Henry David Thoreau's Walden Essay

A Discussion of Three Messages from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Henry David Thoreau is a name most likely known by most Americans of today. Thoreau’s genius-like capabilities planted the seed for deep understanding during his lifetime. His philosophical capabilities opened the minds of readers around the world. More importantly, his great understandings of the human mind and soul provided excellent life examples for his readers. Ryan Harper comments on Thoreau, “Like many Americans, my first exposure to Thoreau occurred in high school.” Thoreau’s work is so widespread that it is taught in almost all high schools in the U.S. Clearly, Thoreau’s work has shown great benefit to its readers and provided many basis’ of life for these readers. Thoreau’s most famous work, Walden, does exactly this, and provides excellent examples of self reliant and peaceful living by Thoreau. Overall, there are three messages that can be derived from Thoreau’s Walden. To begin with, Thoreau’s Walden, presents the message that humans need to be simple. Thoreau greatly dived into this idea by literally living in the woods for two years. In doing this, he hoped to greatly simplify his life and

He states on page 385, “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.” By this, Thoreau simply means that all men's lives are going to be different. However, it’s how men deal with these different lives that make all the difference. Thoreau wants all men to accept and cherish their lives no matter how crappy. The only way to be happy in life is if one truly accepts and cherish’s their own life first. Once that task is complete, all men have the capability to accomplish numerable tasks. Karmen Fox states, “ Switching up your personality to fit in can leave you feeling empty and sad.” Fox literally means here that you should love and never strive to change