What Is Thoreau's Contribution To Individualism

The father of nature 's attempts to create a better world Henry David Thoreau is considered as one of the most powerful and inspiring figures of all times. A great writer, naturalist, philosopher and the leading individual of Transcendentalism, Henry Thoreau was undoubtedly a genius of his time. Moreover, his endowments to the improvement of the world were exceedingly significant, such as his contribution to Abolitionism or his prominent work of literature called “Walden”. In this book, through descriptive writing Thoreau managed to deliver what he was seeing in the form of personal daily musings from his journal. He recorded his observations and wrote about the considerable influence of nature on people and how its beauty can be appreciated in various ways. Images and comparisons formed through his research of animal behavior, plant diversity, and of the feature of changing seasons. These show and encourage the ideas he describes in his book, “Walden”. In this book, he also focused on other various themes, including the relations between light and dark, the importance of details, and the relationship between spirit and body. Additionally, Thoreau is brave enough to follow his heart and moral sense to combat the unfair systems executed by the government; in his pieces he mainly focuses on individualism as he protests against slavery and injustice. Through exploration of the meaning and elements of “Walden”, this essay will define Transcendentalism and its influence on Thoreau’s life. It will proceed to name three possible roles of nature in the development of Transcendentalist attitudes in Thoreau’s writing. Additionally, in accordance with his legendary book “Walden”, it will explain feasible reasons which significantly influence his ideology and peculiar lifestyle. Henry Thoreau lived alone in the woods in a house which he had built himself on the coast of Walden Pond in Concord for two years. While at Walden, Thoreau did an unbelievable amount of reading and writing. He also spent much time by being in nature which gave him greater joy in his daily life. However, the author was not very adventurous in the period of living in the woods; he simply worked his garden, cooked, and essentially lived a calm simple life. More than a half of the book’s content is about his thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness format. Thoughts about everything: about nutrition, hunting, fishing, about how to correctly build a house, about life philosophy, different religions, art, science… the list goes on. Strictly speaking, this book is about how to correctly live a life for mankind in the opinion of Henry David Thoreau. Moreover, he particularly described nature quite well: these words, by which he literally draws transparent ponds, green leaves on the trees, fish, and forest animals causes a deep desire to look at all this splendor with your own eyes. Thoreau and the Transcendentalism …show more content…
He strongly believed that every human being is naturally good and has a boundless potential. Two years of living in the woods taught Thoreau a simple lesson: if mankind courageously tried to reach his goals, success would be waiting for him. Subsequently, his life in this case would start to obey the supreme law, where an individual finds the ultimate freedom. In fact, the more a person oversimplifies his life, the easier his attitude toward the supreme law— loneliness, poverty, and weakness— cease to exist to him. From Thoreau’s point of view, everyone should put all their efforts to reach their desired aims and become the person whom they were born to be. Thoreau attempted to show people limitless opportunity of the universe and to inspire them to find their own unique …show more content…
Additionally, Thoreau noticed that beside the human aspiration to live a spiritual life, his personality can have a predator feature which is the main cause for his demand in hunting and fishing. However, when a man reaches a high level of spirituality, he denies animal flesh, as Thoreau did. He assumed that meat contains something impure that interferes with the maintenance of inner strength. Thoreau also refused to drink a wine and considered the only thing you should be intoxicated from is air. By looking to the fire in the evenings, he was purifying his entire mind from all the negative thoughts and energy. He claimed that every individual should live deliberately, by giving each of his part of the life attention, and living in the