Walden Chapter 1 Economy

Walden Chapter 1 Economy

1. Thoreau begins by outlining his two-year project at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts

   • He says he lived there for two years and two months, and then moved back to “civilized society”— that this was not a permanent lifestyle choice, but only an experiment in living.

2. He describes the reactions of people to news of his project, noting their concern for his well-being out in the wilderness, their worry about his health in the winter, their shock that anyone would willingly forsake human companionship, and occasionally their envy.

3. Thoreau moves quickly to the moral of his experiment: to illustrate the benefits of a simplified lifestyle.

   • he is recounting the rudimentary existence he led there so that others might see the virtue of it.

4. He argues that excess possessions not only require excess labor to purchase them, but also oppress us spiritually with worry and constraint.

   • As people suppose they need to own things, this need forces them to devote all their time to labor, and the result is the loss of inner freedom.
     • Thoreau asserts that, in their own way, farmers are chained to their farms just as much as prisoners are chained in jails
       • Working more than is necessary for subsistence shackles people.
   • Thoreau believes minimizing one’s needs is preferable by far
     • identifies only four necessities: food, shelter, clothing, and fuel.

5. Since nature itself does much to provide these, a person willing to accept the basic gifts of nature can live off the land with minimal toil.

   • ny attempt at luxury is likely to prove more a hindrance than a help to an individual’s improvement.

6. Thoreau describes the construction of his small house as an application of his faith in simplicity and self-reliance.

   • Starting with nothing, Thoreau must even borrow the axe he needs to fell trees, an axe that he later returns sharper than when he got it.
   • He receives gifts of some supplies, purchasing others, and sets to work slowly but steadily through the spring months.
   • Thoreau is ready to move in on July 4, 1845, the day of his own independence from social norms and conventions.
     • Thoreau keeps meticulous books that he shares accounting for all his debits and credits literally down to the last penny.
       • He explains that in farming, after an investment of roughly fifteen dollars, he is able to turn a profit of almost nine dollars.
         • He describes the diet of beans, corn, peas, and potatoes that sustains him, giving us the market value for all these foodstuffs as well.

7. Thoreau’s review of his own accounts reveals approximately sixty-two dollars of expenses during his first eight months at Walden, offset by a gain of almost thirty-seven dollars.

   • at a total cost of just over twenty-five dollars, Thoreau acquires a home and the freedom to do as he pleases—a handsome bargain, in his opinion