Walden

Henry David Thoreau

1854

November, 2024

5/10

Thoreau is a man of conviction, and that unfortunately comes off a little too strong at times. Obviously, it's unfair to evaluate his approach to life by today's standards, but he takes the idea of "nothing" to too much of an extreme for me. A simple example would be clothes: Thoreau says it’s perfectly enough to own little so long as it’s practical — nice things are pointless. Whereas I would argue that we should be okay having very little; but if we want a nice thing, there’s nothing wrong with that if it makes us feel good (and it is feasible to obtain).

In other words, he argues that simplicity is life. I agree, but I also argue towards the adaptation to society, however it is — so long as we stay true to ourselves and what brings us happiness. In any case, I still admire his ideas and practices. He sought his own happiness, and that is the best anyone can ever do.

I loved the descriptions of things, the peace as felt through the expressions of nature which clearly meant a great deal to him. I also liked the conclusion, the way Thoreau wrote about people having their own interests and passions — the need to pursue those interests and passions but without pressure.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprise? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hearts, however measured or far away.

Additionally, the way he described people throughout the book was excellent. His description of someone actually (attempting) thinking for themself summarizes his views:

...I occasionally observed that he was thinking for himself and expressing his own opinion — a phenomenon so rare that I would any day walk ten miles to observe it.

Similarly, I enjoyed his ideas on literary works and reading:

The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them... Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry convenience... but of reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to stand on tip toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to.

But in the end, Walden was simply not for me. It is a calm, peaceful book. It is an interesting exploration of someone's experiences. But it does not have much to say. It doesn't necessarily attempt to say anything, however. Rather, I disagree with much of Thoreau's philosophy, and I was not terribly interested in the book's descriptive nature.