The Definition Of Economy In Walden By Henry David Thoreau

I took the name of this chapter from the first chapter of Walden. The word, Economy, sounds improper word for those two books, The Old Man and The Sea and Walden, because they focus on the life in the nature, such the wood and the sea. However, Economy in the Walden is the most important chapter to understand whole chapters, and the word, Economy, has a different meaning from the capitalistic economy. It seems that their Economy is more like ecosystem than economy. It describes their life style. So we need to think about what economy is. The word, economy, reminds the readers the capitalistic economy, enterprises, market and the movement of money. Probably, Thoreau uses economy to bring out such images. Thoreau compares capitalistic economy with his idea about economy. Kamioka analyzes the meaning of Economy. He states that the Economy is the economy of nature, which is the whole life on the earth, their interaction and reasonable system (Kamioka 42). The nature has the life cycle: rain grows the trees, trees products fruits, birds eat fruits and birds carries the seeds. It …show more content…
He chooses the woods, the nature, as the place where he carries out the economic activity. It seems that his economy is more like primitive economy, which is based on bartering. It means that he does not treat shams and delusions but what certainly exist or something reasonable. Feeding caws to own his house does not make sense, however, chopping the woods and building the house is consistent with his purpose. Therefore, his economy focuses on solving “some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically” (57). When people try to solve their problems practically, they may start to think about their own life. That is what Thoreau wants to do in his life. He wants “to front only the essential facts of life”, and does not “wish to live what was not life” because “life is so dear”