Walden

I have read book called Walden written by Henry David Thoreau. This is an autobiography where Henry Thoreau spends two years of his time during 1845 – 1847 in Walden Pond near Massachusetts, where he is trying figure out ways of how he could live by himself and become together with natural environment in order to find life that is different to lifestyle in city. He is trying out new project in order to find self-reliance and what human can do in a place where nothing is prepared.

The main Character in this book is Henry Thoreau himself. This is because everything happens around him. It is who makes things happen as he is trying to do something different by coming to a place where nothing there for him. He does this in order to get satisfaction and to get self-reliance. He was different to everyone because he was free thinker and he was an absolute individual.

The theme of this autobiography is that first self-importance. This is to believe yourself in order to find your own way of living a life. People can’t get help from anyone. Self-reliance is al about finding yourself. He was taught this by his greatest teacher Ralph Emerson. Emerson taught Thoreau that whatever he does, he has to do it for his own good because in the end you have to be independent. This is why Thoreau picked Walden Pond as his new place to live. This is because Walden is a place where nothing is prepared. No house, no tools, no place of work, no nothing. It is just perfect to place for people to find a new of way of life and find yourself.

Another theme of this book is that value of simplicity. This means as it is a pond there is nothing there for him. It is just nature, so he needs to find way to adjust his lifestyle. Before everything was there for him as in the city technology was developing so life in the city was getting easier and comforter. However, now, he lives in place where there is only nature. Which show he must somehow find his own way of living without using technology. He has to use his brain fully in order to use the nature for himself without damaging them. It is not easy thing to do as living with the nature is hard than what people imagine. However, once he finds his way through it is a best place to live. Living with nature is fun for him as he is learning from the nature day by day. For example ants fighting with each other just seem nothing for most of people but for Thoreau it is a lesson to learn. He had great imagination and connected this with war. When he was looking at the ants he thought of how to stop people from fighting war. He is learning from animals, nature that he is looking at.

The last theme is that illusion of progress. This means that life and year goes by the circle. It goes in circle because year has a season. Spring, summer, autumn and winter. These are the four season in the year. In each season there is different things occurs. For example I winter pond turns into ice. This is because it is so called that water turns in ice. It is simple thing, but it is beautiful part of the nature. It is also ironic that this autobiography starts in spring and finishes in spring this is because he was a Christian. So show that he was Christian, he must starts in spring or Easter as people might call it.

One of the major conflict in this book is Thoreau hated civilized American life. He wanted something new. Why are people happy with living in same place where nothing is different. Just same old boring lifestyle. Why can’t people be independent. He thought that people have to be more independent and not getting help by anyone. People have to live by themselves. That why he went Walden pond to show people that people are strong enough to live by themselves and that even though he was poor there are ways to find a better life.

Symbols in this autobiography are animals, ice and Walden Pond.

Animals because they teach Thoreau everything that needs to be taught in order to live in a place of nature. Obviously at the start he didn’t know anything about it. That why he watched animal live to see get the idea and was learning from it. Animals play a big part in his life as he learns a lot of thing from them. He was good at connecting life in pond into life civilized area, so he just connected every single incident that has occurred him in a pond to civilized American life and he carefully thought how he could improve a life in civilized American life into more decent life.

Ice is because symbol a real nature. As winter comes it gets cold and pond start to freeze therefore most part of lake is covered with ice. It is unbelievable thing. People can7t get this over in civilized area and so it is a beautiful part of nature.

Walden Pond, this is because this is the place Thoreau picked and everything takes place in here. Thoreau learns everything here and he improves in here. He made so many changes at the pond to make place better for himself.
The climax of this story is when winter turns into spring when ice start to melt and everything changes. The scenery changes, the animals starts to come out again and everything is forgiven because spring came as it is big festival for the Christians. People start to celebrate and it was time for Thoreau to go back home as he had learnt enough and need to tell people that all people should try to do what he did. Where nothing there and people have to open up their lives by themselves.

The point of view of this story is that Thoreau himself. He uses word I so many times to show that he is an independent person and to show that he has a strong character in order to achieve his goal. He went over to do project which was not successful but he gained something from it. He has learnt so many things by living in place where nothing is there, nobody are there. It was an experiment that had some good for him.

I thought this was an excellent book because it teaches you a lot of things. In order to live a life people need to more strong and independent. No wonder he had so much influence on the younger generation because his character was so strong that I want to be just like him. He was sure of what he was doing and he had so much confidence in him. It just show how much self-reliance is important to people. It does looks as though people with more self-confident succeed in their career rather than people who is shy. I don’t know why this is a fact of life. Thoreau was might have been trying to say get more self-confidence in life that how people succeed. People only have one chance in career so make use of that chance. If people want to try something big, do it, do it right now otherwise there will be no chance of success, because later on you might not have chance to do it. People often think that if people don’t succeed it’s a failure but it is not. As long as you get something from it, it is a success for you, it not matter of succeeding, it is matter of trying.
People need to be more independent because people around you will not help you all the time. Someday people have to do everything by themselves, so be more independent. Think about your own self. Do people know everything about themselves? I don’t think so. People think they do but they don’t. People need to avoid that. People need to try harder like Thoreau to find more about each self. Try something new or live in a place where nobody is there. Find your real potential. That what people need to do in our modern life. Most of people think that living in same environment is good this it is not, because people don’t need to work hard to achieve their goal or find way through. It is easy but it not doing anything for you. So go to place where it is completely new for you so that you have made move in order to find your own path.
I do recommend this book to all people who are less confident than other people as this might give you some idea in order to get self-confidence. I don’t have much of self confidence, but by reading this book I am getting some idea of what I should do in order to find better life.