An Analysis Of Thoreau's Essay 'Life Without Principle'

In one of his Transcendentalist essays, Life Without Principle, Henry David Thoreau addresses his personal issues within the society of the time and explains the solutions that he believes would solve those issues. Throughout the essay, Thoreau argues that society as a whole is on a decline. In order to prove this deterioration of society Thoreau assumes that it would be best if people worked for pleasure instead of money, if nature was preserved instead of destroyed, if people only received what they worked for, and if the daily times were not an entity. While the first assumption would be ideal, it is rather naive. If the society is not participating in these practices, the society is therefore in a state of deterioration, or already has

~Members of society, as they often choose money over happiness in regards to work, are representative of the decline of society.~ I agree with this assumption, even though it is not entire realistic. Various interpretations of this statement would yield various outcomes, and the interpretation lies in the reader's personal balance of happiness and wealth. There are assumptions made, which I find to be correct, that influence reader's differently. On the topic of jobs in society, Thoreau writes, "Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it" (Thoreau 2). In this quote, Thoreau states that someone who is hiring should hire based on of the enjoyment of the prospecting employee, rather than hire someone because they will do work in order to be paid. This statement implies that laboring for enjoyment is superior to laboring for money. Reading this, I agree both with the statement and the assumption made by Thoreau. As written in the New York Times, "When people don’t care about their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less, or their work quality suffers" (Kramer). In these situations where the employees lack personal motivation, and are therefore working solely for money, the quality of work completed is seriously impacted. Thus, it is better to hire