Thoreau Essay, Research Paper
Born in 1817, in Concord, Henry David Thoreau became one of the greatest
writers among the American Renaissance. Thoreau based his whole philosophy
on the fact that man needed to get rid of material things in order to be an
individual. An exquisitely educated man, Thoreau went to Harvard, which
placed heavy emphasis on the classics. Thoreau studied a curriculum that
included grammar and composition, mathematics, English, history, and various
philosophies. He also spoke fluently in Italian, French, German, and
Spanish. After his graduation in 1837, Thoreau became a teacher. He and his
brother John, however, closed the school in 1841, for Thoreau knew writing
was his passion. He kept a journal beginning in 1837, and most think he
wrote way before that time. Thoreau s love for writing pushed him to make it
a driving force in his life.
Thoreau was also a big part of the Transcendentalist s Movement. The
Transcendentalists assumed that the soul and nature were the two essential
parts of the universe. “Transcendentalism started as a radical religious
movement, opposed to the rationalist, conservative institution that
Unitarianism had become.” Unitarians had expressed the need for and
conviction of a more personal and intuitive experience of the divine.
“If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he
hears a different drummer.” Individuality was a big part of Thoreau s life;
he believed that independent, well-thought action arose naturally from a
curious mind. Although many people visited him at Walden Pond, Thoreau
preferred to be alone. “I never found the companion that was so
companionable as solitude.” Thoreau liked solitude, a time when he wrote
from his soul and was truly alone. Thoreau s love for nature was one of the
most powerful aspects evident in Walden. Considered by some to be the father
of the environmental movement, Thoreau referred back to nature in everything
he wrote from essays to political speeches.
As a simple man, Thoreau did not own many material things. For he believed
that to own material objects were an obstacle, rather than an advantage. He
saw that most people measured self-worth in terms of what they owned, rather
than their spiritual and intellectual gifts. Thoreau proposed to live as
simply as possible and determine what he needed for basic human survival.
“My greatest skill is to want but little.” He grew his own food, cleaned his
own cabin, and often arranged his affairs so he had to work as little as
possible.
Published on August 9, 1854, Walden sold two thousand copies. For one
dollar, people read into the depths of Thoreau s life at Walden Pond and all
his views on everything from the anti-slavery movement to his environmental
ideas. Walden sold moderately well during Thoreau s lifetime, but his
greatest respects came posthumously.
Through the reading of Walden, many people have discovered the magic of
Henry David Thoreau s pen. Just a man from Concord, Massachusetts, he lived
an extraordinary life as a simple man. That, however, was all Thoreau ever
wanted to accomplish, to show people that a person could be an individual,
live simple, and do without material things. With the publication of Walden,
Thoreau showed the world that it was indeed possible; he had lived “to the
beat of his own drummer.”