ipl-logo

How Is Henry David Thoreau An Abolitionist

741 Words3 Pages

Henry David Thoreau was an American philosopher, abolitionist, and naturalist who constructed ideas about living. In 1845, Thoreau moves to Walden Pond Massachusetts to study human nature. Between 1845 and 1847, he writes an essay, Walden, describing simple living in nature. An excerpt from Thoreau’s essay states, “I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau). Thoreau is saying in the present it is necessary to live with purpose and not with passivity. In the future, he hopes to gain relevant information and not to die without doing so. In layman’s terms. While Thoreau and I have a differing …show more content…

In 1845, Thoreau left his life in Concord, Massachusetts behind in a quest to determine the factors necessary to living meaningfully. By doing so, Thoreau creates an unrealistic sense of reality which paints his legacy as a non-conformist. Instead, he should have considered skills he may have lacked; potentially time-management, self-reflection, and/or collaboration, all of which reflect on reality. Instead of philosophising about lifes meaning, I prefer to take a practical approach to purposeful living. I reflect on how I conduct myself throughout a given day, creating a plan for a better tomorrow. I lack respectable time-management skills; in fact last year I made the decision to turn in a science project a day late to accomodate an English essay! It wasn’t until afterwards I realized that had I initially spent more time on the project prior to the deadline, I wouldn’t have created a dilemma. Thoreau’s claims would be much more clear had he attributed them to present issues versus abstract …show more content…

It isn’t good enough to “Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something” (Thoreau). Purpose; it is indispensable. I don’t wake up in the morning because I want to stay stationary. I have obligations and motivations for waking up each day, quite relevant to what Thoreau is expressing. It isn’t good enough to simply wake up, yet it is imperative to take action. I firmly believe learning to write is a dynamic journey of endless self-improvement, unlike riding a bike; this may only be accomplished once. I know how to write an essay, yet I am not exceptional. Consistency instead of complacency is essential to self-improvement. Many people do not work towards self-improvement. Thousands of people graduate high-school working for fast food restaurants and retail, which is also the career they retire in. Self-improvement stems from a desire to discover and to better oneself. At the beginning of my high-school journey, I believed that I would be working a minimum wage job until I obtained a college degree. Through my own self-improvement and invested interest, I am part of a multi-member startup

Show More
Related
519 Words | 3 Pages

Chris McCandless looked up to Henry David Thoreau’s ideas in his Walden excerpt. John Krakauer went on to make McCandless’ journey a novel of its own. However, Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau’s ideas on how one should live their life didn’t always compare as much as contrast. Thoreau does not like the outdoors as much as Chris does, “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one” (Walden).

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau are followers of the 19th century philosophy Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the belief that everyone has the wisdom in them to be one with God without having to go through a priest or be in a church. Transcendentalists base this philosophy on self-wisdom, nature, and social reform. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild shows Chris McCandless’ choices and parallels to Henry David Thoreau’s transcendental beliefs from Walden. One transcendental belief that Chris McCandless follows is living deliberately.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

Walden was about living simply to acquire an understanding of our experience of existence. To rid of the dissatisfactions in one's life. To reduce the aspirations or obtain more. Thoreau writes how anything more is truly less. Having more comes at a

Read More
352 Words | 2 Pages

Thoreau utilizes metaphors to portray his disapproval of mankind’s inability to experience the world without being plagued by insignificant actions towards the future and an absorption in external factors. Humans, focused primarily on the future, use a “thousand stitches to save nine tomorrow,” illustrating that their present actions are solely to fix any forthcoming issues. By quantitatively modifying “a stitch in time”, Thoreau emphasizes that a vast majority of human actions are a result of being blindly concentrated on the future. He perceives such actions towards the future as wasted, demonstrated by the statement “we haven’t any of any consequence.” Not only do human actions disregard the value of the present, but they are also disordered,

Read More
323 Words | 2 Pages

As individuals each is determined by his or her choices throughout the course of a lifetime. A man may sit before the world and refuse to follow in the footsteps of any other man before him but likewise he must suffer the results of his decisions. People are defined by their choices. Set back, deep in a quiet wood, Thoreau had retreated from society to discover the purpose of life and how to truely life. By this decision Thoreau was enabled to right Walden which encompassed all the beliefs he had thusly determined about society.

