Week 6 from Walden,Henry David Thoreau

From Walden

After just reading the first paragraph we learn that this is not a life he lived for long. Throuhout the story I tried to figure out why. Was it just an experiment, did he not like it, or did he have a life to return to outside of the woods. The section titled "Economy" really brought about several thoughts to ponder on. He comments on how many young men today are inheriting barns houses, farms and livestock. He does not understand why one person would need so many things and so much land for themselves. Many make it a career, but then are forced to live a life based on what their crop produces each year good or bad. I did not agree with his statement that seniors do not tell anything of purpose. Maybe he just was not around many people but I thing that through the older generation is where we can gain so much wisdom from life. Thoreau says "life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it". Meaning that just because they have already lived, he still has to try it on his own to learn from it. I like how he says that "we may safely say trust a good deal more than we do". We can't be in charge of everything and we have to trust that it will work out for the best.

I enjoyed the descriptions he gave us in the section titled "Where I lived, and What I lived for". How he went through and collected materials and truly lived off what the land offered to him. He recommends to live this "free and uncommitted" because if you don't it does not matter where you live or what you do. It was funny how it just happened to work out that he started spending the night at house on the Fourth of July. It represented his freedom from schedule and the details he left behind for some time. It was very peaceful to read how he saw the mountains and the streams and the land all around him. He made it seem that it was pure beauty at all times. It was also nice to read how he woke up everyday and how he valued his time in the morning where he could have "innocence with nature". Thoreau mentions the railroad and how it was built. He makes a comment that if were just to live the simple life that we would not even think of these advances in our lives. There are so many little comments that enjoyed about this writing and his take on this experience. I liked that once he completed his experiment he said "by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to life the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours". That I feel like sums up his experience. This is what he wanted to do and through it he will have success because he is living out his dream. Not the dream that his society wants but how he can better his life.