The transcendental philosophy and self-reliance espoused by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his writings form the basis of Henry David ThoreauÆs experiment at Walden Pond, detailed in Walden. Walden offers ThoreauÆs reduction of life and the process of existence to its simplest form. It describes and narrates ThoreauÆs life on Walden Pond, surviving without reliance on the offerings of commerce or industry. In Walden Thoreau rejects U.S. fervor for ownership of things, whose acquisition becomes the main focus of life and the sole measure of an individualÆs worth. Thoreau (1854) offers us ôhigher lawsö in Walden, which connect individuals to nature while reducing their dependency upon machine-age technology and its products. As the heart of each of these laws pertaining to economy, work, success and social conventions, Thoreau argues we simply need less in order to be more fully alive. Without this understanding, individuals cannot live a happy and fulfilling existence, but Thoreau (1854) maintains ôThe mass of men are still and always young in this respect.ö
In essence, this view stems from ThoreauÆs admiration and adoption of EmersonÆs Transcendentalist philosophy which argues that the forms of the visible world embody the realities of things unseen. Because of this, in Walden Thoreau (1854) emphasizes contact with an immersion in that visible world and especially in nature, ôAll nature is your congratulations, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.ö Only in this manner, the manner Thoreau lives at Walden Pond, can the individual transcend to reap the higher truths and rewards of a fulfilling and meaningful existence.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Viewed on Jul 26, 2005: http://eserver.org/thoreau/walden00.html, 1854.
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