WALDEN

Running head: WALDEN 1WALDEN 2

Walden EssayJake HowardAdvanced Placement Language and CompositionSimmonsBBBCHS

Walden EssayIn Henry David Thoreaus Walden the author explores the many facets of life and the issues surround it. Thoreaus critical analysis of issues in society results in a work that ponders on ideas such as human idealism and civil tendencies. In Walden Thoreau uses a deep pool of metaphorical speech, and the continuous and crucial use of anecdotes (or references to his time spent at Walden Pond) to focus on the issue and need for self-reliance in society. With these literary elements Thoreau formulates a collection of pieces that very exceptionally explore the issue that over the course of the book, takes the overall theme of the book.In the very first chapter of the book (Economy) Thoreau makes a comparison to the necessities of life as fuel for retaining an internal heat. It is the metaphorical explanations like this that drives the inner meaning of the work as a whole. Throughout the rest of this first chapter Thoreau introduces the need to be self-reliant. Throughout this developmental first chapter the Thoreau constantly expresses comparisons of sorts to properly convey his view on the issue at hand. Such as in a paragraph exploring the needs for shelter, in which Thoreau explores how a bed is a shelter within a shelter( that so many find to be a necessity of life, or keeping the so called human internal warmth). The use of this metaphor conveys humans as misguided creatures making precautions that seem unnecessary to retain the warmth so often described. Later in this same chapter Thoreau makes a comparison of kings and queens who wear a suit but once to wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. In this example of metaphorical speech Thoreau is showing the improper notion of novelty clouding the judgment of necessity. By pointing out this odd attachment to an idea that humans have acquired over time, Thoreau can set up a number of points that show holes in any argument of luxuries as needs. The girth of the chapter Economy outlines four true necessities for living; food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. In this we see how one that is reliant on anything other thing than these are misguided in the attempt to properly be awake (a concept of true intellectual awareness outlined later in the book [Where I Lived, and What I Lived For]). Through purging these luxuries one becomes self-reliant, and internally certain. Another literary element that stands out in this book is the heavy use of anecdotes. In the chapter entitled Reading Thoreau tells a story about a Canadian woodchopper, who when asked what the best thing he can do in this world [is] he replies to keep up and add to his English. The reference to this woodchopper is used to illustrate a point that a book is only potential of full understanding when it is read in the language it was written in (the main theme of this chapter). The Canadian could have read a book written originally in English and have many people to talk to about it, however the woodchopper could also read a piece written originally in Greek or Latin [ and] find nobody at all to speak [to about it]. This example displays that true understanding is a road that may require emotional self-reliance but one that will earn you such golden words, or intellectual wealth. The lists of expenses and anecdote about the building of Thoreaus cabin outlined in the first chapter Economy, (House, $28 12 1/2 Farm one year, 14 72 ) are a testament to the reality of a bare list of needs to survive. The minute need to live with more than these essentials evokes the sense that people point missing the point of needing to be self-reliant. The chapter Spring tells of how the ice began to melt at Walden Pond and the delight that he found in the sound it made when he hit the ice with his axe; (resound[ing] like a gong for many rods around). The story of the delight he found in this simple change of seasons illustrates how the time Thoreau had spent being self-reliant had made him more in touch with nature and more content in the simple pleasures of mere sound; an evidence of being truly free of superfluous things.As it would seem almost natural, in the chapter titled Conclusion Thoreau explains why he finally left the pond that he resided at for years. And in this chapter he also notes that superfluous wealth can only buy superfluities. In this respect, the idea of being entirely self-reliant will rid an individual of wanting superfluous things. The freedom from luxuries that occurs when one has become this, can make a person truly awake and in touch with understanding their life and themselves. Through the book the main theme always comes back to self-reliance, and the concept of freeing yourself of anything but the bare needs. Thoreaus journey is retold through a metaphorical way of explaining concepts and the anecdotes he tells about his time at Walden Pond. More importantly though, what he teaches is that through becoming truly independent from the superfluities of life one learns their center in reality and surpasses the external forces that direct them.