Walden Essay

            Two years. Two months. Two days. Simple and to-the-point, Thoreau’s depiction of Walden Pond and the time he spent there illustrate a completely new aspect of life. Stressing the issues of simplicity and solitude brings a new and conservative form of life to the people of his day. Many people during his time were mesmerized over the boom of industrialism, growing cities, and technology, and he was trying to diverge from the traditional path. Although pressured to live the busy life of a common male, Thoreau continually lived the life he wanted to. Through his beneficial experiences and events at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau produced new, unique ideas that stressed the individual and pushed for a different, simple life.

           

 An important factor to Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond was his emerging views of a simplistic lifestyle. Thoreau believed that the necessities of life contained only four things: food, water, shelter, and fuel. Besides these necessities, Walden believed almost everything else was unnecessary. Through his stay he gained greater knowledge of living simply in solitude and sustaining only himself. “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 490). Leaving his life to live in a small cabin by himself forced him to live in a simple, meager way, showing him what he believed in the best way possible. His living this way led him to gaining greater knowledge of his lifestyle, beliefs, and reality as a whole. With all of the craziness of the time, Thoreau’s ideas which emerged provided a new alternative to living how everyone else did.  

           

 Another aspect to Thoreau’s writings and lessons is transcendentalism. Thoreau, considered a transcendentalist himself, firmly believed in being who one wants to be and resisting the pressure to be like the common people. Through staying at Walden Pond, he was able to adapt to his own beliefs without the influence of anyone else. He produced a series of beliefs that were new and alien to the time, but became the foundation of originality and uniqueness in America. “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do” (490). Seeing the population adapt to and transform into whatever the surroundings are inspired Thoreau to promote the individual. His time spent alone added to his success with these beliefs and going against traditional views.

         

   Henry David Thoreau’s time spent at Walden Pond—two years, two months, and two days to be exact—was beneficial in several ways towards society. Although not appreciated until later, people realized of the many common choices and lives they decided to fulfill, taking away from the purpose of the individual. Without Thoreau’s ideas, life in America could have developed in a completely different way; a society more generic compared to others. Whether viewed good or bad, Thoreau’s time spent learning from experience at Walden Pond opened America to new and interesting views.