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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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