Walden by Henry David Thoreau | Chapter 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth summary and analysis of Chapter 2 of Henry David Thoreau's essay collection Walden.
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Henry David Thoreau's essay Walden details his two-year stint at the titular pond, during which he attempts to connect with nature and with himself.
Building a cabin and raising crops on land belonging to his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, he cultivates a relationship with the surrounding environment.
Living mostly in solitude for two years, he ingests volumes of philosophy and meditates on the landscape and the flora and fauna that inhabit it. Though he catalogues his observations in dispassionate fashion, his adoration of the phenomena he observes is clear.
The book ends with two famous and beautifully optimistic sentences: "There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
American writer Henry David Thoreau's essay Walden was first published in 1854. Using a borrowed axe, Thoreau constructed a small cottage near Concord's Walden Pond. The solitude and natural setting provided a perfect backdrop for serious writing. Thoreau carried out his quest to live as simply and mindfully as possible. Walden is perhaps one of the most important works of the Transcendentalist movement, which sought the divine in experiences of the natural world.
The philosophical essay Walden contains many important themes, including nature, as closely observing nature, Thoreau argues, is key to the best education; self-improvement, as meditation allows us to "elevate our lives" and understand our place in the universe; self-reliance, as living independently helps us break free from the expectations and conventions of traditional society; and minimalism, as detaching ourselves from a goal-driven, materialistic worldview is the path to genuine happiness. Important motifs include the four seasons, woodland creatures, and the great thinkers.
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the book was so long i went to sleep reading it twice
Fr I like reading but this book just wasn’t my type it was so long and boring to be honest
Anyways like your pfp
I’m trying to learn about Henry David, thorough and all I can think about. Is this guys voice being over the top
no fr
I hate this book but I have to read it
The never quite understood philosophy of a man who swam against the current of mainstream beliefs. Sorry I borrowed these words from comments about another review, a good friend, not stealing though, these are my own scribbles, repeating the impressions here. Henry David Thoreau a native of Concord, Massachusetts, a pencil maker, the family business which financed his expensive Harvard education and published the at first neglected books. A disciple of Ralph Waldo Emerson and at his urging in 1845, built a log cabin that he lived in for two years on the shore of Walden Pond ( it was his friend's land). Thoreau first day the 4th of July a good omen, future generations will be greatly influenced by his writings "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation", " Perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer", " All good things are wild, and free". The beauty of the lake, its peacefulness, the surrounding forest, plants, animals, birds in the sky , fish in the water all contribute to the enchanting magic, such thoughts by Mr. Thoreau were formed in a large part by his stay in paradise here. Curiosity his greatest strength and worse enemy, fellow citizens considered the unconventional person odd and maybe unhinged. However the gentleman by himself erected a very comfortable home, small but cozy, kept him warm in the winter and cool in summer, and during the very heavy , fearsome, rather frightening to say the least,
rains storms... not a drop fell inside; even keeping furniture dry for his modest needs. In the frigid winter when the pond freezes he walks to the middle and measures its depth by dropping a rock tied to a string after punching a hole in the ice...102 feet deep . He was never lonely, friends and acquaintances frequently came to see the strange man to his annoyance, too much, he felt happiest alone looking at the blue and sometimes green lake always changing color. Viewing a hawk in the air diving and rising, repeatedly just joyful to be alive, this was what he believed also, nature is glorious, nothing better on Earth. A solitary figure looms,
inside a little boat floating on the water's surface, contended, not caring if he Thoreau caught any fish, watching hour after hour dazzling birds on trees, animals searching for food some put outside by him for them to eat, observing the wild untamed creatures, writing down
their habits , on paper, fascinated. Nonetheless a newfangled contraption, a train roars nearby, so-called civilization creeps closer. This book celebrates the magnificence of the world, and man's destroying its beauty, this must not occur, prevent this crime and preserve nature, Mr. Thoreau believes and the Legend began with a single man in the woods...Still people want to make money, they will try by any means to do, the constant dilemma...beauty or profit? An important work for those interested and should be read. Besides Henry David Thoreau was a fine writer and terrific onlooker...who preferred to sniff a flower, than stomping on it.
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