Individualism In Walden

In a society filled with overgrown establishments and inequality, some would like to have a sense of individualism. Works like Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments demonstrate how in the 19th century people tried and found their own type of freedom from society.

These passages reveal a glimpse of how life was in each of their societies. Thoreau mentions that the people around him, including himself, “live with such hurry and waste of life” (13). They live with a routine and do not enjoy the true meaning of life. Some people live in a hurry others do not really have that opportunity. Mrs. Mallard, in Chopin’s Story of an Hour, is one of

In Walden, Thoreau took it upon himself to escape from civilization and live in solitude for two years on Walden Pond. While at Walden Pond, he lived simply with only the essentials get by. He wrote Walden as a way to get people to realize that life is not to be “...gritted away by detail” and should be lived in “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity” (Thoreau 12). In contrast to Thoreau, Mrs. Mallard lived too much in simplicity that it made her weak. She had no freedom. When her husband was reported “dead” she was overwhelmed with happiness that actually killed her. “She would live for herself” and not have anyone to dictate was she does. (Chopin 34). Sadly that happiness took her life it was a “...joy that kills” (Chopin 35). Seeing how the men held such dominance, it sparked a motive for women to strive and get what they rightfully deserve. They deserve to be individuals. The speech at the convention was based on the Declaration of Independence since it was such a powerful document that expresses freedom from a superior power. They used that document as a platform for listing all the miseries that helped them assembled the purpose for reaching their