Month: May 2022

Would Walden have been a better book if Thoreau had supplied more background information on his life? Henry David Thoreau was an  American naturalist, essayist, poet, philosopher, and a leading transcendentalist. As a transcendentalist Thoreau believed that the only reality was in the spiritual world and the only way to get rid of peoples problems was the free development of emotions. I know that that was not true. He is mainly known for his autobiography Walden. It is about his life living on Walden Pond. He wrote in his autobiography “I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” He said that his reason for going there was to get a business with few obstacles because he thought a business would be easy there.

Would Walden have been a better book if Thoreau had supplied more background information on his life? Well my answer is no. His autobiography is named Walden and it tells of his life on Walden Pond. It wouldn’t make sense for Thoreau to write about his whole life if the book was called Walden. Also the book was very confusing. more detail would of made it even more confusing. I have had to read a great deal of autobiography’s and Walden is the most confusing one. These are the reasons of why the answer to this question is no. If you read this book read slowly and do your best to focus on the writing style that Thoreau uses. 

Was Thoreau dependent on the division of labor while he was living on Walden Pond? Thoreau’s full name was Henry David Thoreau. You may already know who he was, but according to Google “Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience”, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.” According to Google “Transcendentalism is a 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation.” His book Walden tells of his life living on the shore of Walden Pond. In Thoreau’s book he wrote “I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” He also in his autobiography wrote why he was living on the shore of Walden Pond. “My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles; to be hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense, a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as foolish.” He also said that he thought that Walden Pone would be a good place for business. According to Google the division of labor is “the assignment of different parts of a manufacturing process or task to different people in order to improve efficiency”.

Was Thoreau dependent on the division of labor while he was living on Walden Pond? That answer is yes. In the first chapter he wrote how he built his house and how much it would cost. He used division of labor when he bout supplies to build his house and when he bought food. He may have also bought fishing gear. “At night there was never a traveler passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts—they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness—but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left “the world to darkness and to me,” and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood.”