Read More
578 Words | 3 Pages

Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, and a very outspoken person about society. He discusses his opinions on how people should live in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Thoreau's philosophy of simplicity and individualism and self-sufficiency poses many dangers for communities as a whole. Although there are many setbacks, his philosophy is, however, still viable today. Thoreau strongly advocates self-sufficiency and individualism in this essay.

Read More
587 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau expresses this idea succinctly when he writes, "Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour" (Thoreau 484). Here, Thoreau emphasizes the importance of aligning our actions and aspirations with the highest aspects of our being, as embodied by our Genius.

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

In the book, “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, is a story about the author moving into the woods, only surviving on what is necessary. The author wanted to seek what is the meaning to life. To see if there is anything purposefully in life by experimenting living away from society. Today, if a person from modern society wanted to carry out Thoreau’s experiment, it would be impossible do to technology use, greediness, and social trend.

Read More
800 Words | 4 Pages

When I began reading Chapter Two of Walden, I didn’t quite understand the point he was trying to make. From the title of the chapter, I had expected Thoreau to have written something of a philosophical nature and experience relative to his environment, based upon the title; “Where I lived, and what I lived for.” After finishing the chapter, I started making connections to my own life experiences when it came to pondering simplicity over detail rather easily. From this reading experience, I now have a better understanding on the simplistic lifestyle answer to the overtly complicated life problem, based on Thoreau’s perspective. One theme that seems to be present throughout the read is Thoreau’s emphasis on his comfort with isolation.

Read More
1800 Words | 8 Pages

Thoreau focuses on the value and importance of being inspired and the process of learning to create something from that inspiration. He believed that people could benefit massively by living a simple life that revolved around nature and god. He discovered that nature allowed him to believe in something bigger than himself. It granted him the opportunity to have a connection

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

Henry David Thoreau is one of the primary promoters of the transcendentalist movement and has been inspiring people to take on the transcendentalist lifestyle ever since the mid 1800’s. Mccandless was an admirer of Henry’s philosophy but he wasn’t as fully immersed in his work and ideals as Thoreau was to his own. His intentions were not as closely aligned to the movement as Thoreau’s and the difference between these icons are clearly visible. Self reliance is one of the most significant components of the transcendentalism movement that Henry David Thoreau contributed to in his literary career. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”).

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

In Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau, the author expresses the immense longing that we, as human beings, need to give up our connection to our ever-growing materialism in order to revert back to self-sufficient happiness. In Walden, the reader is able to infer that Thoreau feels as if we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions, as well as believes that the study of nature should replace and oppose our enslavement, and that we are to “open new channels of thought” by turning our eyes inward and studying ourselves. Thoreau feels that we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions. As stated in the chapter “In the Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, Thoreau states that “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (972).

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

(PS) Thoreau depicts life as needing to be simple and free of the distractions of material wealth. (SS) By reducing one’s life to its lowest terms one can understand the world and appreciate its “whole and genuine meanness” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau’s beliefs of living simply can be applied to reality and more specifically my life. My lake house, located two hours north, is used as an escape from the modern world as it lacks technology.

Read More
378 Words | 2 Pages

Today, we have his masterpiece which gives us a idealistic view of living life in a simple manner. In solitude, simplicity, and living close to nature, Thoreau had found what he believed to be a better life. Thoreau desire to experience life and its meaning by living by the most simple terms possible. He lived off of the land. He built his own house.

Read More
637 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau emphasizes living simply by reducing the excess in our live to only the bare essentials, and relying on oneself to do so. Thoreau claims that the only way to

Read More

More about How Is Henry David Thoreau An Abolitionist

Related Topics

Open Document