Reaction To Walden
Essay Preview: Reaction To Walden
Report this essay
John and Cynthia Thoreau gave life to Henry David Thoreau on July second 1871. From infantry Thoreau had the finest education his parents could give him. Thoreau started out at Miss Phoebe Wheeler’s Private Infant School and shot all the way through Harvard. A college graduate could do anything that he wanted, Henry could have been anything he wanted but instead he chose to teach. He taught at the Center School where he realized that children learn in different ways and at different speeds. Thoreau did not believe in the way the school was being run, so he quit and went to work at his fathers pencil factory. When Emerson hears that Thoreau is working in a factory he is absolutely appalled. Emerson gets him to start writing and the journals start to multiply rapidly.
Eventually Henry and his brother John take over the Concord prep school. Henry worked with the younger. They ran the school together in harmony until John died from a shoving cut on the law. Thoreau kept trying to get published in a transcendentalist magazine called The Dial, but was never able to until Emerson took over. Thoreau was “high on life” and didn’t like hate; I think he was kind of an original pacifist. He was the author of many great books such as A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden. He was a traveler going to pass to places like Cape Cod, Minnesota, and Canada. On May 6, 1862 back in his home town or Concord, Massachusetts — He died. (Kilstom)
“A lake is the landscapes most beautiful and expressive feature. It is the earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows” (Thoreau 233). I believe that Thoreau wrote these words because he was living by the Walden Pond. He wrote about wrote about Walden Pond while floating and fishing on it. He was so moved by the beauty it was like he was stepping into a painting. A painting, painted by nature. No one or anything could have painted it more beautifully. It seemed to move him right to his soul, making him one with nature.
I think that this quote is really lovely, it jumped out at me. I like that fast that he personified nature, making it seem like a woman. Thoreau could have been making the earth possibly more motherly to give her the appearance of Mother Earth, or Gaea. The quote made me want to just go outside and be in nature, actually. This quote is over all very beautiful and I believe if someone needed an up lifting this very quote could help them.
I think that the quote would have made more sense to more people in Thoreau’s time because it was went many people were going through the whole transcendentalism movement. In Thoreau’s time the pond was beautiful and unpolluted, a canvas of nature herself. The water was crisp and clear. Animals free to come and go as they please. People care a lot more for nature and about nature in Thoreau’s time.
Sadly our time has spoiled the picture of nature’s beauty. Man-kind has come accustom to ripping out her heart and soul by polluting ponds, lakes, and oceans. Today there is only a very small fraction of the people there used to be who really care about and respect nature. I do believe that the people who care about the environment could almost fully relate to this quote of Thoreau’s.
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find will find fault even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is” (Thoreau 376). Thoreau is saying that no matter what life puts on your plate, good or bad, live life to the fullest because you only have one life to live. Just because you don’t have what other people do or other people don’t have as much as you doesn’t give you a reason to be rude or brag or be super greedy. This is your one life to live so be happy while doing it. I think that Thoreau wrote these words when he returned to the society outside of the woods and saw the ugliness of the people’s souls and attitudes.
I enjoyed this quote because it actually how I try to keep my outlook on life. I like the fact that he is pretty much just saying that you need to remain positive no matter the situation you are in. Many people, actually most people don’t view the world this way and that makes me sad because people would be so much happier if they did.
I don’t think that many people could have related to this quote in Thoreau’s day because many of the people had a dim outlook on life. I do think some could have thought because of transcendentalism. The people of his time were pretty depressing on their writings and