Walden

“Obviously we can’t all run away to the woods like Thoreau and live the life of a hermit but we can try to find our own special Walden, wherever that may be, and commit to doing our very best. We must never forget that Walden is not just a geographical point somewhere in the New England landscape but a state of mind, an attitude of simple living that can be transported anywhere, anytime, if we so decide.”(Lewin, Michael) Michael Lewin stated the unquestionable fact that while life is forever…

Anthropocentric Nature Writing in the “Introduction” to Walden Bill McKibben’s “Introductin” to Walden, telling of a backpacking trip into the New York Adirondacks, is a great example of nature writing. Nature writing has a tendency to be anthropocentric, fueling consumerism in its readers. By contrast, the hallmarks of environmental writing are an attempt to create an awareness for issues concerning the environment in a biocentric point of view and to convey the detrimental effects of…

that most current day high school students despise. However, some of the lessons hidden in his abstract metaphors and confusing similes still hold weight today. One of the main focuses of Walden was to show readers that they can live off of the bare minimum and do not need fancy technology to live. His life at Walden Pond proved this notion. While many people may have read Thoreau’s work, almost none took it to heart. Today, a study has shown that people spend more time looking at a screen as…

Travels with Charley Travels with Charley, written by famous American author John Steinbeck in his later years, is a travelogue of his almost four-month-long trip with his poodle, Charley, on a cross-country journey to try to regain his connection with America. His reason was that he wanted to be recognized as an “American writer,” but not just have the title put upon him because he lived in America and was a writer. In order for him to earn that title, he felt he needed to broaden his…

In life we all have new and different challenges thrown at us every day that we have to face. Henry David Thoreau’s has six key themes about life and how he lived a simple life using these themes. These thoughts would include Hearing the different drummer, being awake aware and alive, examining desperate and deliberate lives, living in society, living in nature and confronting the mean and sublime. What I took away from Henry David Thoreau was that I loved the way he thought and I could…

oth Russell and Thoreau believed being in nature leads to happiness. Thoreau believed in being in isolation and to not self- indulge and Russell believe that you should fulfill the wants and needs of yourself and others. Thoreau and Russell were men that were both in the pursuit of happiness. They both talk about what makes them happy, and how to be successful in life. Thoreau talks about how being isolated and to not to self indulge. He wants to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of…

equivalent to living completely isolated, which Thoreau did when he spent two years living alone at Walden Pond. For me, going to a technology free sleep away camp for seven weeks was a similar to Thoreau’s experience. Through his time alone, Thoreau learned to live in the moment, focus on what he was doing instead of the rest of the world, and reflect more on himself, all which is shared in his story Walden. Thoreau was able to live in the moment without the constant reminder of what others…

I see myself in Walden because I have realized, upon reflection, that my conclusions from facing the meanness of life mirror Thoreau’s conclusions in Walden. In “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, Thoreau explains his motives for the unorthodox move to Walden Pond. Thoreau went into the woods to “drive life into a corner”, “live deliberately” and “publish the whole and genuine meanness of it [life]” (74). With these goals in mind, Thoreau entered an environment with obstacles requiring him to…

I once read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. The book’s cogent viewpoint of independency resonated with my own ideals. His ideas on self-reliance and simplicity influenced me to extol virtues of an individualist’s life; moreover, his consistent motifs of nature helped me understand simplicity and the hindrances of too many luxuries. My mentality to impress those around me changed to that I should impress myself. Walden granted me the acumen to adjust myself to the individualist’s lifestyle.…

Walden, by Henry Thoreau, is a book that reflects upon leading a simple life in the nature. Thoreau settles by the Walden Pond and begins to experience the nature. The Bean Field and Brute Neighbors from Thoreau’s experiences in Walden demonstrate an important aspect of life. In The Bean Field, Thoreau describes his life in cultivating beans on a rural field. Meanwhile, Thoreau explains his observation of the ant combat in Brute Neighbors. Overall, The Bean Field and Brute Neighbors suggest…