Walden ch 1 notes

Walden ch 1 notes

1. Materialistic values

   • Thoreau tries to stress that materialistic "needs" are not necessary. In the introduction, he is trying see how to live without the things men deem to consider success and necessary.
     • He says not to worry yourself about clothing. He teases "first-world problems." He states, "Not what is truly respectable, but what is respected." He says that we often fall into wanting to please others rather than thinking of what is more important.
     • He says to ignore the things that society deems to be valuable, and to approach life in a way where an individual would find purpose. By doing this, the author has minimized his life to help him focus on spiritual growth. He allowed himself to have the minimum necessities for living, and he found that a man is able to support himself for a year with what he can earn in a few weeks.
     • Thoraeu takes simplicity to be the way he achieves a morally good life. He says that all of the external worries of people are distractions from a person's inner being. Thoraeu also sticks to Transcendentalist values by finding meaning in the present moment rather than wasting life to enjoy it later.

2. Thoreau says that men dedicate their life to work. Men who work have to deal with many financial restrictions, and instead of working on bearing the fruits of life, they are revolving themselves around earthly cares.

   • Success is not what men think it is. He writes, “Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?” (Thoreau 126). He is trying to see how to live without the things men deem to consider success.

3. Thoreau ponders about what is a “good life.” He taunts what people complain about. He says that “first-world” problems blind men into dwelling on everything that is not important to living life to its fullness. He says that men worry about their appearance and their clothes, when all these things are irrelevant.

   • He says, “Not what is truly respectable, but what is respected” (Thoreau 128). He says that people fall into wanting to please others rather than thinking of more important matters. He says that as long as the clothes are good to worship God in, then they are fine. He also says to avoid jobs that require new clothes. He says that people worry more about clean clothes than a clean conscience.
   • This teaches students that appearance is not everything, and that appearance should not be an individual's worries. He thinks focusing on necessities only should be enough. Being attached to outward appearance means nothing. Thoreau takes simplicity as the way to live a good life.

4. He emphasizes how an individual should be a leader rather than a follower. He writes, “It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which the herd so diligently follow” (Thoreau 139).

   • In modern-day interpretation, this is a clear reference to the blindly-followed ‘trends.’ Trends seem to consume a person, making them follow habits, fashion, language, etc. without a second thought to what may be morally correct or appropriate. He criticizes how people “diligently” follow these trends that are set by the wealthier people who are consumed in their excess worldly comforts, and they should not be an example/distraction to the way a person lives their own life.
   • He also says that following these ‘trends’ very much restrict and limit the way a person is living. He says that self-reliance is much better in this aspect because no one can influence the way he chooses to live his life.
   • He also says that these fashion trends distract people from their inner life. They also emphasize people’s differences in finance. He says that clothes should not determine a person.

5. After criticizing clothing, he begins with saying how housing is not needed to be luxurious. He says that the first habitation was provided by nature: caves. He says that people spend so much time earning for this house to be comfortable.

   • He admires the simplicity of the architect who is “engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building a house” (Thoreau 147). He says that the beauty of a house comes from its natural simplicity.
   • He also praises that “the most interesting dwellings in this country… are the most unpretending, humble log huts and cottages of the poor commonly” (Thoreau 148). He says that the only architectural beauty a man should be concerned with is the architect of their bibles and their hearts. Chasing material things is not worth it.
   • This is the very reason he decided to build his own house. He put his self-reliance to the test, and he found out that building his own house is much more rewarding in that it is cheaper and in that he could live in the solitude that the woods provides. He says that life is an experiment and the only way to test it out is to attempt to live it alone. He writes, “How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? (Thoreau 151).

6. Thoreau ends the chapter with criticizing philanthropic works. For example, when one gives to the poor, it may look good, but in reality, they are depriving them of their self-reliance.

   • He says that helping the less fortunate is a hindrance. He says, “I would not stand between any man and his genius; and to him who does this work, which I decline, with his whole heart and soul and life, I would say, persevere, even if the world call it doing evil, as it is most likely they will” (Thoreau 168).
     • In this excerpt, not only is Thoreau talking about philanthropic works to actually be evil, he resists those who might call his constitution disagreeable and wrong. In this, he shows his individuality as a person rather than following the ideology that society holds. This also correlates with his own voluntary, poverty-stricken life. He urges readers to follow their own spiritual path and to take nature as an example for their inner life.