Walden
In his book Walden, Thoreau packs up ship for two years and heads out to live a life of experiment and solitude. The ultimate purpose of his book is to make people aware of the lives they have submitted themselves to, and likewise re-evaluate what they place more value in; themselves or their possessions. The question Thoreau asks the reader is whether they control their possessions or do their possessions control them? Reading this book can be mentally stressful. For some, Thoreau is a genius with revolutionary ideas and philosophy. For others, he is just a hermit and social reject who was angry at the world and wanted his voice heard. After reading the book, I believe that Thoreau makes a good point in many cases and presents ideas that are worth attention. Determining the effectiveness of the argument, however, is left to the individual. Debra Polaski, a proffersor of english literature at Louisiana State University, would argue that Thoreau was an entirely original writer and philosopher, not to mention convincing. In an essay by Polaski entitled Woods and Walden she writes "Thoreau took what was seen but not understood and gave it meaning. Nature is where life begins and starts, and Thoreau wante
If one is to establish himself as an individual in spirit, why is it that Thoreau seems to have been more interested in adopting Emerson's spirit rather than discover his own. On February 12th 1843, four days after listening to Thoreau read his lecture on Sir Walter Raleigh, Lidian Emerson wrote to her husband and told him that "Henry ought to be known as a man who can read a lecture. It may have been with Emerson in mind that Thoreau wrote in his journal two months before his first lecture, "It is hard to subject ourselves to an influence. " In being so formulaic, Thoreau accomplishes nothing. So what exactly did Thoreau do, next to living in the woods, that hadn't been done by Emerson years before?. He had a steady growing despisement for [Ralph] Emerson, because he felt that he deserved some of Emerson's spot light. Thoreau was a strong advocate for the transcendental beliefs, which brings me to a question. Everything he did, the property he lived on, the food he ate and the circle of friends he had, were all the products of Emerson. He believes that a patch or two on the clothing is alright, and for what it's worth, I agree with him. " As years rolled by, the transcendental belief became increasingly popular and Emerson was the ship's captain. To those he lectured, they thought he was an outstanding speaker and highly intellectual. These aren't isolated observations either. Transcendentalism's core belief was to live as an individual in spirit and not material.
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Acceptance Essays
