Thoughts on Thoreau:

In the course Text and Treks I have had my first exposer to the writings of Henry David Thoreau, who I had heard of before but never read. For this course we read the chapter titled ‘Economy’ from Walden as well as a few of his journals. I’m going to mainly focus on ‘Economy’, because for me this is where I got the most insight into how Thoreau thought. When I initially read it I did not pick up on a lot of the little details, which he interweaves into his writing. In this chapter he talks about building his cabin on Walden pond, but he has a lot of hidden messages and commentaries on life in general implanted throughout this section not just his ideas on nature.

One of the quotes we discussed during class that stood out to me more after we had broken it down and talked about it, than when I first read it was when he states “The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.” When I first read this I didn’t really understand it and brushed by it waiting for him to get back to talking about his cabin. Afterwards, though when we discussed how, what is considered morally good, and following the rules, and doing things without thinking about them but because everyone else does, isn’t actually good, and how Thoreau views the choices he does not deliberately make to be what is wrong. I had a better understanding of what he was trying to get across. It is so easy in life to go with the flow of things without ever questioning or making your own decision, Thoreau was fighting against this trend of ‘normalcy’ and ‘compliancy’ to society saying that not using our free will is what we should repent for.

Thoreau has many complicated statement such as these that at first glance seem contradictory but upon further examination are making a point about our lifestyle now. Thoreau comments on trends such as consumerism, fashion and transportation that we are still grappling with today, and I found the timelessness of his work to be very intriguing.

Walden Pond