Henry David Thoreau's Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1854. (324 pages, 18 sections)

Walden was written by Henry David Thoreau and published in 1854. It is 324 pages and is divided into about eighteen sections. In it Thoreau records his observations and criticisms of the society that he lives in (Western, Euro-American) while living by himself in the woods on the shore of Walden Pond. He lives in a small, but sufficient cabin that he built himself and even claims to have lived on less expenses and less work than those in the city who are very poor and have to work a lot. He doesn’t live as a recluse, but he does try to separate himself as much as possible from society and live off the land with as little help from others as possible. Thoreau was greatly influenced by transcendentalist philosophy, searching for a spiritual enlightenment without organized religion or civilization, so he spends all of his time thinking, reading and studying, except for the little bit of time he needs to use working in order to sustain himself. He also criticizes the common beliefs held by many who are part of society, such as the necessity to own a nice house, have lots of furniture, etc.

Walden is organized into different subjects that Thoreau addresses (like, the economy of living, neighbors, reasons for living, animals, etc.) and also seems to follow a sort of chronological pattern through the seasons of a year, though he actually lived in this cabin for over two years. His book is written as sort of a journal of observations made as a result of his experiences.
I choose to read this book because I had always heard that it was good and hadn’t ever read it. I liked that most all of Thoreau’s observations were made based on his own life experiences. This is something that he actually advocates, learning things more through experience rather than organized schooling.

I learned a lot from Thoreau’s thoughts. He wrote a lot of interesting things that you can just sit and ponder on. One of my favorites was on page fifty-four in the section titled “Economy” when he was writing about many of the unnecessary extravagancies of civilization and said, “Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners?” He goes on to talk about the uselessness of many things created by various societies of the past, and his comments are very funny. I learned from this the power of thinking and observing. Thoreau, for example, talks about how utterly useless the pyramids were and yet so many men labored for so long to build them. If we were to sit and think about the things that we as a society do we might be more economical and practical more often.

I will say that I don’t necessarily agree with everything that Thoreau said (such as the idea that we should seek spirituality without the help of organized religion, for example), but for the most part his observations seem very logical and easy to relate to, especially for a young college student. There are also many times in which Thoreau seems judgmental, but I suppose this could be ascribed to exasperation at the current state of his world and people.

I recommend this book to anyone who feels that society and societal norms have too much control over their lives (with the exception of extremists like Christopher McCandless, who is the subject of Into the Wild), because many of Thoreau’s ideas help you to see things about civilized society from a new perspective.