Thoreau in Walden
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Henry David Thoreau stated that he went to live in the woods because he "wished to live deliberately" (74). This concept of living deliberately pervades Walden because it is through his attempt to live so that Thoreau comes to the realizations whose articulation form the substance of Walden. One of the greatest concerns that led Thoreau to his two years in the woods was his fear that when he died he would discover that indeed he had not lived (Thoreau 74). He stated that he wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, "to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life" (Thoreau 74). He desired to force life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms so that he could determine whether life, at the bottom, were mean or sublime. If it proved to be mean, he stated, he would get the whole and genuine meanness of it and publish it to the world. On the other hand, if it were sublime, he would know it through his own personal experience (Thoreau 74). In addition to his fear that he should discover at his death that he had never really lived, Thoreau also decided to live deliberately because he believed that most people were uncertain about the true way to live their lives. He believed that they did not know whether life, at the bottom, was good or evil, "whether it is of the devil or of God (74). Thoreau believed, they therefore hastily concluded that their main purpose in the world was to "glorify God and enjoy him forev
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was also "at the same time conscious of a slight insanity" in this train of thought. For how can we come to know any of these people with whom we share such close proximity if we never have taken the time to know ourselves and our place in this world? He believes that this insight was his first foresight toward his "recovery" (Thoreau 108). He states:
In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since (Thoreau 108).
In the self-reflection allowed by the society of Nature he became aware of a kindred presence. Rather than recognizing a sense of loss at the loss of human society, he rediscovered the connection to Nature that initiated human life and from which we have strayed as we pursue the trappings of civilization.
Thus, Norman Holmes Pearson can state that, in addition to uncovering for himself the meaning of his life, Thoreau wished to reveal in Walden the way in
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Approximate Word count = 2215
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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