Thoreaus Walden: Freedom through Transcendentalism - Essay Example

May 3, Thoreau’s Walden: Freedom through Transcendentalism In 1845, Thoreau was twenty-seven years old when he decided tobreak free from the demands of modern cosmopolitan life. He built a one-room cabin on Emerson’s land in the woods, which was located at the shoreline of Walden Pond, less than two miles from Concord. He borrowed an axe, purchased the boards from an Irish railroad worker’s shanty, and constructed a ten-by-fifteen-foot shed. He moved to his shed on the emblematic time of Independence Day. He lived ascetically, relying on a simple diet that mostly depended on what he harvested, and spending less than nine dollars for food for the first eight months of his Walden existence. During this time, he used as much of his possible free for thinking and studying. He examined people and nature more than he read books, although he brought several well-selected volumes to his Walden home. In Walden, Thoreau argues that people can reach transcendentalism through nature, which will ultimately produce the most important basic freedoms for human individuals. One of the first important freedoms that Thoreau gained in Walden is freedom from materialism. Living through and with nature can enable people to leave their materialistic lives behind. Thoreau realizes that without the need for material possessions, people can become happier with simpler lives, because a simpler life enables them to have more time to enjoy their time. Thoreau says: “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere” (390). Living in Walden opens opportunities for reflection, which are the origins of poetry. It allows people to criticize themselves and the society they live in, which will not be possible when living in a materialistic world. Without self and social criticism, people will learn to live with “lies,” such as the lie of freedom, where freedom is not possible when people are focused on making money to respond to their material needs. In the chapter “Economy,” Thoreau explores the drawbacks of the capitalistic market. He says: “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them” (327). He stresses that because of capitalism, labor is undervalued, as well as the ability of people to live independent lives. Thoreau shows through this novel that only by having a simple life through nature can people live simply, and living simply is related to living happily. People are happiest, it seems, when they own their labors and since they have no masters, they own their time. Alexander replicates the same life that Thoreau has. He relishes the understanding of Thoreauvian lesson that a person can be “richer than the richest now are” (Thoreau 354) while living in very modest circumstances. For Alexander, this gives him “a calm trust in the future” (Thoreau 450), since he realizes that a “fancy house is not a necessary part of living a happy and meaningful life” (Alexander 141). Like Thoreau, Alexander understands that a simple life is the key to a happy and peaceful life. Thoreau believes that without the demands of modern life, people can be free to develop themselves as individuals. Buckner believes that the most important message of Walden is “to call people to freedom as individuals.” She stresses: “One looks at nature in order to learn about oneself; one simplifies one’s life in order to have time to develop the self fully; one must honor one’s uniqueness if one is to know full self-realization” (Buckner 4). Thoreau recommends to others that they should live simpler lives for them to be happier. A simpler life away from material needs exemplifies the idea of peace. Nature itself is filled with peace, which is the symbol for inner peace of mind. Thoreau cries out for a simplified life: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail” (Thoreau 395). He argues that a simpler life has less goals and priorities. People living in the woods can definitely trim their accounts to the bare minimum essentials of life. In modern life, this can refer to living simply, such using cash instead of several credit cards, so that one’s lifestyle becomes equal to one’s income. Living simply also entails eating the natural way, such as through cooked “real” food and not processed food and avoiding eating out, because dining out can be expensive when done on a daily basis. These practices will lead to a simple life with no more financial troubles. Thoreau provides the key to a happy life: “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry” (Thoreau 396). Truly, he makes sense when he asks people to take life slowly and be grateful for its moments. To live a day at a time with no great material responsibilities will free people from the hassles of competing in the dog-eat-dog world. They will longer feel tired and stressed. They will have the time and energy to find happiness and meaning in their lives. To live like a child who is free and learning everyday is also a critical insight for Thoreau. A child who lives a in a woods becomes a natural scientist and philosopher. Through exploring and pondering on nature’s events, phenomena, and creatures, children learn to revel in the natural wonders of the world. Because they have simple needs and wants, they can consume the simplicity of their existence without bitterness or longing for complex, luxurious wants. Thoreau says: “Children come a-berrying” and he provides many examples of people who have simple lives and are better