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Henry David Thoreau Research Paper

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The Big Picture: Thoreau's Step Back From Society Viewed Alongside Society Today

The proximity in which someone is from civilization can have a great influence on their thoughts and ideas about civilization and the nature that they live in. Henry David Thoreau spent a lot of his life moving around from the likes of New York City to Walden Pond; while squatting, as he referred to his stays in these places, he wrote some of his most interesting and notable works such as Civil Disobedience (1849) and Walden (1854). Noted as a transcendentalist, Thoreau was quite thoughtful of his surroundings as they gave great meaning to his life; the most meaningful of which was Walden Pond, an escape that overlooks Concord, Massachusetts, where he spent …show more content…

Thoreau found the railroad system to be an invasion of nature and what made nature pure. In the article, “Life and love: Thoreau's life philosophy on man and nature in the age of industrialization,” they explain the unpopular opinion that Thoreau thought the rail system was useless in contradiction to the public's opinion that it was the most important 19th century invention. “What he saw were plenty of trees being cut down for building the railway and for fuel, the original pastoral peace being broken by the noisy sound, the wasting energy, and the pollution of nature by the steam-powered engine;” Thoreau didn't understand, rather support, the hype behind this new mode of transportation and ground breaking spectacle that forever changed business in America (Ma 383). In Walden, he chronicled, “The iron horse makes the hills echo with his snorts like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils (Thoreau 82).” In his perch at Walden Pond, Thoreau could see all these things happening in Concord this perspective made his views more abstract because he wasn't based in the center of the matter and he could see the bigger picture. Part of the bigger picture is the idea of “train style” that this new system implemented on the people in

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1) Thoreau is a quite unusual guy that wants to be isolated from civilization/human society due to the reasons that he believes should be obtained by every civilian. Thoreau wants to move to a place away from people but a place where there is nature around. Wild nature that isn’t touched by humans and that they would make. Thoreau wants to leave human society because he believes that there is something wrong with civilization for him. He believes that the world is moving too fast, and technology is growing faster.

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2124 Words | 9 Pages

Thoreau 's views on the government by comparing the government to a machine. He states, ”When the machine was producing injustice, it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be ‘a counter friction’ (i.e., a resistance) "to stop the machine.” The two major issues being debated in the United States during his life was slavery and the Mexican-American War in which were major reasons he wrote his essays. In the mid to late 1840’s slavery has been indoctrinated into American society in which caused rifts between Americans.

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434 Words | 2 Pages

And his response to that was retaliation in the form of, maybe even unbeknownst to himself, hypocrisy. Thoreau once argued: “We do not ride the railroads; it rides upon us” (par. 2). As well as saying things like that railroads were not needed and that man should live without such technology. And yet Thoreau, when the Harvard Library told

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426 Words | 2 Pages

Thoreau also had a strong appreciation for nature. When Thoreau went into the wild, he had many supplies and was equipped for his journey. Walden Pond was a quiet place for Henry to work. He also wanted to enjoy a simple life that the woods offered. Thoreau had many visitors while he was at Walden Pond (“Thoreau’s First Year”).

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567 Words | 3 Pages

Kaitlyn Rodriguez Mr. Cedeño U.S. History F Block 12/7/14 Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau was an america author and naturalist and is considered to be one of the most influential figures in American history and literature.

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1332 Words | 6 Pages

Thoreau’s view on the society as he states, “In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well” go to show that it was harder to have individuality and to refuse the governments ways. Now-a-days the practice of civil disobedience has allowed citizens to practice non-conformity with the protection of amendments but back then while the nation was just growing they had to have more power and that, “so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed, and no longer" as quoted by Paley. The society was most likely pushed towards acceptance of the government and weren’t as self-reliant to make change in their

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359 Words | 2 Pages

Henry David Thoreau was not afraid to speak his mind and fight for his beliefs. He refused to pay taxes to an unjust government that supported slavery which eventually influenced Mohandas Gandhi’s campaign for independence and still influences many individuals today. Thoreau inspired society to break rules they disagree with, be a unique individual, and criticized people for living only for money and material values. One of Henry Thoreau’s biggest impacts was when he went to live in the woods for about two years at Walden Pond.

