My Favorite Chapter In Walden By Henry David Thoreau

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Higher Laws This is perhaps my favorite chapter in Walden due to the nature of the philosophy that Thoreau presents. The first thing that struck me as familiar was when Thoreau describes the duality of his nature. One part of him was gravitating towards a higher, spiritual life, while the other side was gravitating towards a primitive and savage one. I say this is familiar because it seems very much alike to Sigmund Freud’s philosophy of the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id refers to a human’s instincts, which would relate to Thoreau’s savage side, and the super-ego refers to the higher, moral side of a human, which would relate to Thoreau’s spiritual side, the ego being the part which balances the two. Another theme which

The poet focuses on the clouds, and in the end regrets his failure to catch fish. Though I’m not sure this is the message Thoreau had in mind while writing this part of Walden, I assumed the exchange was a metaphor for distraction and procrastination. It has happened numerous times during my sophomore year that I have had a great task at hand, such as an AP European history exam the next day, and I get distracted with some interesting piece of news or video I find on the internet, only to realize at midnight that I have not even begun to study, similar to how the poet regret not catching any fish. Thoreau spends a large part of this chapter focusing on the war between the ant colonies. Specifically, he writes about how similar this war was to the way that we think about wars, with all the ants putting forth their strongest effort to survive. I believe Thoreau is trying to highlight the similarities between human life and the life of savage creatures, and that ants are not something much unlike we are, but are our neighbors. Another very interesting exchange that Thoreau describes was between him and the loon. The loon plays a game with Thoreau, which seems almost pointless, but I think Thoreau is trying to convey a certain message using the loon. It seemed to me as if Thoreau is trying to tell the reader that though the previous part of the chapter was trying to show how life was about survival, life is more than just survival; it is for play as well. Thoreau ends the chapter by asking why the ducks swim in Walden pond, besides for safety. While it seems like a simple question, it is one which left me without an answer, and I don’t really know if there even is an answer. It seems like a question akin to “Why is there