A worthy simple life

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau relates his own experience when he resides in a cabin by
Walden Lake. Thoreau is not a recluse, but rather an ardent explorer for the essence of the life.
At a society of booming capitalism, many of Thoreaus neighbors follow the idea of the society
which prefers the excessive gain of materials and obtain desperate livings because of their
excessive and harsh labor. Observing their lives, Thoreau decides to go to the woods and show
his neighbors an alternative way to live against the society. He goes to Walden to relieve himself
from the desperate society so that he could explore his life, and also to demonstrate a life of
simplicity much worthier than that of his neighbors which he calls quiet desperation. A life of
simplicity picks out the unnecessary and superficial aspect of life in order to let anyone see
clearly the nature of their lives.
A Simple life renders people the time to explore the nature of their lives. Thoreaus
neighbors who lead a lifestyle of quiet desperation waste their time on redundant laboring in
conformation to the society. Americans in general live in a capitalism predominant society which
connects the success of men to the amount of materials they own. Under the trend of the society,
people fill their lives with colossus amount of blind labor. Their resignation to the society leads
them to a confirmed desperation. They no longer feel the leisure in life; everyday for them start
and end with machine-like labor, and their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and
tremble too much for [finer fruits of life](846). Thoreau pities these people who waste their

lives in excessive hardship. The huge amount of their unnecessary hard work makes their labor
depreciated in the market and brings these men inability to understand the beauty of life as
their hands become too clumsy to touch finer fruits of life. Their labor only alienates them

from both their original purpose to labor harshly and the understanding of their life, thus their
lives are desperate. To Thoreau, the reason for their desperate life is that they labor under a
mistake(846). People should not go after the life of excessive labor but rather that of simplicity,
which brings time for people to explore their lives. Therefore, he went to Walden in order to
prove that human-beings could sustain themselves with only the basic necessities of life.
Furthermore, those necessities could be easily obtained through mild labor. In the first chapter of
the book, he deliberately keeps a list for specific cost of items he consumed in Walden. From the
list, one can observe the cost of his house is fairly cheap, and his labor in his own plantation not
only sustains himself on the food, but also subsidizes his economy. The list is cogent enough for
anyone to understand that it is economically possible to lead a life like that of Thoreau, and it is
unnecessary to labor for excessive amounts. The time Thoreau saved is mainly spent to discover
the meaning of his life, if [his life] proved to be mean, why then to get all the whole and
genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know by
experience and be able to get true account of it in my next excursion(892). His hands,
wellpreserved to explore the life, can pluck the fruits of life and cautiously examine it. Therefore,
to the end of Thoreaus life, he could tell if he has lived a life of meanness or that of sublime.
Through the simplicity of his life, Thoreau truly lives his life.
A life of simplicity digs out the superficial trivialities of life. People not only resign to the
economic aspect of the society, but also to the superficial aspect of the society. The society
demands swift transportation for the flow of trade, which is essential to capitalism living.

Therefore, people who heed the society either dedicate to build trains and write telegraphs or
wholeheartedly enjoy using them. Thoreau frowns upon people who use these new inventions the

same way as he frowns upon people who commit in excessive labor. He calls to the attention of
the people that [they] are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas;
but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing to communicate(871). Thoreaus neighbors only
herald the calls of the society to use telegraph but are too blind to notice the importance of these
improvements preached by the society is illusory. These new fancy advancements of men only
advance to an unimproved end; the telegraph has indeed sped the message to people, however,
people do not really need the message. Instead of wasting their time on the trivial improvements
of the life, people should focus on more critical improvements: the tinkering of ones life, which
can be performed in a simple life. An improvement Thoreau wants to show to his neighbors and
readers. He [goes] to the woods because [he] wished to live deliberately, to front only the
essential facts of life so that he could improve and mend his own life without the influence of
frivolous advances in the human society (892). A simple life is deliberate as the man could avoid
the trivialities in the society and mend his own life.
Thoreau, through Walden, tries to encourage human-beings to simplify their life, thus saving
the precious time to discover the essential facts of their lives and to avoid all the frivolities that
cover over the unimproved lives of humans.

Work Cited
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden.1979. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. I.

Shorter 7th Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton, 2008. 844-896. Print