off than the richest people on earth (Thoreau 445). Indeed, philosophers and commentators cherish a child’s life. Children have a way of looking at the world with freshness and passion that adults lose later on. Children have simple needs and wants and so they have the time and energy to enjoy their lives immensely. Thoreau reveals that the secret of a child’s happiness is in Walden too. He wants people to do away with their luxuries, which children are not even aware of or in need of: “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (Thoreau 334). Children live in the moment, which helps them reach the elevation of mankind. They do not care for money or making more money than they need. They do what makes them happy, since they are not trapped in a financial web. They do not have to worry of what they have to wear, where they have to go, or who they have to be with. They get meaning from their experiences and they find happiness in moments of being alive and being with their loved ones. Thoreau asks people to also live in the moment and no longer worry about the future. They can only do this if they release themselves from their materialistic goals. If they realize that a simpler life will make them ironically better off than a materialistically richer life, then they will attain the happiness that children have. Freedom from the limitations of traditions is also attainable when one is detached from the society that teaches and applies it. Many traditions are tainted with baseless prejudices. Thoreau says: “It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient can be trusted without proof…” (Thoreau 329). Even in modern times, some people feel the burden of continuing their traditions. If these traditions include looking down on women or other races, they develop these prejudiced attitudes too, and sometimes, even hand them over to their own children. Thoreau asks people to look deep into their lives and examine their traditions. The traditions may be binding them hopelessly to a past that no longer has value to their present and future conditions, especially when they teach prejudice and discrimination. An example is slavery that roots from senseless racial prejudice. Thoreau reminds people that they can break old traditions and make new ones: “Old deeds for old people and new deeds for new” (Thoreau 329). Nature is an example of constant re-creation. Evolution enables animals to continue existing and the same can also be done by people. They can evolve and leave their traditions behind. Thoreau promotes the idea of loving change. He asserts: “So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change” (Thoreau 331). It is not true that there is only one way: “This is the only way, we say. But there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre” (Thoreau 331). He asks people to consider the many ways to happiness, success, and development. People have to think outside of the box of their traditions, if they want to reinvent themselves and the society they live in. They cannot rely on the old ways alone to live a meaningful life in the modern times. Thoreau advises people to not read shallow books that mainstream literature sells to them, because this is part of reinforcing bad traditions. He includes relying on the Bible only, which promotes conservative religious traditions, traditions which, in turn, espouse archaic ways of lifestyles. He asks people to read widely and deeply and never depend on one source of knowledge or information alone. He says: “Most men are satisfied if they read or hear read, and perchance have been convicted by the wisdom of one good book alone, the Bible, and for the rest of their lives vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy reading” (Thoreau 406). This advice is well-given, since it encourages people to learn from diverse literature, and not just the literature from one’s race or source. Thoreau is an example of a voracious reader, who shares his humanist ideals, ideals that come from an enlightened mind. His enlightened mind is a product of expansive reading, which also encourages him to practice critical thinking. These books allowed him to learn other ideas and ways of living and thinking. His enlightened mind then makes it easier to criticize materialism and remove its control over his life. Thoreau contends that through reading, people can also be guided in developing their spirituality and finding meaning in life. The classics can richly nourish the mind. Thoreau stresses the immense knowledge from reading the classics: “For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave” (Thoreau 403). Indeed, they may be some of the best literatures, especially because they were recorded during the times when people do not have so many material needs and wants that they have now. These people had more time to live and to learn from their experiences. As Thoreau says, the classics can also be called as oracles, because they can present different answers to difficult questions about humanity and development. Freedom from the oppressive government is one of Thoreau’s greatest achievements in Walden too. Thoreau relishes freedom from conformity, which stifles his ability to develop his individuality. The government uses laws and customs to espouse a certain way of living and thinking, which in many ways for Thoreau, delimits his individual freedoms. Thoreau’s cabin is like Huck’s raft as both stands for the freedom from conformity (Morsberger 1). In