American Literature: Walden

we might hide from it in our air-conditioned condos and cars but it's

still out there there are a lot of lessons that can be learned from

spending time in and observing the natural world around us and as one man [Woman looking at animals with binoculars]

discovered being tight with nature totally has its benefits Henry David

Thoreau was born lived and died in and around Concord Massachusetts with a

thirst for knowledge and a hot intellectual curiosity he pursued study

in philosophy politics and religion at Harvard University not stoked about the [Harvard University appears]

usual job fields that most people pursued after graduation business

religion or law, Thoreau decided to teach finding that public school teaching

clashed with his personal beliefs meaning that he wouldn't dole out

corporal punishment to bad students Thoreau and his bro opened their own [Thoreau outside concord academy school]

school there the brothers tried out new methods with the students like taking

them on nature walks and writing poetry about their experiences

Thoreau became friendly ahem with an older gentleman named Ralph Waldo

Emerson who encouraged Thoreau to write and seek publication in a local journal

Emerson was a leader in a movement called transcendentalism that Thoreau found

thoroughly interesting this philosophy is tricky to define but essentially

transcendentalist believed in individualism idealism and a common

humanity among people despite how different and unique everyone is

believers in this philosophy felt that humans have the ability to transcend the [Woman meditating on the grass]

material things of the world in order to find themselves through spirituality and

you know personal examination come on people get your minds out of the gutter [Butterfly flying by]

Emerson also let Thoreau live in his cabin for a while this camping

experiment led to Thoreau's most famous work Walden published in 1854, Walden

describes Thoreau's experience living alone in nature with nothing but

squirrels on his own thoughts to keep him company he wanted to better [Thoreau sitting on a bench with squirrels]

understand what in the world humans were really about and he decided that the

only real way to do this was to cut himself off from society in order to

simplify, simplify this was kind of like Thoreau's mantra can't really knock the

idea unless of course you simply can't simplify because you've got 16 different

handheld electronic devices a shoe collection that would rival kim [Man sitting with a huge shoe collection]

kardashian and more posters than the national poster museum does... Thoreau

wasn't interested in material possession instead living with basically nothing

and writing all about how the minimalist lifestyle affected him so was he a nut

job or simply genius before we dismiss Thoreau as a weirdo crackpot with

outdated notions about how to live life let's check out a chapter from Walden [Walden book appears beside flying butterfly]

this should give you a smidge of understanding into who this guy was and

why on earth he'd choose to live in solitude instead of hitting up a spot

downtown with a couple of choice roomies or a good-looking partner in crime hit

pause and read the chapter called where I lived and what I lived for..... welcome back

before we take apart the chapter you just read here's a full rundown of the

book as I mentioned before, Walden is all about living a simple life in nature [Man playing saxophone]

and all that jazz the book takes place over the two years that Thoreau lived in

a cabin he built himself on Emerson's property at Walden Pond this book is

mostly about the literal observations that Thoreau made and how he tied his

thoughts about history philosophy and humanity at large to what he sees in the

natural world Thoreau made a few trips into town and occasionally entertained [Thoreau trips over in the street]

people at his cabin but mostly he chilled by himself just thinkin

observing and writing this may sound totally boring or like an old school

version of survivor but here's the deal Thoreau was living life exactly the way

he wanted to how many people can honestly say

that about their own lives think about it if you could live any way you want it [Man surfboarding in the ocean]

what would you do if there were no parents forcing you to do chores no

school to fill your days no siblings demanding you play with them or help

with their homework what would you do how would you choose to live your idea [Boy asking sister for help with homework and boy disappears]

of a perfect life might be way different than the one Thoreau came up with but this

important thing was that he was doing it his way that's a huge deal and because [Thoreau walking his way]

he chose to live in the way that he did he freed up his mind from normal

everyday stressors and came up with some pretty awesome observations about life

in where I lived and what I lived for we get Thoreau's own take on the purpose

behind his experiment in the preceding chapter that we didn't read he says

the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation that doesn't sound like a [Quote from Thoreau's book appears]

good thing Thoreau thought that most people go through life carrying out

what's expected of them but seeking something more they feel trapped in some

way but not knowing how to talk about this feeling they keep quiet and remain

desperate which sounds miserable but that's the point Thoreau was making he

thought that most people were pretty miserable [Man takes drink while sitting in a chair]