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687 Words | 3 Pages

Henry David Thoreau There are many influential people in the world that have a positive impact. For example, social media influencers, writers and teachers can change an individual's life . .However, in the past,Henry David Thoreau influenced people as a transcendentalist and abolitionist. Henry david thoreau is influential because of his actionable writings , beliefs, and accomplishments. Thoreau was an influential philosopher because of his writings on nature and societal problems.

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743 Words | 3 Pages

While many writers of his time have faded, naturalist, philosopher, and author Henry David Thoreau is well-known from his work and studies that are still relevant to modern day. (“Henry” Bio) Thoreau has contributed his famous writing of Walden; or, Life in the Woods, that has given a close-up look into simplistic living. This came of his two year and two month long sojourn at Walden Pond. Other equally well-known works of his include: Civil Disobedience and A Plea for Captain John Brown, an essay that adopted radical abolitionist John Brown’s ideals against slavery. Born on 12 July 1817, Henry David Thoreau grew up in Concord, Massachusetts.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Walking” is an amazing analysis of the relationship between man and nature, trying to find a balance between society and what we as primitive animals hold as rules of life. The essay exemplifies Thoreau’s personal feelings about nature with what he believes to be the nature of mankind as well as the nature of himself as an individual. Albeit with beautiful writing and some of the best imagery ever put onto paper, Thoreau’s essay is not without its flaws. In Thoreau’s essay, it is said that "In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society". Thoreau off the bat states own personal feeliabouts about nature and the woods as a way to build an argument around the benefits nature and evening strolls have for the soul.

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470 Words | 2 Pages

Henry David Thoreau especially supported the interaction between man and nature. With his experiment at Walden, he addresses a modern concept known as minimalism, focusing on the way one must supply for himself with his basic necessities. His intentions were not to isolate himself, but moreso to separate himself from a life dependent upon others. Through his actions, he is able to criticise society and many of their needs.

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254 Words | 2 Pages

In Thoreau’s mind the train symbolized more than just a new modern development of transportation; it symbolized the negative aspects of humanity. He knew that the railroad possessed positive qualities but feared for the negative ones. To Thoreau the railroad was a path that led to destructiveness of human society, and most of all nature. It had become a hazard toward the nature that Thoreau was trying to protect. From Thoreau’s writing the reader might conclude that he thinks of the railroad and train as one, but he describes that each part is like a different piece of humanity.

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596 Words | 3 Pages

Walden spoke on a different level which made it hard for many people to understand. For example, “If I was a that man who had ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmetic to tell if I was that who had ten cents or who had a farm” (Thoreau, 254). I believe that if Thoreau accepted input from others instead of shutting himself away in the world, he could of added information to make it more intriguing instead of the story he has written which just drags on. He also contradicts himself in his own

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382 Words | 2 Pages

Henry David Thoreau – an American philosopher and naturalist – once said, “The price of anything is the amount of time you exchange for it.” In this statement Thoreau is basically saying that the worth of something can be measured by the effort you put into it. This statement can be interpreted in a variety of ways but, overall, I agree with this statement. When you want to achieve something, that goal becomes important to you. You find yourself thinking about it and wanting to achieve it.

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748 Words | 3 Pages

You can’t walk in the woods and see a leaf that doesn’t quite know if it wants to fall to the ground or stay on the tree. Thoreau noticed this, and thought that if people could be decisive in the same way that nature was, then they could “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put as to put to rout all that was not life… cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…” (Walden 771) This is something that Thoreau highly valued. He wanted to live as his own person, which was, in his mind, best accomplished by living in nature and not being involved with the government.

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