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Examples Of Transcendentalism In Walden

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Walden
Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist who attempted to acquire the truth and meaning in simplicity and live in harmony with nature and his conscience. In order to accomplish that, he lived two years in Walden’s Pond in Concord, Massachusetts; being away from the daily concerns, issues, and society. Clearly, Thoreau wasn’t considered a hermit since he received visitors, but nonetheless, he managed to live away from society. To reply to people’s speculations, Thoreau wrote Walden when he lived in Walden’s Pond. Thoreau pursued the true meaning of life and reality in a complex world by living in simplicity.

First, Thoreau’s Walden displays his simple lifestyle which consisted of having the essential necessities in order to live. An example is told in this quote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the …show more content…

An example is shown in this quote, “Let us...work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance...till we come to a hard bottom...which we call reality and say...Be it life or death, we crave only reality” (Thoreau 139). Thoreau applies polysyndeton with the conjunction “and” in the quote to encompass the list of issues a person must face in a complex world. In addition, Thoreau utilizes a metaphor by comparing “mud and slush” to the list of issues to prompt the reader to see how difficult is to get through all the issues. The quote displays the vast amount of work it takes for Thoreau to accomplish his goal of finding the meaning of life and Thoreau’s determination to accomplish it. The main point of reality in this quote extends to the reader since everyone in the world don’t understand what reality is. We would never know what reality is if people keep on focusing on themselves in order to fit in a society. Thoreau wanted to see the true meaning of reality by living in

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Thoreau also related to the world, imprisoning him when he said: “I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one but having caged myself near them”. That makes me think about how Thoreau was given a life to be free or to be caged, just as well as any person does too. You can be the puppet of society and live, how the government tells you to live as or not be the puppet and defy what society has to tell you about life and live as you would want to. A rhetorical device Thoreau used to be logos mixed with pathos to convey the reader to see as he sees such as “live free and uncommitted” that would move a person to think living free is what I want and if it 's uncommitted then I’ll take it in my opinion.

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Furthermore, his use of tone to exemplify his argument is also effective as he condemns people for living rushed, unfulfilled lives for the sake of prosperity and materialistic possessions. When Thoreau says that ”when we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality,”(279) he employs a critical tone by stating that people are blinded by these petty things that misconstrue

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In transcendentalism, living a simple live is significant to individuals. In the text From Walden, Henry David Thoreau advise that “simplicity” is the key to a free life and that we all should “keep our accounts on our thumbnail”(Thoreau 106). He states that people should pay less attention to materialism, instead pursue a simple and purposeful live. Thoreau does not consider money as fundamental when compared to nature and freedom. In the movie Into the Wild, Chris McCandless gets very angry when his parents offer him a new car as a gift because he has been everywhere with his old car and it works just fine; besides, he does not need a new one just because there are newer and cooler cars around.

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Walden by Henry Thoreau focuses on the idea of simplicity. In Walden, one finds that life consists of many factors and they tend to burden themselves with challenging experiences. Henry sought out to find and learn about the deeper meaning of life. Thoreau felt that it was unnecessary to go through complex tasks to obtain this goal. He thought it was possible to simplify the actions he took and still achieve a fulfilling and successful life.

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At the end of Walden, Thoreau writes “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. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves”. In recording this belief, people can infer that Thoreau would be distressed with the systematic lives of people today. The repetition of the same activities day after day without adventure would bestow sorrow in his

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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.

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He wrote about how technology and new lifestyles were continuously replacing what nature had established. He pointed out how nature was the window for people to find their own identity, which was fogged by the changes in society the industrial revolution had caused. Then, he continued to elaborate on how pure nature truly was by stating that all living things survive and live because of nature. Thoreau believes that society had lost itself in the tangles of its discoveries, and points to the solution of going back to

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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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Consequently, what Thoreau proposed was simplicity rejecting modern civilization to return to nature and let the individual to develop his/her highest possibilities. Thoreau not only made a critique of the modern society as Emerson did, but also he practiced his ideology: he experienced that life is better without crowd, luxuries and complexity. The transcendentalist poet spent two year close to nature. He lived at Walden Pond where he wrote entire journals recounting his experience. Thoreau is well known for his book “Walden” (1854).

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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”).

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He puts emphasis on spiritual freedom above all, advising others that they should live freely, while being uncommitted for as long as possible. Thoreau also explains his main motive for coming to Walden Pond was to live away from a civilized environment and living in the woods, he is free from obligations, free from social boundaries, and does not have to be concerned about the constant pressure that entails with it. He is proud of his achievement, his escape from society and his new, self-reliant life. In his self-built cabin he can easily acquire his spiritual freedom that he wished for so much. Not depending on anyone but himself, he even claims that he is free from time now as well as from matter, which “Time is

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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).

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Why I Went to the Woods by Henry David Thoreau is a piece of literature taken from the book Walden that discusses Thoreau’s desire to experience life and it's meaning by living by the most simple terms possible. Thoreau lived off the land, built his own home, hunted and fished his own food. Through these things, Thoreau experienced how life is lived without luxury and only with the raw basics. Although his passion for the natural world shows through his writing his goal is not to persuade others to follow in his footsteps by going out and living in nature. Thoreau wanted others to follow him by living their best life which would be achieved by following their passions and the things they enjoy.

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In his essay Walden, Thoreau affirms the Transcendentalist belief of living simply by emphasizing the thought of living with only the essentials and the importance of self reliance. Thoreau supports the ideal of living simply through the emphasis of only living with what one needs. Simplicity exists

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