and since it was certainly not most people he attempted to live in a

different way reflecting on the experience as he goes

to see what the result will be he also figured out that 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 this means that people are

taught to seek happiness in things or possessions but these only hold us back [Thoreau walking through a forest]

from becoming higher-level thinkers if someone told you that your cell phone

was holding you back from being an elevated being you might laugh and then

text your BFF about what they just said But Thoreau had a point if we break out of

our normal routines and give up using our beloved possessions 24/7 we're

forced to look at life in different ways in this same vein of thinking Thoreau [Man driving a car]

noted the massive discrepancy between how rich people and poor people live and

enjoy life but how happens it that he who is said

to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor civilized man while the savage which

has them not is rich as a savage the cost of a thing is the amount of what

I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it immediately or in the

long run he's saying that rich people have and poor people don't and that

these attributes make the rich people poor in spirit and the poor people quite

rich the message is that wealthy people amass goods that only hold them back [Rich man attempting to reach enlightenment]

from being truly fulfilled in life and poor people don't have things cluttering

up their lives so they can live a more spiritually free existence just like he

attempted to do....

This is a transcendentalist way they transcend the

notion that we need material goods to make us happy [Butterfly flys by]

ie not very 80s Madonna it's all about slowing it down, taking in the world

around you with all of your senses and if we can do that then silly things like [Woman stood by tree smelling a flower]

deadlines and crushes who don't return phone calls become meaningless well more

or less what's wrong with that crush anyhow in

where I lived and what I lived for we become immersed in the great details

of Thoreau's observations of his home/setting of this book....

can't you just see those ghosts like mists sneaking off into the [Mists appear from Walden Pond]

thick woods because he slowed everything down to the base level of existence, Thoreau

was able to focus on his surroundings and make these detailed observations

pretty much every single day he wrote them in a way that even when we read

them some 150 plus years later we can totally envision the place where he was

living these observations are so descriptive

and full of imagery they could easily be written into poetry but what's the point

let's let Thoreau tell us for himself...

let's break this up Thoreau says he went to the woods which

we already know because he wanted to live deliberately that's a weird choice

of descriptor or maybe not deliberately means intentionally or on purpose so [Butterfly carrying a definition of deliberately on a board]

saying that by taking off on the nature hike of a lifetime is making a conscious

choice to live in a particular way okay I can get down with that

he then says he wanted to front only the essential facts of life and see if I

could not learn what it had to teach and not when I came to die discover that I

had not lived, Thoreau is pretty much explaining that he is ready to open

himself up to living with only the bare necessities without the Disney song and [Thoreau stood by a campfire and a bear appears behind a tree]

see what happens he's pretty sure that his experiment is going to yield the

results that he's been predicting all along that freeing himself from society

and all of its constraints will allow him to feel as if he's truly living life [Thoreau riding a rollercoaster]

sort of like how some people feel about going bungee jumping or skydiving. Thoreau

had a tight grip on ideas about what makes life precious and worth living and

what simply distracts and detracts from the life experience as he said I did not

wish to live what was not life living is so dear nor did I wish to practice [Sentence of chapter appears highlighted]

resignation unless it was quite necessary but he wasn't just hanging out

waiting for life to happen to him either....

....he's saying that he's not afraid to get his hands dirty literally [Thoreau shows his dirty hands]

this whole experience is about living life and Thoreau is excited about

diving in deep there are sixteen more chapters including a conclusion in

Walden and you should definitely put this one on your ever-growing to read [Conclusion appears and stamped must read]

list he talks about being alone, what he was reading and how he was affected by

the visitors who came along and saw how he was doing his thing in the conclusion

Thoreau writes...

success it might seem strange that Thoreau left the woods at all since he was [Thoreau standing in the woods by a cabin]

so dang happy there but naturally he had it perfect for doing so....

we wouldn't expect any less from this master of thought and self understanding

so what have we learned? even though nature might not be your

deal you can still appreciate what Thoreau said we're all mysterious beings

trapped in a web of routine to break out of the routine and really get to know [Man in handcuffs on TV]

ourselves in a spiritual way is what Thoreau and the spirit of transcendentalism

was all about we can all stand to know ourselves a bit better, even if

hiking flowers and bugs make our skin crawl

don't worry self discovery you can have an indoors too [Butterfly flying indoors]