Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, An Annotated Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. 375 pp. (Front pages, table of contents, foreward, 18 chapters, appendix, works cited.)

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, gives the reader a chance to meditate on the bigger picture in life - To find out the real why behind many of the menial tasks and jobs that we find ourselves engaged in during the grind of daily life, and especially to leave them behind in order to truly grow. Thoreau writes the book from his small self-built home located near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Written as a highly descriptive narration to his time spent there, Thoreau pauses regularly to offer his thoughts about the daily occurrences that he is faced with. Covering 375 pages, the book is divided into eighteen different chapters that are divided into subjects such as the outward Economy, physical descriptions of the area around his home, and his deep reflection such as those contained in Where I lived, and What I Live For.

I chose Walden because I know it has been one of the most influential books written by an American author, even to the point that it was quoted in the latest General Conference. I decided that I would like to know what everyone was talking about and discover it for myself. I loved that within Walden, Thoreau often makes deeply insightful, but powerful statements about how life is lived, and especially how it should be lived. Within the closing chapter of the book he pleads for the reader to “… be a Columbus to whole new channels, not of trade, but of thought.”
He clearly explains man’s obsession with gain in trade and labor, and how when endeavored only with such, our intellectual capacity is wasted and our own personal growth is severely retarded. He states that it is hard to have so many subtle masters in life “but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.” Throughout the book he invites us to pay attention to nature and soak in the beauties that God has blessed us with, that many of life's lessons can be learned in the observation of nature's creatures.

However, while being recluse in order to meditate and seriously contemplate life, the highly-educated and well-read Thoreau in no way advocates solely living in nature for your entire life, in fact he meets many loggers and hunters that are equally stunted in personal growth by their lack of education. I can definitely try to apply his charge of simplifying your life by removing those trivial objects that are not necessary in life, you don’t have to have the newest and best products, in fact, this false quest often block our thoughts from being engaged in real thinking and enlightenment. Thoreau worked only to satisfy his necessities and had an incredible amount of time to dedicate to exploring both his surroundings and the inner workings of his neighbors thoughts and aspirations.

I felt that Thoreau especially illustrated his quest for truth, first, by being able to step outside the ordinary pursuits and hub-bub of the world and effectively take an outside-in approach at looking at this world. This view was often countered in the dialogues that he had with his neighbors. Their honest responses showed just how closed and distracted that many of our minds are. It made me realize that by letting go of these selfish and ultimately irrelevant ambitions, we can be honest with ourselves and the situations around us. There will be nothing to cloud our judgment and we can honestly discover what life is all about by being in tune with ourselves. He also expressed this quest by letting his thoughts wander over specific explanations of why events happen, inviting the reader to do the same with the activities in our own lives. Thoreau did not cover a lot of ground geographically in his life, but he made monumental expeditions to discover the very essence and purpose of life. However, I felt that much of his powerful statements were completely flooded by too many descriptions and narratives of nature and farming that I found unimportant and Thoreau often times did not make any connection from these daily tasks to any insightful thought. His long descriptions of hoeing his beans, often lead me to believe that he only wished to get out every possibly thought that entered his brain during the years he lived at Walden Pond. Sleepy reader beware.

I would follow Thoreau’s recommendation and also recommend the book to all of those “poor students” of life, searching for the truth in life. I especially recommend the book to high school and college age individuals, so that they can open their minds to these suggestions before being overpowered by the demands of life and their careers, because I believe it would allow them to place priorities on what is really important and what they should dedicate their time and energies to. The reader should also read this book only if they will also allow themselves time outside of reading to ponder the messages therein. This book is an excellent “brain-opener” before someone steps into the “real world” of adult life.