Henry David Thoreau was a great American writer and philosopher, who was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau wrote many beautiful writings and one of his writings is Walden. In Walden, he rejects and ridicules all social and cultural values of the society in which he lived. He ridicules fashion and rejects all kinds of luxury in life. He emphasizes the importance of a person's knowledge and skills, rather than his lifestyle and image. Thoreau believed in relaxation and simplicity, as he said: "As for work, we haven't any of any consequence." In his words, you can also find a lot of controversies.
             He writes, "Old people did not know enough once, perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase is. They have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures for private reason, as they must believe."(8 p)
             He is trying to convince his readers that they shouldn't follow their elder's way, not follow their parent's way. Perhaps he is right and we shouldn't follow somebody's way, then whose way we should follow? How would we know that the way of our living is right or wrong? It's human nature to watch and learn. We don't have to imitate our parents or elders, we can just take some of their ideas and improve them, make them better. Once old people invented the simple wagon without any engine that was pulled by horses, young people liked the idea, improved it and now we are driving fast and comfortable automobiles. The other things were also done just like that, imitated, and improved.
             "Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost."(Walden, 8p) Age is not a worse instructor; every passing moment is a chance to tur...