Henry David Thoreau, born in Concord, Massachusetts, was one of the most influential transcendentalist of his time. Getting away from the growing industrial town of Concord he escaped into the open, wooded lands around the pristine Walden pond. He passed his days observing and documenting his surroundings like the breeze rustling the branches of trees and shrubs, animals scurrying about the barren grounds, or the way that the rain hit the surface of the quaint pond and slowly rippled. He combined his two years of elegant writings into a novel that emphasizes simplicity and nature but is filled with literature filled with beautiful language and pros. An analysis of Henry David Thoreau’s novel Walden reveals three major themes including the
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“Life Without Principle””. Living simply was crucial to Thoreau because he believed it was crucial to live life to the fullest and to attempt to understand the dense, complex functions of the mind. He spent an unsurmountable amount of time spent on making sense of how he fit into the plan of the world. This is made clear when John Powell writes, “the task of living life, exploring the depths of his mind, and validating his own existence.” One aspect of simplicity that Thoreau spent the majority of his time on was individualism. He did not want to, “fit in” with a social group. Donna Williams writes, “his identity was founded on individualism rather than membership in any cultural group,” to show that Thoreau wanted to be his own entity apart from the people of Concord. He strongly believed in the self and being able to live life on his own through the set of beliefs that he believed in. This is clear when Elizabeth Stoddard writes in her essay, “Individualism is the altar at which he worships” (383). One aspect of individualism that Thoreau enjoyed was completing tasks on his own tasks that were necessary to life. He spent time in the woods surrounding Walden to erect his own small home and spent time to raise his own methods of crops. Gamaliel Bailey writes in his essay, “raise corn, beans, and potatoes, and do one’s own cooking, hermit like,” to show that Thoreau lived so individually that he was a
“Life Without Principle””. Living simply was crucial to Thoreau because he believed it was crucial to live life to the fullest and to attempt to understand the dense, complex functions of the mind. He spent an unsurmountable amount of time spent on making sense of how he fit into the plan of the world. This is made clear when John Powell writes, “the task of living life, exploring the depths of his mind, and validating his own existence.” One aspect of simplicity that Thoreau spent the majority of his time on was individualism. He did not want to, “fit in” with a social group. Donna Williams writes, “his identity was founded on individualism rather than membership in any cultural group,” to show that Thoreau wanted to be his own entity apart from the people of Concord. He strongly believed in the self and being able to live life on his own through the set of beliefs that he believed in. This is clear when Elizabeth Stoddard writes in her essay, “Individualism is the altar at which he worships” (383). One aspect of individualism that Thoreau enjoyed was completing tasks on his own tasks that were necessary to life. He spent time in the woods surrounding Walden to erect his own small home and spent time to raise his own methods of crops. Gamaliel Bailey writes in his essay, “raise corn, beans, and potatoes, and do one’s own cooking, hermit like,” to show that Thoreau lived so individually that he was a