, henry david thoreau's expeditions were read in detail.... hellip; henry david thoreau spent two years near Walden Pond living a life of solitude.... of Institute> This paper aims to identify how a Merlin Hawk symbolizes the behavior and to some extent the person henry david thoreau himself....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Henry David Thoreau and Walden

henry david thoreau focused his writings on how man was affected by nature.... ccording to Thoreau humans must not struggle so long and hard to merely harmonize with the beliefs of society and what human nature ought to be.... Are they merely living a career or some other narrowly routine or is a worthwhile life being lived.... He must work for what he... thoreau introduced an idea of man as an individual, rather than a subject, by thoroughly describing the way a citizen should live in many of his works....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

David Thoreaus Walden

The writer of this paper analyzes david thoreau's Walden, which is a novel published in 1854.... The book emphasizes the importance of solitude, self-reliance, contemplation, and most importance closeness to nature in transcending what he calls our "desperate" existence.... The book details thoreau's stay in a cabin near Walden Pond.... The book was inspired by American Transcendentalism, a philosophy developed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, thoreau's friend, and spiritual mentor....
6 Pages (1500 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us