In Walden, Henry David Thoreau expounds the view that material progress does not necessarily contribute to man’s development as a human being; on the contrary, it might hinder him from living life to its fullest. The author builds for himself a house by the pond in the town of Walden and lives there for a couple of years to test his theory that man would be better off learning for himself the practical aspects of civilization, such as planting one’s food. He taught that by living with nature, without the distractions common to civilized society, a man could fully appreciate what life has to offer.
Walden teaches us to spend our time well in meaningful pursuits. Thoreau rues the “misfortune” of his young townsmen whose lot it was to have inherited farms and farmhouses, and consequently, forced by necessity to work on them. For Thoreau, life in the wilderness would be preferable to back-breaking toil in the farm. Not that Thoreau had anything against manual labor; he himself made it a point to eat by the sweat of his brow, and had built his own house with his own hands. What he disdained was man’s preoccupation with the superfluous things in life that appear desirable rather than the things that really matter in life. According to him, the machine-like labors of man deprive him of the chance to develop his finest qualities, which, compared to the bloom on fruits, could be acquired only careful and delicate handling.
While Thoreau acknowledges the evils of black slavery, he is aware of a subtler form of servitude prevalent among men in both the northern and the southern states: the servitude of man towards himself, which is the worst form of slavery. Although he is not averse to manual labor and deems commerce useful to man, Thoreau makes it a point that a person should not become a slave to his work nor a prisoner of his quest for profits, nor should a person obtain wealth at the expense of others. In his illustration of an Indian who wove baskets for sale which the white man did not want to buy, he shows that one can learn a useful art for its sake alone and not merely for profit.
He notes that men lead lives of quiet desperation as if there are no other options. On this score, Thoreau dares us not to take anything for granted considering that one’s attitudes can still change and improve through time. He does not place much confidence in what the old have to say to the young, noting that their lives have been to a large extent a miserable failure. Convinced that old age does not necessarily reflect wisdom, nor does the opinion of the majority guarantee the righteousness of one’s cause, Thoreau exhorts us not to be afraid of change. The quintessential free thinker, Thoreau cherishes his freedom of choice as an individual and appears bemused by the willingness of men to abide by what others believe in.
Thoreau deplores the fact that much of man’s labors lead to nothing, that he squanders the greater part of his life in worthless pursuits. His discourse on Economy, which reflects most of what Thoreau learned from Walden Pond, teaches us to value economy, simplicity, austerity. He chides those who seek pleasurable things – the so-called “comforts of life” - which he believes to be mere obstacles to man’s moral development. He compares men who accumulate riches as being fettered by them in the end.
Thoreau does not speak of virtue, unlike Plato and the ancient philosophers, yet Walden rings with the wisdom of the ages. For him, human thought transcends all earthy possessions, including man-made symbols of power. Modern inventions, like the train and the telegraph, are to him but pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. He is like Socrates who delighted in looking at the items on sale in the agora, not because he craved them, but because he was fascinated by the array of things he did not need. Thoreau observes that houses are not as important as the people who dwell on them. In the same vein, he notes that nations should seek to commemorate themselves not by their architecture, but by their power of abstract thought.
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau reveals himself the irrevocable non-conformist. He treats conventional wisdom with distrust and is appalled at the manner by which men allow themselves to be consumed by labor and deluded by the softening comforts of civilization. Like the thinkers of old, he prefers reason as symbol of human achievement over monuments of stone. He favors a life of substance rather than of form. By challenging common notions on how people ought to live, he shows how one could waste a lifetime in empty pursuits.
Walden is, in fine, a revolt against the conventions that tie men down to a life of utter misery, scrimping for what appears to be the rewards of their toil, but who are actually doomed to a miserable existence not caring whether, at the end of their journey, they have ever lived at all.
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