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1. Thoreau states that, “men labor under a mistake” and that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Thoreau in the first quote is saying that men work for all the wrong reasons. This statement carries great truth because Thoreau believe that we should work just so we have enough to survive. Thoreau does not want us to work to have these surplused luxuries that many do have. This statement contains truth because why should people work so hard to be able to pay to go on a luxurious vacation which they won’t even be able to enjoy because when they get back they are going to have to keep working again to pay for it. So many pick up all these extra hours on the job so they can pay for their family to go out to dinner, and have new cars all of which he implies are luxuries. In the second quote Thoreau is saying this to show the negatives in his perspective of how bad mainstream American lifestyle is. He is trying to explain that most men have really bad lives and are living really badly but don’t do anything or say anything about it. I think that this statement presented here does in fact contain some truth. So many men today are unhappy with their lives so all they do is find other things to take up their time like working more, or random hobbies in which they would do so they don't have to deal with their lives. All of these men are so upset with the way that their lives are struggling but just quietly let it go by. These quotes that Thoreau are saying both contain a lot of truth in them.
2. In Thoreau’s chapter “Economy” he states that the necessities of life are food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. In this passage he asserts that these necessities as something that we have the ability to receive from the land, and afte...
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...y they can not go to church, and create reasoning as to why religion is falsified and what they are teaching us is untrue. Thoreau quote from his passage really made me not only think about the modern day society but think about things in my own life, how week after week I say I have homework, i'm too tired, pretend to be sleeping all so I do not have to attend church. In the world today religion is slowly disintegrating from our lives, which Thoreau mentions, and he also is saying that Religion no longer has the meaning it did before. Nowadays in our society just as Thoreau mentions will pray then the next minute they’ll contradict themselves and go off and sin. This quote Thoreau wrote many years ago and its ability to still be truthful in modern times surprised me because of the idea that he could mention a topic with the same issues back then as there are today.
Thoreau found himself at Walden - and lost himself on Ktaadn. Walden, a mile from town, was a benign experience in which he learned what he could do without, what was essential for life. Ktaadn, high and remote, taught him what he could not do without, what was essential life.
Throughout Thoreau's “Walden”, he lays out many suggestions that some may take as significant or just senseless. Thoreau brings forth many concepts such as necessity, news, and labor which would benefit modern society. Yet, his views on isolation and moderation are unattainable in a technology-driven society. Even though the ideas that could benefit society may not be totally agreeable, the main reasoning for them are valid. Those ideas of isolation and moderation are clearly not possible in a world where people crave to be social and live to obtain any and everything they want.
Both Thoreau and McCandless were against materialism. Thoreau feels that “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (Thoreau, Walden 28). He thinks that dependance of worldly possessions hidera ones chance of finding their true self. McCandless had a similar mentality, and acted upon that belief. An example of this is when “…he saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed unnecessary baggage. He concealed the car as best he could beneath a brown tarp, stripped it of its Virginia plates, and hid them” (Krakauer 29). McCandless was not tied to his own possessions, he was happy to leave them in the middle of no where. Through reduction of worldly possessions and materials, the message that both McCandless and Thoreau throw at the readers is to have a simplistic life without the concerns coming from worldly possessions. These possessions deter one from the true meaning of life.
We often focus on the unimportant and minor details of life. Rather than just going on about life peacefully, we tend to complicate things for ourselves by never being satisfied. Throughout the story, Thoreau uses rhetorical questions as a literary device. He questions the actions of those who surround him by asking, “Why should we knock under and go with the stream?” This is similar to asking, “Why make things harder for yourself when you can just go with the flow?” He asks, “Why should we live with such a hurry and waste of life?” This question is straightforward, simply meaning; we often tend to rush life without completely living it. Instead, we should rather pace ourselves and enjoy every present moment before it’s gone.
Immersed within the writings of Sir Thomas More and Henry David Thoreau is a depiction of a world challenged by limited natural resources, sustainability, overpowering religious views, and governmental constraints. It is within their everyday lives that they observe this land; therefore they must provide ideas for preventing these problems. However, More and Thoreau have different methods to solving these problems. More stresses the need for social reforms, whereas Thoreau emphasizes the need for humans to take responsibility for their actions, thus both have constructed guidelines of an ideal society.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
Thoreau distinguishes what he wishes his life was; he compares what he wants out of life to what he currently has. He says “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” He makes note of how dear and important life is, and how he wishes to live in a way which he hadn’t been before, by making the most out of the life he has left.
Walden Two In B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two, Skinner presents many positive changes to society in his utopia, such as: division of labor, encouragement of perusing your own interests in education, and absolute equality. In Walden Two, a member is paid in credits that are required by the society. Each person earns a certain amount of credits per hour for every job they do. Everyone is expected to receive 4-6 credits per day.
