Walden

At the age of twenty-eight, in a revolt against the monotonous

machinations and fiscal norms of the society, Henry David Thoreau

decided to desert city life into the woods of Massachusetts in a quest

for sheer simplicity. Thoreau believed that the woods would revive his

morals and enrich his values, making him think solely of what is truly

crucial in life. Living alone in the wilderness for more than two years,

he experienced new concepts and perspectives that his fellow citizens

had been missing on living the daily-somewhat fast paced-life of a

blooming mining society. Thoreau thus developed a new overall

understanding of economic priorities within a delicate spiritual frame

that Mother Nature had made him realize. By writing his book Walden,

Thoreau wanted to share his experience with the readers encouraging

to live simple and open their eyes to what really matters.

“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.” Thoreau hereby proposes self-reliance and resorting to Nature

as the main theme. His economic perspectives in Walden suggest that

true happiness is achieved by living simple, consuming the least

products as possible; having to rely upon one’s resourcefulness living

in the cradle of Nature would incur a healthy natural life-style which

would be economically easier to maintain. Ironically, readers might

believe Thoreau to be a “survivor in the woods”, however Thoreau’s

doctrine perceives citizens as subjects merely reacting to the outside

world and therefore surviving day by day deprived of the joy of

purposefully living, wasting time, money and effort for the sake of a

passive life-style. For Thoreau, this is not truly living; citizens’ lives

revolve around money: seeking it, earning it, spending it and working

for it until old age when it is too late to enjoy life anymore.

Furthermore, Thoreau’s economic doctrine creates a justifiable schism

in the classic equation: “earning, spending (the money), consuming

(the product)”, proposing the direct approach “consuming (the

product)” as the earning and spending the money is no longer

necessary. Thoreau aimed at enjoying life at a time when people

having the same age as him would spend all their time working to gain

money and survive; he isolated himself from society so as to have the

time to “live”, not “survive”.

In addition to the economic aspect of Thoreau’s experience,

readers furthermore enjoy the spiritual depth of his thoughts: Man

living in Nature, free from interruption, is experiencing a true state of

awareness as he is more sensitive to nature and prone to sublime

feelings within “to be awake is to be alive” he observes. “I have always

been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born” he adds,

suggesting that Man has a clearer understanding of life and a purer

outlook towards his environment at early age (infant or child) before

the blur of education and social inherited concepts hinder his vision;

Thoreau here believes that his social civilized life has kept him away

from thinking about the essential and main values of life. Also,

consumed by everyday tasks and chores, Man is lost; he is losing part

of humanity resembling the machines he had created. Living

deliberately and purposefully, as Thoreau did in the woods, transcends

the concrete elements and sophisticated social norms, introducing Man

to a rich emotional experience that starts with appreciating Nature and

ends in an overall emotional and spiritual re-education of Man’s new

found soul.

Finally, Thoreau’s experience could be felt and appreciated

through its genuineness, and endeavor to invite fellow men to share

the economic and spiritual benefits of a doctrine inspired by two years

in the wilderness, totally engulfed by Nature.

Resources: -Walden’s article (where I lived and why I lived for)

-http://thoreau.eserver.org/oneless.html