Walden, Thoreau teaches the role of independence, where the role of the government almost does not exist in attaining a happy life. Some criticizes Thoreau of threading anarchy, however. Lane believes though that Thoreau’s individual government is not essentially anarchic. For her, Thoreau was as conscious as anyone that “human beings owe one another something, as joint participants in an existentially uncertain enterprise” (Lane 288). Lane stresses that Thoreau endeavors that people strike a balance between the requirements of the individual and the community. Thoreau’s general theory can be better understood if people oppose the effort to classify his work under solitary labels and acknowledge the breadth of his writing as that of a “social theorist” (Lane 288). Thoreau says: “Rescue the drowning and tie your shoe-strings” (384). This impressive sentence contains the political weight of Thoreau’s model of self-government. For Lane, this means that he is mandating others to help one another in times of need (Lane 288). At the same time, it is about tying one’s own shoelaces, where it indicates that freedom is not “infinite” (Lane 288). People should also pay attention to the needs of their lives (Lane 288). Thoreau acts as a bridge between liberals, who highlight rescue, and conservatives who prefer self-reliance; but he provides sensible limits on the possibilities of self-reliance and ethical limits on the inevitability of rescue (Lane 288). Thoreau’s approach to self-government abridges these two dimensions in a refrain that repeats in his writings, the principle of minding people’s own businesses (Lane 288). Lane stresses that this does not necessarily mean getting off each other’s back, even in extreme conditions that they can save someone drowning. Instead, it includes not giving or expecting charity from others (Lane 288). “Mind your own business” has a wider significance as it “relates to a person’s own search for personal self-government, where it entails the thesis that the individual’s primary activity in life is to identify what that business is, and pursue it with vigor and intelligence” (Lane 289). It represents the ability for self-actualization through intense minding of the self and its opportunities for growth. Finally, to achieve freedom from the self and the society that makes unimportant demands is a crucial end for Thoreau, and this represents transcendentalism that can be attained through communing closely with nature. For Thoreau and Emerson, foxes and loons are “nothing less than emblems of an all-inclusive nature that includes everything outside the self” (Friedrich 47). Friedrich believes that this “non-self or non-I is of spiritual as much as material reality” involves finding the self and outside the self through nature. Hawks are important symbols of freedom and transcendentalism. Thoreau says: “The hawk is aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his [sic] perfect air-inflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea” (449). The hawk stands for the ability to soar over a society and to ruminate over its ruins and strengths. The modern society is filled with great inventions that allows for fantastic comforts unimaginable centuries before. The society, however, has its worms inside it. These worms also eat on society and lead it to moral decay. Thoreau also makes use of the fox to describe the cunning of mankind. The cunning of man is limited, however, because they have been consumed by their material needs. The fox in its natural habitat reveals that it is better to live a simple life, so that only few threats exist, and with few threats, a greater peace of mind can be attained. Thoreau brings people back to the idea of nurturing the individual soul. Friedrich emphasizes that the individual soul concerns both a consciousness and a conscience (56). This conscience is divine and is shared by every human. Social injustice is immoral and must be fought, which is why Thoreau underscores the evils of slavery, which represents how wrong it is to enslave another person, just because he has different physical and cultural features. Living with nature can serve as a process in reaching transcendentalism. In Walden, Thoreau emphasizes that people can reach transcendentalism through nature, which will eventually yield the most important basic freedoms for human individuals. He asserts that people can be happy with a simple life, where they mind their own business, and sometimes, help people in extremely dire conditions. He underscores that they need as little government as possible, as long as they live peaceful and economic lives. Thoreau argues that a simple life is a truly happy and peaceful life, for it is a life empty of material needs and threats. Works Cited Alexander, Samuel. “Deconstructing the Shed: Where I Live and What I Live For.” Concord Saunterer 18 (2010): 124-143. Print. Buckner, Sally. “Walden.” Masterplots (Nov. 2010): 1-4. Print. Friedrich, Paul. “‘Walden's’ Political Thoreau.” Concord Saunterer 16 (2008): 45-58. Print. Lane, Ruth. “Standing "Aloof" from the State: Thoreau on Self-Government.” Review of Politics 67.2 (2005): 283-310. Print. Morsberger, Robert E. “Walden.” Magill’s Survey of American Literature (Sept. 2006): 1-2. Print. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Plain Label Books, 1906. Google Books. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=ThoWald.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all>. Read More