Thoreau believed that labor was not only the activity that could bring material profits, but also a play which made man complete and developed simultaneously” (Ma 384). Thoreau's work was experiencing nature and living transcendentally in order to share the quality of life that nature provides. We see Thoreau in many aspects of today’s society, whether it’s Lisa from The Simpsons, a means of transportation, or political protests, they all follow a Thoreauvian idea of looking at the bigger picture and seeing what really matters. This way of thinking was created because one man decided that society was too mainstream and he moved off to the edge of town and reflected; people these days that do that are referred to as “hipsters” but the influence had to come from somewhere, and that was Henry David Thoreau.
What helps to contrast the masculinity is Thoreau’s own gender defining of nature. Known famously as mother nature, throughout Thoreau continues to use the pronoun she: “Nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome.” (Thoreau 1096) In turning nature into a woman, he also makes it clear his own gender is questioned by or understood in the wilderness. His masculinity is defined when contrasted with her. It establishes the basis to ideas about American men to this very day. The American lifestyle is to go out and create your life and work for everything you earn, to build yourself up. Which again is not only an idea brought from nature in that the early frontier men
Thoreau believed that if a man did less work, the better it would be for the man and his community. He set out to accomplish this task, and accomplished not working, but failed to prove his point. He died at age forty-five, younger then most people in his time, and although he did benefit his community, doing little labor only shortened his life, and proved no better for the community.
From his insights, private property is a result of alienation of labor. Furthermore, the property they produced becomes the origin of future alienation. With alienation, the brain, capability, and even characters of a person become commodities that can be sold in the market. Marx claimed that capitalist hence deprived the personality of labors, though they seem to be well off. (Kolakowski, pp. 138-140) Numerous of pilgrims believe the nature, where there is no need for possessions or avarices, offers a free space for human. They escaped the capitalist society alone where alienation would no longer take place since property rights and division of labor disappear. Thoreau is probably the most famous pilgrim who built a cabin near the Walden Pond. He once stated that “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.” Commodities that can be possessed by paying money are inferior to the commodities for soul. Inspired by Thoreau, Chris is also sees money and possessions as superfluous. He castigated the corruption of politicians, burnt money to ashes after donating most of them to charity, and admired the nature in a post card saying that “The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.”(Krakauer, p29, p34, p123) Chris described civilization as poisonous, therefore he needed to flee from it. “No phone, no pool, no pets, no
Thoreau discusses a situation where he is faced with the opportunity of a well paying job, but his response is different to what typically is expected of a person, saying, “If I do this, most will commend me as an industrious and hard-working man; but if I choose to devote myself to certain labors which yield more real profit, though but little money, they may be inclined to look on me as an idler” (1). The juxtaposition between the well paying job and the low paying job exposes the faults within the former, suggesting that making more money does not equate to “profit” in life, and that happiness and fulfillment does not come from wealth, but the quality of the job itself. Furthermore, this comparison reveals how society looks down upon people who choose not to follow what it values–money–suggesting that people should turn away from the establishment and pursue an individualistic lifestyle. Thoreau’s argument continues to be definitive, and he explicitly states the ideals that he believes everybody must follow, writing aphorisms like: “You must get your living by loving” (3), and “The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work” (2). In Thoreau’s idealistic world, everybody would be living and working what they are passionate about and naturally good at; this would be his version of a true Transcendentalist society. Thoreau’s argument is that people have an obligation to disconnect from their devotion to money, and instead pursue individualistic passions as the means to living and working a life they
In Thoreau’s essay, he focuses his attention on simplifying individuals who have the power to make a change in their life. Independents can “instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one” (11). By eating one meal a day instead of three, individuals are able to simplify their life. However, children are not given permission to only eat one meal a day. Even if one meal per day is enough, parents would not let them. Children eat what their parents want them to eat, and they could not make that change until they are an adult. Also, Thoreau’s idea of the life individuals are living can sometimes seem like a bottomless pit. The life individuals are supposed to live
The main element of “Why I Went to the Woods” is nature and to live without distractions. In order for Thoreau to be able to do this, he went into the woods to be one with nature to make sure he was not missing what was really important. Thoreau presents his point by stating, “I wanted to live deep and suck out the marrow of life, to live so sturdily” (Thoreau 579). Thoreau wanted to live deep within nature, to take in all nature has to offer, and to get a deeper understanding of his own life. We all have an opportunity to have the same tranquility as Thoreau. Nature is one of the greatest gifts that is given to us freely. We could all have a deeper fulfillment by consuming the same peacefulness in our own mind and souls that Thoreau had. The society we live in today is complex and very dependent, opposite of the life that Thoreau had wanted to live. You do not need to have material items to have a fulfilled life, but a fulfilled spirit. We as a society have become greedy and selfish