Summary of Walden Pond :: essays papers

Summary of Walden PondFor close to the inaugural half of the book Thoreau questions the spiritednessstyles that people choose. He makes his readers wonder ifthey have chosen the kind of action that will really offer themhappiness. Are they just living a accusationer or some othernarrowly focused routine or is a worthwhile life existence lived.Thoreau wonders if the truly valuable elements of life arebeing taken good of if a person isnt living simply. If aperson is so caught up in working or never having enough thenlife, its wonders, and rapture are difficult to obtain.As he states in the beginning (pg4), more or less men even in thiscomparatively free country, though genuine ignorance and mistake,are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluouslycoarse labors of life that is finer fruits cannot be plucked bythem. This to me means that people care more about the finethings in life and easier work kind of of characters gifts andhard work. Thoreau draws a parall el between otherspreoccupation wit h money and his own enjoyment ofnon-monetary wealth. Thoreaus statement A man is luxuriant in proportionto the number of things he can consecrate to allow alone means that richrefers to having the luck for spiritual and intellectual gainsand afford refers to the self-actualization rather than to cash in thebank. Those are just some of the materialistic terms that Thoreau usesto refer to non-materialist values, making fun of the capitalist in theprocess.Thoreau uses the opportunity of the first chapter to discussthe issue of how we spend our time and energies. It is obviousthat his town are not as economical as they spend morehours working very hard to accomplish very little, showing afalse sense of economy. Thoreau believed that all attempts toredeem mankind from its problems were useless unless much(prenominal)attempts began with the person. The individual person had tostop thinking more about the lesson nature had to offer.Thoreau th ought that by living simply with few needs ormaterial possessions man would have more time to enjoy life toits fullest natural potential. In the other chapters of thebook Thoreau goes on to tell about his experiences with naturewhile living on Walden Pond. The bean field which he grew, andput so much work into. He did not screw himself what the meaningwas of planting the garden only that he felt self-esteem fromdoing so. They attached him to the earth. And he gotstrength from it.