A Comparison Of Transcendentalism In Walden Pond By Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was a writer who kept a detailing of his life at Walden Pond, entitled “Walden”. He recorded his limited interactions with others and his own achievement of becoming one with nature. Thoreau recognized the beauty in nature and how it is linked with a spiritual need. He used various mythology references when describing nature. This led me to infer that he saw nature as that of a god or perhaps having divine characteristics. One of his lines that most stands out to me about this is where he says “the morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted”. Among other lines we can see where he reasons that nature is a spiritual connection that many do not notice. He goes on to point this out in the end of that sentence:

Transcendentalists believed that there was more than just what you were told of, and that you could go and experience it all for yourself by using imagination and immersing in nature. Thoreau encouraged others to draw their own conclusions and make their life what they wanted it to be because they had their own authority to conclude what is right. He believed that by immersing oneself in nature you could achieve a higher understanding than that of the common human senses and knowledge. Thoreau lived in simplicity and solitude to exercise his belief and practices in order to live his life according to Transcendentalism

In society, is has become a priority to be so engaged in the social circle. It gets exhausting trying to be at all the gatherings, getting involved in activities, and partaking in social media. Even though as a society we tire of the constant movement in our communities, we often do not withdraw ourselves from the suffocating social routine. I have often found myself thinking that I should take a trip or go stay at another city to be alone and relax from all the annoyance of society. What holds me back? Being alone is a scary thought. But what joy I experience when the wind blows over the water that your feet are in when sitting on pier. Or the joy of being in a lake fishing, with your thoughts. I find it that the stuff that worries me the most, does not seem as catastrophic when immersed in the greenery of the woods. If only one had the courage to live alone, I’m sure life would seem much