The Life of Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American born writer, born in the early 1800's. He led a simple life as a scholar, a brother, and a friend. Thoreau wanted only to live life and enjoy it. He didn't want to worry himself with money, or the burden it causes. Thoreau's life, though short lived and long ago, was devoted to change, simplicity, and defiance. Thoreau's ideas and beliefs were not common in his day. In fact, some of his work was even frowned upon. His essay "Civil Disobedience" is one example. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." (Thoreau, essays 12). Thoreau means that while men are being unjustly imprisoned, the men that imprisoned them, believing they are just, are the ones that are wrong. Another example of Thoreau's non-conformity is prevalent in his essays on slavery, and his defensive arguments for John Brown, an abolitionist who was on trial. During Brown's trial, Thoreau makes a speech to the court, and in it says "We can at least express our sympathy with, and admiration of, him and his companions, and that is what I now propose to do. ... Sl
Thoreau was bent on the simple life, and relaying this love to his followers. 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 built a small, one bedroom shack on Ralph Waldo Emerson's land, near Walden Pond in order to live a simple life. Thoreau was defending a man who was on trial because of his hate for slavery. In an exploration of Thoreau's life, Robert Richardson wrote Henry David Thoreau: A life in the Mind, in which he stated "Thoreau's focus on simplicity was prevalent in Walden, or Life in the Woods, and appeared subtly in many of his other works. "As he recommended to others, Thoreau actively sought this simplicity in his circumstances in order to enjoy extraordinary richness in his intellectual and spiritual life, and his writings testify to his success. In his time, when slavery was widely accepted, it was a very brave thing for him to do. He only wanted to milk all he could out of life. This shows that Thoreau's simplistic lifestyle obviously manifested itself in his writings and beliefs.
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